Learning from the best: Ambiente HoReCa Academy

In 2020, Ambiente will be of particular relevance for anyone who is professionally involved in furnishing hotels and restaurants or responsible selecting functional and decorative products for catering services. Why? Well, the fair is not only expanding its Dining area with a concentrated HoReCa range in Hall 6.0 – it has also put together a comprehensive complementary programme: the HoReCa Academy.

In the midst of the companies exhibiting there, experts from all over the world will be talking about precisely those topics that are currently moving the hospitality industry. What new trends can be identified in the hospitality industry? What influence does the choice of tableware have on the dining experience? And how will branding and marketing determine the contemporary presentation of food and drink in the future? So this is where valuable specialist knowledge is imparted and a forum is created for the entire HoReCa and hospitality design industry – and this on each of the five days of the fair.

One of the international speakers at the HoReCa Academy is Dr. Francesca Zampollo. She studied at the Polytechnic University of Turin and today deals with the topic of food design in scientific lectures, workshops and publications. Dr. Zampollo examines, for example, the development and presentation of dishes. But the Italian also deals with the packaging and transport of food – and with current product design trends in the areas of table, kitchen and household. At Ambiente 2020, Dr. Zampollo will be giving practical tips for work in the restaurant, hotel and catering trade based on her many years of research work.

Another keynote speaker is Londoner Jozef Youssef: star chef, entrepreneur and creative director. His professional orientation could hardly be more versatile. With ‘Kitchen Theory’, he developed an unconventional restaurant concept that combines gastronomy with current trends in art and science. At the so-called ‘Chef's Table’, his guests experience a 10-course meal with all their senses and are immersed into the research field of gastrophysics. Here the enjoyment of the food is subtly influenced by aspects such as lighting moods, projections, colours, sounds, aromas and textures. Within the HoReCa Academy Youssef will present a study on multi-sensory gastronomy.

Another speaker at the HoReCa Academy is Ido Garini, founder and creative director of Amsterdam’s ‘Studio Appétit’. This is a multidisciplinary design studio that stages food in a completely new, experimental and artistic way, whether it be skewering fruit, cream puffs or macarons on pointed porcelain figures, or placing canapés on wooden mushrooms. In all his projects, Ido Garini attaches particular importance to the sensual experience of eating – a subject he will be talking about at Ambiente.

A real star of the industry is New York hospitality designer Adam D. Tihany. At Ambiente, he will be speaking on the subjects of ‘Dining by Design’ and’"The Art of Storytelling in Hospitality Design’. The list of projects Tihany has carried out worldwide is long: for example, he and his team have furnished the Four Seasons Hotel in Dubai, the Mandarin Oriental Hotels in Geneva and Las Vegas as well as the Seabourn’s ‘Encore’ and ‘Ovation’ cruise ships. Numerous restaurants and bars – from London to Beverly Hills – also bear his signature. Like few other interior designers, Tihany knows how to create special spaces that tell stories.

No less renowned is internationally active designer Joe Cheng, whose Hong Kong-based studio CCD/Cheng Chung Design has carried out numerous award-winning hospitality projects over the past 20 years. Cheng is known for combining Far Eastern design approaches with Western ones. His interior concepts for hotels and restaurants are characterised by formal independence and elegance. At Ambiente, he will speak on the subject of ‘Design – a voyage of discovery in culture and lifestyle’.

On the evening of the first day of the fair (7 February), the HoReCa Get-Together will take place again from 6 to 10 p.m., where visitors can exchange ideas and network with international producers, planners, investors and consultants. As the number of participants is limited, please register at:

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