4 November 2009

New gastronomic forms in the Alessi Encyclopaedia presented at the Milan Triennale.

On 21 October 2009 the Milan Triennale hosted Food Landscape, an event in the company of the designers, and with Alberto Alessi’s guidance, to discover some of the latest projects created from Alessi’s research in the gastronomic field. 

The Alessi Encyclopaedia is the name the Factory of Italian Design par excellence loves to use when describing its catalogue to which, year after year, are added new expressions and categories and sometimes, as in this case, new kinds of objects that are destined to add a revolutionary touch to the table and the kitchen.

In an exhibition that draws on images to retell the history that has inspired the creators and designers of these objects, Alberto Alessi presents two designs for diehard gourmets and for lovers of the best Italian traditional craftsmanship.

“La Via Lattea” is the name of this project, which is made up of two sets of knives for cutting and serving hard and soft cheeses. The two sets are rounded off with the “Guide to cutting and tasting 35 Italian cheeses of Protected Designation of Origin and some excellent European cheeses”. With its cultural foundation and high craftsmanship content, it has been rightly included in the Officina Alessi catalogue. Designed by Anna and Gian Franco Gasparini and produced by knife-makers Berti of Scarperia, Tuscany, these knives were created to meet the requirements of private cheese lovers as well as of the food experts for whom the careful cutting of different sorts of cheeses is of the utmost importance in their everyday activity.

“Cum Grano Salis” is a set to serve and taste salts and spices, designed by Giovanni Alessi Anghini and Lorenzo Piccione di Pianogrillo, with consultant Fabio Fassone, founder of Saltexpò an International Project devoted to the Knowledge of Salts and managing director of Adhoc Culture. The era of salt tasting has begun, and Alessi is ready for it with an elegant and functional set intended for individual diners which can become an uncommon table sculpture.

Both designs are part of the new Fall/Winter 2009 collection.

But Food Landscape also gave an opportunity to reintroduce two projects that are already well-known but which are also linked to gastronomy: “Taste-huile”, the personal oil taster designed by Köbi Wiesendanger and by Sicilian oil producer Lorenzo Piccione di Pianogrillo, who here offers us his excellent oil for tasting, and “Alberto's vineyard”, a universal tasting wineglass by Austrian designers EOOS used by the invitees to drink the wines related to the four cheeses.

Fabio Fassone, creator of SALTEXPÒ, was the protagonist in the kitchen to reveal the secrets of the white gold…in all its various declinations.