hoos blog | Danish Design and More

Win an Eva Solo BBQ worth £200 with Hoos

2010-06-20T09:55:00.000+01:00

Sizzling Summer Offer

To celebrate summer and to say thank you to our customers hoss are holding a sizzling summer competition, offering you the chance to win some fantastic designer goodies.

The theme for the competition is 'outside dining'. We have chosen 3 great products from our range that will enhance your outdoor experience.

To enter this competition all you have to do is spend £30 or over (excluding postage) between now and August 8th 2010 and you will be automatically entered into the prize draw.

The draw will take place on the 9th August and all winners will be contacted by email.

The star prize is one of Eva Solo's fantastic table grills seen below and there are also 2 great runners up prizes to be had, so don't miss out on this great chance to own some quality Danish design and get yourself over to the hoos website.

Star Prize: One of Eva Solo's fantastic Table Grills worth £200

Click Here for more details on Eva Solo's Table Grill

hoos | Scandinavian Design For Life
hoos sell Danish design and Scandinavian design products for the home and garden. hoos sell designer kitchenwares, homewares and sell brands such as Menu, Normann of Copenhagen, Stelton, Nuance and Eva Solo. hoos also offer a wedding gift list service and corporate gifts

Menu - A Modern Design Company

2010-06-08T13:34:00.003+01:00

Menu is an inspirational Danish design company based in Fredensborg in North Sjælland, Denmark.

They started out life in 1979 as the 'Danish Steel House' set up by Simon Hansen predominantly supplying the catering trade. However. following various design successes and a change of name in 1998 to Menu and the employment of Pernille Vea as a permanent designer the path was set for design success.

Today Menu employ a range of in-house Danish designers including Pernille Vea, Christian Bjørn and Jakob Wagner who design under the tag line 'Scandinavian Design Originals' which encompasses the very essence of modern Danish design and the actual designs speak volumes about what the company aims to achieve.

My first experience of Menu design was a Pernille Vea Black Contour mug which was presented to me at a friends house in Brøndy, Denmark. I was so taken by the sleek and simple design that the very next day we went out to one of Denmark's many designer homeware shops, in this case Inspiration, in order to buy some. However, I was astounded by the shear size of the Menu range available and confused as to why such clever and contemporary design was not widely available back in the UK. It was at this point that the idea for hoos was planted, but more about that another time.

Needless to say that over the years we have accumulated much of the Menu range including Pernille Vea's Black Contour mugs, Pernille Vea's Black Thermo Jug, the Jewellery tree and propeller trivet to name only a few.

However, this last year we have been blown away, yet again by the contemporary range of products that Menu have produced, that are not only practical and functional but that contain the essence of what Danish design is, sleek, clean and simple.

Our current favourite is most definitely Menu's stackable oven dishes which is an ingenious yet simple design.

The dishes come in 3 different sizes large, medium and small and are made from porcelain fired at an immense heat which ensures the dishes are both durable, strong and also easy to clean.

The different dish sizes are a clever design to allow you to stack the dishes one on top of another in a huge range of combinations and the silicone feet (that lock the dishes into place) mean that you can take the dishes straight out of the oven and place on your worktop without the need for a trivet.

The design allows you to prepare and cook multiple dishes in the oven, in one go, giving you more time to yourself, your family and to socialise.

So do they really work I hear you ask. Well according to Menu Morten Skærved a Danish chef uses them to prepare meals in his summerhouse and has in the past prepared an eight dish tapas dinner for his friends.

The meal included tortilla, foccacia, mushroom au gratin, serrano ham, baked cherry tomatoes, basil shrimps, mussels in garlic and to top it all off a peach melba and oatmeal crumble.

And to wet your appetite even further we have included his menu for the peach melba below.

Ingredients:

2 Limes

9 tablespoons of sugar

6 peaches

300 grams of raspberries

150 grams pure raw marzipan

150 grams rough oatmeal

150 grams of butter.

1) Firstly squeeze the limes into a suitable dish, add 3 tablespoons of sugar and mix thoroughly. Prepare the peaches (or nectarines or other fruit) by washing, halving and removing the centre stone.

