The ‘Design Master Chefs’ exhibition reviews utensils that have made tasks in the kitchen more comfortable, safer, faster and more efficient
The multiquick, a Spanish invention that has beaten the American blender in the world; the espresso pot, the Italian coffee maker, the siphon popularized by Ferran Adrià or the Pito kettle by Frank Gehry are some of the utensils that have evolved contemporary cuisine and are shown in ‘Design Master Chefs‘.
Curated by the Barcelona architect Juli Capella, the exposition which opens from this Thursday until June 30 at the Iconno space of Madrid, reviews through some of the most important and award-winning designs how cooking is, thanks to them, “more comfortable, safer, faster and more efficient”explains its manager to EFE, in addition to bringing beauty to the room.
Revolution after World War II
Since the discovery of fire and the invention of the bowl, origins of the kitchen, and without forgetting the incorporation of new materials with the Industrial Revolution, the greatest revolution occurred after the Second World War with the appearance of small electrical appliances.
And it is in this area that one of Spain’s greatest contributions to the world is recorded, the multiquick, designed in 1959 by Gabriel Lluelles with the advice of his wife in the face of the failure in our country of the American blender (glass), “which was very expensive and a tome,” explains Capella. Lluelles, who worked for the Pimer company (Pequeñas Mecánico-Eléctricas Reunidas), set out to make a smaller, more manageable, easy to clean and cheaper alternative. This is how the minipimer was born, which took the world leap when the company was absorbed by the German Braun.
The first juicer with direct drop into the glass
A few years later, the Spanish inventor collaborated with iconic Braun designer Dieter Rams to create the Citromatic MPZ-2 juicer, the first with direct fall to the glass.
Another Spaniard, Rafael Marquina, is owed “the best oil bottle in the world and copiously copied”: the anti-drip conical oil can (1961)with which its author wanted to compensate his mother, who as a child scolded him for getting dirty with this utensil.
The Austrian siphon made famous by Ferran Adrià
And the siphon that devised the Austrian company ISI It would have gone unnoticed by the world without the intervention of Ferran Adrià, responsible for launching it on the market as a haute cuisine instrument, although it has already penetrated the domestic space.
In ‘Design Master Chefs. Designs that have revolutionized the current kitchen‘ are also the pressure cooker that integrates all the mechanisms in a single handle, the work of Josep Lluscà; the colorful pots from Le Creuset, the idea of two Belgians who managed to enamel cast iron; and the masher (1947)French invention of Louis Tellier, to whom we also owe the mandolin and peelers.
A coffee machine inspired by a washing machine
Coffee lovers currently have a multitude of models (vacuum, plunger, Chemex…), but the iconic espresso moka pot (italian) was a revolutionary invention of 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti, based on emulating pressurized coffee in bars and inspired by the operation of a washing machine. “Although many believe that Moka means coffee, it is the name of the Yemeni port from which the best coffee arrived in Europe,” details the curator of the exhibition.
If the japanese cutlery world famous, Komin Yamada went a step further to give it prestige when in 1985 he created the Santoku model, the first complete stainless steel model in which the handle and blade constitute a unit. Each piece is made manually and currently has 50 types that are sold in a hundred countries.
colored spice grinder
The designer of the famous Valentina de Olivetti typewriter, Ettore Sottsass, signed a spice grinder of colors and resounding shapes which replaced the traditional wooden one; “he wanted to introduce beauty in kitchens, just as Philippe Starck with his juicer for Alessiwhich is a disaster, but it’s like taking a sculpture to the kitchen,” says Capella.
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The exhibition also dedicates a section to kettles, among which stands out one of the few designs by architect Frank Gehry, the Pito kettle -in Spanish, a tribute to his Panamanian wife- inspired by fish, as well as that of Richard Sapper, who issues the notes mi y si when the water is ready.
“It is a modest but interesting sample because they are iconic pieces of 20th century industrial designCapella sums it up.