Hasta La Ideas

Once again, the folks at Alessi are pleased to introduce several products this year, presenting a mix of playful yet functional items for the home, hearth and beyond. New and noteworthy items include the “Eat.It” silverware set from Wiel Arets, including the first ever butter knife and latte/iced tea spoon by the Italian company; Miriam Mirri’s “Petnic” multi-purpose picnic basket; the “Noè” collection of wine rack and accessories, designed by Giulio Iacchetti; and the pentagonal “Territoire” tray by matali crasset, among other items

“Eat.It” collection by Wiel Arets

“Cha” by Naoto Fukasawa (photo at right by Benjamin Gross)

But beyond the product itself, Alessi announced a rather more comprehensive update to their entire product line. We caught up with Matteo Alessi, International Sales and Development Director for Alessi Europe & U.S.A., who walked us through a few of the new products and unveils the new “Super & Popular” campaign in his own words:

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Reporting by Morgan Walsh, photos by Ben Gross and Ray Hu

“Americans eat tall food.” This was what Tom, the representative for the line Compleat told us when we quizzically picked up a laptop-shaped lunch box. As a Norwegian, Tom explained how his lunch fit in the hard-sided Foodbook (pictured below), a slice of bread here, a slice of bread there, another here and another there—each neatly separated by a cross-shaped removable partition. Though Americans may not typically bring four pieces of bread for lunch, we were already brainstorming other edibles that that would travel well in Foodbook. The obvious choice is pizza, but other ideas included a chicken breast with rice, bowtie pasta salad, a salmon filet with sliced carrots and peppers.

Foodskin (at top and below) is Foodbook’s smaller cousin—size-wise it is the iPad Mini to a Macbook Pro. But rather than a double-sided plastic shell, one side acts as a frame for a stretchy silicone film. This silicone has a dual purpose, it can accommodate bulkier or oddly shaped items, but also serves as a retainer, keeping an unwieldy (and tall!) baguette sandwich neatly stacked. Once the food (or anything that needs secure transportation) is removed, Foodskin returns to a flat state and fits neatly into a purse or tote bag.

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The Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, has established itself at a variety of tradeshows here in the States, and they had doubled their presence at the International Home + Housewares Show, with a second pavilion in the Clean + Contain section to complement their row of booths in Dine + Design (Marna, which we covered last year, was in the former section this time around). Similarly, the number of exhibitors from the tsunami-ravaged Tohuku region jumped from five to 11, several of which were exhibiting in the U.S. for the first time.

Mio Kawada, Executive Director of JETRO, New York, was kind enough to give us a quick tour of the highlights from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Fukushima’s Kodai Sangyo offers products for the kitchen and bath in hinoki, or Japanese Cypress

Nagatani-En of Iga-City specializes in traditional earthenware pottery, executed in contemporary design language. It is said that almost every household in Japan owns a donabe

Like their Western counterparts, Iga-yaki donabe pots have high heat capacity

The mushinabe can also be used as a steamer

Kotodo offers tin tea canisters in a choice of thousands of different Washi paper varieties…

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I’ve used or otherwise come across Bosch power tools but was less familiar with the company’s various other industrial and commercial offerings. In addition to being the world’s biggest supplier of automotive components, Bosch has applied their engineering and manufacturing know-how to several countertop kitchen appliances, of which the MUM 5 is the latest model.

Gary Leavitt of L’Chef (U.S. distributor of Bosch kitchen appliances, as well as L’Equip and Nutrimill) also related, in so many words, that founder Robert Bosch’s last will and testament “stipulated that the earnings of the [private] company should be allocated to charitable causes.” (From the Wikipedia entry, which has a badass portrait of Bobby Bosch back in the day, c. 1888.)

L’Chef also distributes the Nutrimill Grain Mill, which can be used to turn a variety of dry / non-oily grains into flour or cereal. This apparently is a fairly common practice in Europe, but I can easily see it catching on Stateside, what with the increasing conscientiousness about how and what we eat. (I was unable to find information about the model pictured above and featured in the video below, so you’ll have to contact them for more details—assuming the Housewares Show went well, they may be available at a retailer near you.)

See both products in action:

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Making their Stateside debut at the International Home + Housewares Show, London-based Universal Expert had one of our favorite exhibition booths. The simple, open plan felt more like stumbling into a friend’s kitchen rather than off the tradeshow floor. Sebastian Conran sat patiently at the end of the long farm table staged with stacking tableware, utensils and snacks, unbeknownst to most passerbys.

Conran, who heads up the eponymous Sebastian Conran Associates design studio, launched Universal Expert this year and has plans to roll out in Australia, South Africa, Europe and America. A play on “Universal Export,” the fictional import-export company of James Bond, the simple and functional objects also reference the design ethos of the brand name.

We call this ethos ‘Universal Expert’: Where ‘Universal’ reflects flexible use, affordability and aesthetic appeal and ‘Expert’ stands for quality and performance.

The collection currently has 150 products across categories: kitchenware, cookware, tableware, appliances, organizers and home furniture. The focus at the Home + Housewares Show was clearly on the kitchen.

The nesting, ceramic measuring cups are beautiful enough to be left out on the counter instead of being stashed deep inside a drawer.

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