Selected Archives
Selected stories 2011-2021
- D. James
Q: Why did you decide to use such unusual serving pieces – that some people might consider formal - for casual, finger foods? A: I always talk about the balance between the content and the container. Several times, if the container, which is the utensil, is too flashy you might fall victim of the ridiculous and viceversa. Finger food doesn’t happen by chance in haute cousine. There’s an elaboration work behind. Q: What kind of feeling or emotion are you striving for your guests when your server delivers the snack foods on such unusual pieces? A: The most beautiful thing is when the guest doesn’t perceive the beauty of the object at first sight but eats the finger food instead and then lays bare the inner beauty of the utensil afterwards. Q: How do you decide what serving pieces to use with each menu item? A: The problem is that the large amount of changes due to the product ‘s seasonality forces us to reuse the crockery that we already have. I’d love to have new crockery for each new dish we elaborate but for that I would need two things: time and money. Q: Where - and, more importantly, how - do you find such unusual and unique pieces….are they made especially for 41˚? A: In two ways: by looking on the Market and the other one I do them myself by working with different artisans. Unique serving pieces help to add to the total overall guest experience at 41º ExperienceSommelier Cristina Losada, who is in charge of celler and provides the Experience menu harmonies at 41ºalso happened to have studied and attained a Bachelor´s Degree in Fine Arts in Basque Country University. but when she went to Barcelona decided to become a sommelier. Experienced in top restaurants such as Comerç24, Bravo 24, and Routa, Losada has also contributed to Albert’s restaurant new opening, the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant Pakta and the vermouth bar Bodega1900, creating the wines, sake and tea menus. Cristina is currently in charge of the cellar and provides the Experience menu harmonies at 41º and collaborates with her friends’s restaurants in the Barcelona area. Q: You also serve sake, and we’ve learned that you have help to create the serving pieces for the sake, along with the coffee and tea sets….how did that come to happen? A: Since I was in charge of wine, sake & tea's menu so first I asked to myself about the restaurant. "What are we offering in a Peruvian Japanese restaurant? What sake am I going to include in the menu? Do we want to sell by the glass, per bottles, half bottles? I decided to sell by the glass and tokkuri (flask 180ml, 1/4 bottle of 720 ml. The best sake is served in a glass of wine, but the warm is served in ochoko (ceramic cilindric cups). So I contacted Carme Balada, ceramic craftswoman who I know since I worked in Comerç 24, a few years ago. I chose the designed and she created sake set, tokkuri and ochoko. About the tea, we only offer Japanese tea and herbal tea made with Japanese ingredients. Sencha green tea, Genmaicha green tea with toasted rice, sakura, ginger & lime. I focused on the best way to enjoy a cup of tea and I concluded that a chawan (tea bowl used in Asia) provides warmth in its texture and preserves the temperature. It can be argued that few regions of the world have influenced the dining out experience like Spain has in the past few years. And the name Adrià is attached to much of that change.
To make your reservation and get the famed 41º Experience yourself, go here:http://en.bcn50.org/ In addition, Constructing Albert, the Albert Adrià documentary produced by Trueday Films, which premiered on November 20 at the IDFA Forum in Amsterdam. This documentary explains the life of a chef who wanted to be a footballer or filmmaker, and has revolutionized global cuisine, with his brother Ferran Adrià. Artland, 20 years a glass manufacturer that owns its own factories, is increasingly such a specialty source for unique glass drinkware, dinnerware and specialty serve items. There are few things that will differentiate a dining experience more than a piece of unique, colored drinkware. Each piece conveys a very special, tactile feeling as it rests in your hand or touches your lips when you drink. A major difference for the Artland range of glassware is that the color is actually in the glass, not sprayed or applied onto the glass. This allows for both Hi-Temp and Low-Temp dishwashing. Artland’s entire collection of colored glassware helps a restaurateur or bartender serve an experience as well as a drink.
To learn more about Figgjo Porcelain from Norway, go here: http://figgjo.com/
Pandolfi counts among his customers chefs like April Bloomfield, who along with Ken Friedman, is bringing San Francisco's legendary TOSCA back to life. Marcus Ware from Aureole and Marcus Jernmark from Aquavit are two other signature chefs that he currently is working with, but Pandolfi is long known for his high-profile dinnerware collaborations with chefs like Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park, NoMad), Matt Lightner (Atera), and Wylie Dufresne (wd~50), as well as his custom tabletop pieces that showcase each chef's creations.
