Monkeys & millipedes on Movenpick's new kids' menu

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has launched a new healthy children's menu called PowerBites in selected restaurants at 30 of its hotels in the Middle East and Asia. 

As a result, in the hotels' kitchens, strange and wonderful things are happening. A tiny farm girl is raking spaghetti from a tube; a small bear is peeking from a mug; a mini hard-hat workman is installing tomato into a burger and a little girl is struggling to keep the monkeys away from the cake pops.

“We’re having fun launching our new children’s menu,” explained Peter Drescher vice president of food & beverage, Middle East and Asia.

“These days children have constant sources of entertainment in the form of iPads, phones and games. So, we have to be equally entertaining with our food.”

But the new children’s ‘Power Bites’ menu has a serious point too, asserted Drescher: “Childhood obesity and heart disease are modern concerns so all our ingredients are low fat, use low sodium salt and lean meat. We use lots of fruit and vegetables and don’t use saturated fats.”

And the results are wonderful, he added. Scuba toys prepare to dive into a bowl of mixed fruit; monkeys race up leaves to fresh banana smoothies; a workman examines tomato sauce for organic sausages; a mini shopping trolley carries rice cakes and a tomato-headed millipede crawls across a plate on cucumber feet.

“Food should be fun and if it’s nutritious so much the better,” says Drescher. “We invite children to eat with their fingers, paint carrots, arrange little characters. It’s important that restaurants become welcoming places for children and that they enjoy themselves. After all families go out to eat to have fun. We’re just here to help.”

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