It’s not the first time a restaurant decides to send back a Michelin star, but this time a two-starred restaurant has decided to do it.

Top chef Ron Blaauw has decided to toss aside his two Michelin stars from his eponymous Amsterdam establishment on the Sophialaan and offer simpler dishes at normal prices. “Sixteen appetizers, four kinds of bread, a water menu, etc., there just no need for all that anymore.”

The restaurant will be renamed Ron’s Gastrobar with maximum prices of 15 euro for main courses. If that’s not trendsetting, I don’t know what is. Oh and nom nom nom.

(Link: www.at5, Photo by FotoosVanRobin, some rights reserved)

A 52-year-old female Chinese restaurant owner and four other suspects are being prosecuted on human trafficking charges for having exploited a Chinese chef forced to work in restaurants in Amsterdam and Arnhem.

“The victim was intimidated and had to work under miserable conditions. He was not allowed to visit a doctor and had to sleep in a cage in an Amsterdam restaurant under video surveillance.” He also worked for long hours for almost no pay, and his bank account was plundered.

Many human trafficking victims in the Netherlands are women brought to work in the sex industry, but a broader type of exploitation is apparently on the rise.

(Link: www.expatica.com, Photo of dumplings by filipe.garcia, some rights reserved)