Miscellaneous

🍳 Historic chef competition International Salon Culinaire will occur from March 30 to April 1, 2026, featuring over 90 competitions. New challenges include the Oriental Duck competition and Global Eggcellence Challenge. Key figures include Steve Munkley, Nick Vadis, and judges like Simon Barton and Szilard Szentesi. The deadline for entries is February 20, 2026. Notable competitions: Tilda Chef Team of the Year 2026 and Pub Chef of the Year 2026. Pastry competitions include APC’s Dessert of the Year and Valrhona Live Tea Pastry Challenge.

🛩 KlasJet, a VIP charter and ACMI provider, emphasizes enhancing pilot training beyond mandatory requirements. European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) mandates recurrent training every three years, organized at KlasJet in 6-month phases. Evidence-based training (EBT), endorsed by ICAO in 2013 and EASA in 2015, is advocated. Diako Rad and Sandra Diaso stress the importance of multinational team dynamics, ongoing support, and psychological aid post-stressful flights to ensure pilot wellbeing and performance.

🗺 Ian Brooks and Alexis Coles Barrasso launched a unique agency, Inspiring Travel Speakers, in the UK as of today's date. This agency fills a niche by providing travel-focused speakers for events and conferences. Unlike generic agencies, it specializes in travel, featuring vetted speakers like industry pioneers and adventurers. The founders leverage their extensive travel industry expertise to ensure authentic storytelling that captivates audiences and addresses universal business themes.

✈️ Vueling, part of IAG, partners with Hearlo, an app by Spanish start-up Asteroid Technologies, to enhance inclusive travel for those with hearing or verbal communication difficulties. The app integrates features like text-to-speech, visual pictograms, and pre-set travel phrases in over ten languages, including Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic. It works offline, offering an interactive, accessible journey experience. The Hearlo app is free to download from Google Play and the App Store.

🏨 Hotels serve as temporary homes, offering refuge during disasters, hosting business deals, and accommodating families on vacation. In the U.S., extended-stay hotels now house those priced out of rentals, highlighting a housing gap. These spaces adapt for diverse guests, from executives to evacuees, providing a neutral, flexible environment. As remote work grows, hotels are evolving into future living prototypes—spaces for both triumph and despair. They embody adaptability, offering a familiar yet transient shelter.

🏨 Hotels serve as temporary homes for everyone, providing familiar amenities whether in a Marriott in Mumbai or a Hilton in Houston. In the U.S., extended-stay hotels now house those priced out of rentals, exemplifying the flexibility of hotels and exposing housing gaps. They host diverse guests, from business travelers to disaster evacuees, highlighting their adaptability as remote work changes living patterns. Hotels offer neutral spaces where personal stories unfold, ready to accommodate the next visitor.

🍴 Bret Thorn, a Colorado native living in Brooklyn, NY, is the Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. He joined NRN in 1999 and became part of Restaurant Hospitality in 2016. Thorn, a Tufts University graduate, has been recognized with the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award. He served as president of IFEC in 2005 and joined the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014. Thorn has authored entries in food encyclopedias published in 2012 and 2015.

🛒 Walmart, December 2025: Restricted AI agents can explain policies and show store info, but can't perform transactions or make decisions. Unlike Amazon, Walmart doesn't block them outright. Only 1% of websites use the rare "llms.txt" file format, created to help AI use sites. Walmart's recent "llms.txt" was deleted after partnering with ChatGPT, aiming to prevent unauthorized bots.

📈 Dan Frommer's new Consumer Trends Report, a collaboration with Coefficient Capital, includes a 122-slide presentation. It covers consumer spending despite economic challenges, with 3,000 U.S. consumers surveyed in partnership with Toluna. Key topics are the creator economy, and lifestyle optimization, and new medications like Ozempic. The New Consumer offers a free report and subscriptions at $20/month or $200/year. Previous reports span from 2021 to 2025, focusing on trends like food, wellness, and the economy.

🛩 In 2024, 22% of all U.S. flights were delayed, sparking an analysis by TNMT on traveler satisfaction versus on-time performance (OTP). Using 15,000 Tripadvisor reviews for top U.S. and European airlines, TNMT found no clear link between high OTP and traveler happiness. Notably, "Pleasers" like Southwest Airlines, with 78% OTP, still scored high in comfort and crew friendliness. In the U.S., legacy carriers showed a correlation between OTP and satisfaction, but in Europe, more punctuality often led to lower satisfaction.