In a National Restaurant Association article on how restaurants should market themselves to millennials, author Jeff Fromm makes the point about the fact that this key demographic group doesn’t just want to buy your brand, they want to be a part of it. “They’re looking for ways to participate. And they want to understand why you do what you do not just what you want to sell.” We think many of the same concepts apply for hospitality tabletop companies and the products they bring to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Restaurants, like millennial consumers, define themselves by the brands they choose. More and more, the "why" of what products tabletop companies produce is as equally important as the "what" they produce to today's restaurateur. For instance…. Quality
Fromm talks about how “key basics” such as great food, money for value, etc. are simply the price of admission for doing business with millennials. We would say that those same “key basics” apply when attempting to bring tabletop products to the hospitality industry. Product quality, ability to deliver in a timely manner, and good value are “basics” in most any industry – the hospitality tabletop segment is no different – and are not truly differentiators. Restaurateurs have come to expect these basics in the tabletop products they choose. Tabletop companies who fall short on these basics are not serious competitors in the hospitality tabletop game. Uniqueness Millenials seek unique flavor experiences according to Fromm, and we agree. A quick trip to any supermarket will confirm that. But, the same applies to tabletop as a participant in that helping to showcase and deliver that unique flavorful, often – but not always – ethnic experience. Tabletop products such as cast iron, terra cotta, colored-glaze dinnerware that reinforce a particular culinary experience are more popular than ever. The overall dining experience continues to be important to the millennial customer and tabletop products that contribute to that overall experience will continue to realize higher levels of success. Like the foods they serve, restaurateurs more and more seek truly unique tabletop products to enhance the dining experience of their particular dining guests. Authenticity and Transparency The truth in how and where products are made is just as important to tabletop products as it is to the food products that restaurants serve. We continue to see tabletop companies that produce their own products in their own factories finding favor versus those who simply source from a variety of factories that have cheaper costs of production. Increasingly, millennials care about not only what materials go into making their tabletop products, but how, where - and why – they are made. Tabletop products that are perceived as authentic and transparent to the dining experience will only grow in popularity with today's forward thinking restaurant decision makers. As millennials continue to evolve into a more participatory level of brand and product involvement, tabletop companies must realize that this concept applies not only to the foods millennials choose to eat. This trend extends into all areas of where this key demographic chooses to do its consumer spending. We see it in the foods they choose to eat….the wines they choose to drink….and the tabletop products they use to consume them. So, yes....tabletop matters. You can read Jeff Fromm’s very interesting article by going here: https://www.restaurant.org/Manage-My-Restaurant/Marketing-Sales/Promotion/Millennials-are-changing-the-definition-of-brand-v "People don't go out just to eat;
they also select restaurants in order to be part of a community experience" - Danny Meyer Union Square Hospitality Group The Izabel Lam brand still resonates within the hospitality industry as a leadership brand and the guiding compass for tabletop artistry.....always seeking to bring dinner guests a step closer to life and all its rhythms and imperfections. The just completed NRA Show provided the venue for the launch of two new collections from Izabel Lam, each highlighted in the videos below. The HEIRLOOM GLASS dinnerware collection (below right) provides bowls and serving pieces of all shapes and sizes. The brilliant red/orange fused glass HEIRLOOM series of dinnerware offers striking presentation alternatives for that WOW factor. Colors are inbedded between two pieces of glass for safety and durability, making HEIRLOOM perfect for individual service or use in buffet presentations.
The new White, Gold and Silver RAIN (above left) series of porcelain dinnerware from Izabel Lam adds an aura of glamor and a bit of elan to your table....and your guest dining experience. Made of magnesium reinforced porcelain, RAIN is both durable and attractive. RAIN also comes with perfect accessory pieces to accent your presentation of a perfect meal. From the beginning of the 1990s, the Izabel Lam collection of tabletop artistry has grown and evolved, yet has never lost its fundamental love of movement and flow that is incorporated into each of the Izabel Lam designs.
Answering a need for innovation in the restaurant and hotel market, Izabel Lam designs are being used by celebrated chefs, fine dining restaurants, and luxury hotels all over the world for their visual presentation of innovative cuisine and amenities....each piece changing and elevating the overall guest experience. To learn more about the Izabel Lam collection of products for the hospitality industry, go here: http://www.izabellamdinnerware.com/
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Ment'or Inspiring Culinary Excellence Archives
November 2021
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