Who's News in Catering for May 30, 2022

Hot Off the Presses

Santa Clara’s iChina, a refined Chinese dining concept, announced the opening of Silicon Valley’s first and only virtual reality private dining space, the VR Realm, allowing guests to fully immerse themselves in brilliant and mesmerizing 360-degree imagery projected onto the walls and table. Guests can enjoy a decadent 10-course tasting menu of New American Chinese dishes prepared by Executive Chef Eddie Lam, designed as an homage to China’s eight culinary regions: it incorporates flavors from different provinces with a modern touch. The VR Realm dining experience can host a gathering of up to 12 guests. Private parties can select from the restaurants’ stunning virtual reality themes, such as koi fish swimming on the dining table during the seafood course, and a serene bamboo flute song playing during a display of the cherry blossom scene.  Other themes include an ethereal bamboo forest, a pond, a cherry blossom garden, a mosaic wall, and a water lantern festival. 

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) honored the winners of the 2022 Military Foodservice Awards on Friday, May 20, in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. Headlined by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the ceremony kicked off a weekend of events around Armed Forces Day – part of the NRAEF’s commitment to support America’s armed forces, veterans and military spouses through training and post-duty opportunities. 

Winners of the Philip A. Connelly Awards, honoring the Army: 

Winners of the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Afloat General Mess Awards, honoring the Navy’s undersea enterprise, Surface Warfare enterprise and Naval Aviation enterprise:  

Winners of the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Ashore General Mess Awards, honoring Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC): 

Winners of the Captain David M. Cook Foodservice Excellence Awards, honoring the Military Sealift Command:

Winners of the John L. Hennessey Awards, honoring the Air Force: 

Lantmännen Cerealia and Mycorena – a Swedish Foodtech company developing fungi-based protein – initiate a partnership to develop a portfolio of food products based on sustainably produced mycoprotein. After having jointly developed a few very strong prototypes, the two companies are now taking the next step in this strategic innovation collaboration, aiming at finding new product offerings to consumers in the Nordics. 

Products on the Market

Dometic, a Swedish brand in mobile living industry, is a first-time exhibitor at this year’s National Restaurant Show. Introducing a food-delivery innovation DeliBox, Dometic has integrated its brand legacy and expertise to bring this new solution to market. Known largely as an outdoor and mobile lifestyles brand, Dometic holds the legacy of the original absorption cooling technology that made the first refrigerators possible. Fast forward a century (the patent was granted in 1922), Dometic carries its cooling technology forward in a range of its products and is today a leader in both cooling and heating technologies. DeliBox combines many areas of expertise from Dometic and its award winning product design team.  The Dometic DeliBox is a temperature-controlled and trackable food delivery box designed to enhance the consumer experience by preserving the quality and temperature of food or other perishables seamlessly throughout the delivery process. 

Executives from the innovative and growing PourMyBeer, a growing brand under the umbrella of PourMyBeverage, announced new milestones and innovations during the foodservice industry’s The National Restaurant Association Show  in Chicago: