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:
- Best Garrison Food Operation: Headquarters & Headquarters Detachment, 3rd Group Support Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group Airborne, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
- Best Active Army Field Kitchen: Echo Company, 29th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
- Best Army Reserve Field Kitchen: 716th Quartermaster Company, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 316th Sustainment Command Expeditionary, Jersey City, New Jersey
- Best Army National Guard Field Kitchen: Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 192nd Military Police Battalion, 143rd Military Police Company, Hartford, Connecticut
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:
- Winner of the Submarine Category: USS Kentucky (SSBN 737), Naval Base Bremerton, WA
- Winner of the Small-Medium Afloat Category: USS McFaul (DDG 74), Naval Base Norfolk, VA
- Winner of the Large Ship Afloat Category: USS Makin Island (LHD 8), Naval Base San Diego, CA
- Winner of the Aircraft Carrier Category: USS Carl Vinson (CVN 76), Naval Base San Diego, CA
Winners of the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Ashore General Mess Awards, honoring Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC):
- Winner of the West Coast General Mess Category: Joint Base Pearl Harbor Silver Dolphin Bistro, Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- Winner of the East Coast General Mess Category: Naval Station Mayport Oasis Galley, Naval Base Mayport, Florida
- Winner of the OCONUS (Outside Continental United States) General Mess Category: Naval Support Activity Bahrain, Blue Jacket Bistro, Bahrain, Bahrain
Winners of the Captain David M. Cook Foodservice Excellence Awards, honoring the Military Sealift Command:
- Award for the Best Foodservice Operation Small Ship Category: USNS Burlington, T-EPF 10
- Award for the Best Foodservice Operation Medium Ship Category: USNS Joshua Humphreys, T-AO 188
- Award for the Best Foodservice Operation Large Ship Category: USNS Richard E. Byrd, T-AKE 4
- Award for the Best Foodservice Operation Hybrid Ship Category: USS Frank Cable, AS-40
Winners of the John L. Hennessey Awards, honoring the Air Force:
- Air Force Active Duty Foodservice Operations Region 1 Winner: 19th Force Support Squadron, Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas
- Air Force Active Duty Foodservice Operations Region 2 Winner: 374th Force Support Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan
- Winner of the 2022 John L. Hennessey Award for the Air Force Reserves: 419th Force Support Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah
- Winner of the Senior Master Sergeant Kenneth W. Disney Food Service Award, honoring the Air National Guard: 184th Airlift Wing, Wichita, Kansas
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:
- PourMyBeer achieving 12,000 active self-pour taps in the field.
- PourMyBeer surpassing 500 locations in over 30 countries (additional five countries).
- New system called PourMyCocktail, which will enable a waitstaff to get drinks into customers’ hands quickly and easily, with 100% recipe consistency and no bartender needed! With its globally patented cleaning mechanism, the drink heads will always be clean and sanitary, unlike all other cocktail machines on the market.
- Launch of the new brand, PourMyBeverage under which PourMyBeer, PourMyCocktail and PourMySoda belong.
