The Netherlands: COVID-19 in Europe: Netherlands to allow bars, restaurants and cultural venues to reopen

The Dutch government has announced that bars, restaurants, museums, theatres and other venues are to be allowed to re-open under conditions, loosening some of the toughest COVID-19 restrictions in Europe.

For more than a month, bars, restaurants, and cultural venues have been closed, while strict quarantine rules have shut a quarter of primary school classes in the Netherlands.

The announcement by Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday evening comes despite record new coronavirus infection levels, as hospitalisations from the country's Omicron wave have been lower than initially feared.

Read more at: COVID-19 in Europe: Netherlands to allow bars, restaurants and cultural venues to reopen | Euronews

The Netherlands: restaurants in the Netherlands to defy coronavirus measures and open in January - by Victoria Séveno

While the Dutch government are yet to announce the coronavirus measures that will be in place over the Christmas period - Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge are expected to do this at a press conference on December 8 - De Jonge has stated that, if the number of coronavirus infections doesn’t drop over the coming weeks, it’s possible that the current semi-lockdown could stay in place until at least mid-January.

Read more at: Restaurants in the Netherlands to defy coronavirus measures and open in January

The Netherlands to Allow Bars, Restaurants to Reopen From June 1

The Dutch government confirmed that bars and restaurants can start opening for business again next month as the country slowly lifts more restrictions to aid an economy hurting from the coronavirus outbreak.

Bars and restaurants are allowed to reopen beginning at noon on June 1 for up to 30 guests excluding staff as long as they adhere to the 1.5 meter distance rule, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a press briefing in The Hague on Tuesday.

With the number of reported new cases and fatalities in the Netherlands having slowed to the lowest levels since March, Rutte’s government is cautiously working to open up an economy suffering from the outbreak.

Read more at: The Netherlands to Allow Bars, Restaurants to Reopen From June 1 - Bloomberg

Restaurants: Europe's best hidden eats - by Anne Banas

From local holes-in-the-wall to trendy clandestine establishments, travelers to Europe have plenty of ways to veer off the tired tourist track when they dine. At these hidden spots, whether a secret late-night bakery in Lisbon or a dynamic pop-up in London, diners can immerse themselves in the local culture and be in the know despite being far from home.

On a recent stopover in Lisbon, I met up with Frederico Duarte, Lisboeta and co-author of Fabrico Proprio, a book (and ongoing project) on the design of Portuguese pastry. He led me on a late-night trek in search of the city's underground bakeries, an adventure that became the inspiration for this story on hidden eats in Europe.

Read on to discover these pastry havens, plus lesser-known dining spots in other great European cities.

Read more: Europe's best hidden eats

Cuisine: France Battles Rise of Processed Food in Restaurants -

You hoof it all the way to France, eager to savor some of that famous Gallic gastronomy right from the source, and you plunk down a hefty sum of euros for some authentic coq au vin or cassoulet (with a bottle of Burgundy, of course)—you want to know that you’re getting more than the equivalent of a gussied-up frozen TV dinner, right?

Just three years after the United Nations declared French cuisine part of “the intangible cultural heritage of humanity,” the nation that gave the world steak frites and escargot is living to regret it. In April, a national survey of consumer spending found that, for the first time in France’s history, more people were eating at fast-food chains than at sit-down restaurants. Now, the country’s culinary establishment is up in arms over news that more than a third of France’s non-fast-food restaurants have confessed to serving “industrially processed, often frozen food” to unsuspecting customers, as NPR reports.

A relative few diners in the States may question whether their mozzarella sticks from TGI Friday’s are prepared on-site, but in France, the idea that your béchamel may come from a freeze-pak is cause for revolution—or, at least, legislation.

France’s Lower Assembly has passed a law that would create a new label reserved for restaurants that prepare all their food from raw ingredients in their own kitchen: fait-maison (translation: “homemade”). The bill now awaits approval from the Upper Senate.

“Seventy percent of French restaurants rely on companies to deliver ready-made meals that only require the ding of a microwave,” one French chef decries at NPR (though one wonders if he’s displaying the Gallic propensity for hyperbole).

Read more: France Battles Rise of Processed Food in Restaurants - Yahoo! News

How economics are driving fast food’s takeover of France

More than half of all French restaurant sales now take place, sacrilegiously, at fast food chains, according to a new survey by food consultancy firm Gira Conseil.

This is the first time fast food sales have surpassed sit-down restaurant sales in France —  you know, the the country that gave us cafes, bistros and the Michelin star. It also makes France the world’s second-biggest consumer of fast food, NPR reports, with 1,200 McDonalds franchises alone.

That number is only growing (much, it must be said, like French waistlines): Consumption at casual eateries jumped 14 percent just in the past year, according to the survey, and companies such as Subway and Burger King have launched major expansions in the country.

Read more: How economics are driving fast food’s takeover of France

Restaurants - Gourmet Chefs: Italy's Nadia Santini named world's best female chef | Reuters

Nadia Santini, the head chef of the Michelin-starred Dal Pescatore restaurant in a village in northern Italy, was named Best Female Chef by the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards on Wednesday.

Santini runs the kitchen at the restaurant in Runate between Mantua and Cremona that was set up in 1925 by her husband's family.

She was trained by her husband's grandmother, Teresa, who was running the restaurant when she married into the family nearly 40 years ago, as she had never cooked professionally.

In 1996 Santini became the first female chef in Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars for her kitchen that produces authentic Italian cuisine combined with modern influences.

Read more: Italy's Nadia Santini named world's best female chef | Reuters

Europe’s Top 10 Restaurants Headed by Italy - by Richard Vines

Osteria Francescana, a modern establishment with just 12 tables in the northern Italian city of Modena, was named Europe’s finest today in The Daily Meal website’s inaugural list of the 101 Best Restaurants in Europe.

It was followed by Arzak, San Sebastian, Spain, in second; Noma, Copenhagen, third; Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London, fourth; Guy Savoy, Paris, fifth; then Aqua (Wolfsburg, Germany), Varvary (Moscow), Hof Van Cleve (Kruishoutem, Belgium), L’Arpege (Paris) and JB (Ljubljana, Slovenia).

Some of the rankings will raise a few eyebrows: For example, the fact that Ducasse at the Dorchester places above Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee and Le Louis XV in Monaco.

The list spans about 30 countries. France is home to the most restaurants, followed by Spain and Italy,
The list was compiled through a seven-month process, involving the website’s editors and more than 200 food writers and bloggers. It’s one of a number of rankings, including the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, for which I work. Panelists voted in two categories: cuisine and style/decor service.

Read more: Europe’s Top 10 Restaurants Headed by Italy, Website Says - Bloomberg