How often have you visited the home of a friend or a colleague, to experience – how can I put this gently – a hint or substantial whiff, of stale cooking odours?

Whatever the ensuing conversation, or context of the visit, that first sensory overload assails us and sits like an omnipotent cloud looming at the back of our consciousness.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs and tearooms, they’re all the same.

It’s a very particular olfactory trademark which identifies them with an invisible yet very present label!

I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing more effective at reducing my raging hunger to the state of a bloated python, like the smell of greasy chip fat emanating from the corridor of an eating establishment.

Fortunately, an amazing remedy presented itself, during a recent visit to Elica in Italy.

Located in the town of Fabriano – one of earliest high quality paper production centers in Europe during the 13th century – it’s home to the largest hood manufacturing plant in Europe owned by Elica.

As you can see in the short film blog, there’s massive emphasis, on design, art and functionality in Elica’s approach to creating the world’s most efficient air quality control products for the kitchen.

It was an inspirational tour, which clearly illustrated why it’s one of the ten top companies in Europe to work in, and a fantastic example of technology and creativity delivering high quality, yet affordable products to our customers.

53 million families in the world own Elica.

Now, that’s what I’d call a breath of fresh air, for any industry!

We all love a laugh, and itʼs scientifically proven itʼs good for you!

Well this week Iʼve been laughing a lot and itʼs all because of Woodland Kitchens!

You see they were being told by their industry competitors that it was all doom and gloom!

Pessimism abounds out there, and during these particularly difficult financial times, everyone it seems is telling everyone else that theyʼre going to go down the Swanee – out of business – kaput!

But not Woodland Kitchens!

Instead theyʼve created new kitchen designs and have worked hard to build new markets and a bigger customer base where others said that none existed.

And last week they decided to throw a small party to existing and new customers to say thanks for all the support.

They said theyʼd been inspired by our event at the Grand Opera in February and created their own evening with wonderful food, great music and surrounded by amazing kitchen designs and fantastic appliances.

Talk about having the last laugh – this is the kind of initiative that really makes me smile!

I’ve often thought we share a lot in common with Italy!

We love our families, our food, our friends, preparing great dishes in our kitchens, we appreciate great style, fantastic design and love a great story.

So, as we sat in Milan airport, attempting to return from Eurocucina – the trend setting international kitchen design exhibition – I reflected on the Italian approach to life;

Chi ben comincia è a metà dell’opera ….. a good start is half the battle!

After a couple of days at the massive show – covering an area the size of 4 football pitches – we’d visited hundreds of European and International manufacturers and saw amazing innovations.

Without doubt, Neff’s award wining hide and slide compact steam oven was creating the biggest stir, as was the new ceiling flush mounted extractor from design leader Elica. It was a fantastic inspirational event and had been a great start.

Back at the airport, volcanic dust chaos was order of the day! However help was at hand, as Richard and Jonathan from Kal, organised an escape expedition in a taxi bus, over the alps! We were joined by a pilot from Dublin, whose wife was about to undergo a C Section, a 70 year old lady from Tipperary returning home after undertaking volunteer work in Haiti, and Tom, an Irish IT guru!!

11 hours and 2,100 Euros later our merry band of bedraggled refugees arrived in Paris where amazingly we secured the last train tickets on the Eurostar to London. Then onwards to Holyhead – which felt like taking the last train to nowhere – and eventually to Dublin on Monday morning.

After driving on auto pilot, all the way home to Magherafelt I suddenly remembered another Italian saying;

Tutto è bene quello che finisce bene ………… all’s well that ends well!

If you’ve had any travel adventures recently that you’d like to share please get in touch, I’d love to hear from you!

I donʼt know about you, but Iʼm always interested in a new idea!

Itʼs what makes our business world exciting, vibrant, challenging and often downright rewarding.

Thatʼs one of the reasons why Eamon, Beverley and I visited the bi-annual KBB exhibition in Birmingham last week, to meet leading global designers and thinkers in our industry.

Itʼs a great forum where as well as a lot of talking we can also view the latest products. This year though, we were also exchanging ideas, and our BIG idea.

Thats why Iʼm really delighted – given all the great advances in kitchen retailing – our Sweet DVD stole the show! Film

For the first time an innovative concept – which centers on amazing products – is about people, great service and trust, and thatʼs what genuinely captured the imagination.

Moving around the vast area we captured some of our meetings and amazing sense of optimism on our little FlipHD video.

At the Carron Phoenix stand we found great displays of the latest sinks and taps. Then we met David Lunney who has become the latest retailer to sign up as a Carron Centre.

Beverley caught up with Jill Lundberg of PWS and spotted the stunning new painted collection which will be featured in the next issue of Fresh.

The movers and shakers were congregating at Elica where the downdraft extractor was star of the show (previewed in our kitchen set at the Baby Grand last month).

Atillo Po from Italy talked us through the eye-popping colours available on the stunning new Steel fridge freezers – a great focal point in any kitchen!

And finally, Northern Ireland design talent was acclaimed by KBB – Brian Parkes of Parkes Design and David Marshall of Alwood were finalists in the prestigious award for kitchen design of the year. Peter Leonard from Greenhill Kitchens and Chris Donaghy from Design House were also short listed for awards – well done!

We love sharing ideas and celebrating successes, so please feel free to post a comment, or forward this to a friend!