2) Place the peaches in a dish and drizzle some of the lime juice over the top of them giving them a good coating.

3) Place the raspberries at the bottom of one of Menu's large stackable oven dishes and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sugar over them.

4) Place the peach halves with the skin side down (with the open peach centre facing upwards) and pour the remaining lime juice over them and into the cavities left by the stones.

5) Grate the marzipan into a bowl and mix it together with the oatmeal. Add the butter and 3 tablespoons of sugar and continue to mix until you get a crumbly dough.

6) Place the dough over the peaches and bake in an oven at 200 C for about 40 minutes (cooking times can vary) until golden brown and crisp.

7) Serve with whipped cream or ice cream and enjoy.

If that has wet your appetite to try out the clever oven dishes then head over to our Scandinavian design shop to get some more information and see some more pictures about how they work. In addition the rest of the recipes for Morten's dinner are included in a free booklet which you get when you buy any of the stackable oven dishes from hoos.

In future blogs we will look at the clever design behind Pernille Vea's Contour range and we will also feature biographical information on some of the modern designers leading Danish design today.

hoos | Scandinavian Design For Life
hoos sell Danish design and Scandinavian design products for the home and garden. hoos sell designer kitchenwares, homewares and sell brands such as Menu, Normann of Copenhagen, Stelton, Nuance and Eva Solo. hoos also offer a wedding gift list service and corporate gifts

Introduction to Danish Design | So what's it all about?

2010-05-27T12:36:00.001+01:00

So what is Danish design and how did it come about.

Danish design is often defined as something that has clean pure lines, is simple and yet is extremely functional and practical.
This style of design became popular in Denmark during the post World War 2 years. It was the years of economic depravity following the Germanic occupation of Denmark that lead to the development and flourish of creativity, helped in no small part by the development of the Royal Danish Academy of Art.

Denmark has always been a centre for quality craftsmanship, you only need to look back at the Vikings and Harold Bluetooth’s era to appreciate the craftsmanship required to build timber boats that could sail around the world carrying men and supplies to new lands.

Now fast forward a 1,000 years and the same craftsmanship can be seen in the original Arne Jacobson chairs, in modern design concepts for home interiors and in everyday consumer products.

Hans J. Wegner was the first world renowned Danish designer who inspired generations of designers such as Arne Jacobson and Jacob Jenson and companies such as Stelton, Menu and Eva Denmark and we will go on to talk about the iconic designers that have helped influence our world in later blogs.

But design isn't just about observing it from afar, or reading about it in a book, it's about touching, using and seeing and where better than Denmark, the home of Danish design.

When living in Denmark you don’t always appreciate the abundance of design that is all around you, from the simple curved bus stops and the open living spaces to the simple everyday architecture. It's all around yet often taken for granted.

We would therefore highly recommend a visit to the Danish capital København (Copenhagen).

Places to visit would include the new opera house opposite the royal palace, the SAS hotel to appreciate the interior design and the Danish Design Center.

However, don't limit yourself to København, visit Roskilde to appreciate the cathedral and the Viking museum, the city hall in Århus and take time to appreciate the architecture of the Hovedbanegård to see for yourself the history of design and quality that seeps through Denmark. How could you fail to be inspired.

In our next instalment we will talk more about some of the iconic Danish designers and about the infamous Arne Jacobson chair.

hoos | Scandinavian Design For Life
www.ourhoos.co.uk

Welcome

2010-05-27T09:14:00.005+01:00

Hello and welcome to our blog.

The hoosblog is a place to discuss Scandinavian and Danish design in the modern world. We will talk about where Danish design came from, about design icons and how design is used within our modern lifestyles.

We will also talk about our experience of living in Denmark and suggest places of interest to visit for the design lover.

But most of all we just hope you enjoy reading about our passion Scandinavian and Danish Design.

hoos

www.ourhoos.co.uk | Scandinavian Design For Life
hoos sell Scandinavian and Danish Design Products for the house and home