Klaremont Blog: When Chefs and Artisans Collide

Walter Mantegazza, Barcelona based restaurant consultant for All-In Retail is April's guest blogger for our 'World Restaurant Trends' series. He discusses how the element of design has affected gastronomy and why Michelin starred chefs are now collaborating with contemporary designers to create a multi sensory dining experience.

In recent decades Spanish cuisine has won over the international market, with Barcelona and Catalonia at the vital center of this transformation. Restaurants ''EL BULLI'' and ''ELCELLER DE CAN ROCA'' have been recognised amongst the best restaurants in the world while many others have their own collection of Michelin starred chefs. Food connosieurs Albert and Ferran Adrià the Roca Brothers and Carme Ruscalleda have revolutionized cooking and gastronomy with new techniques, new ingredients, new blends and a new way of eating.

In this groundbreaking process every element has its importance, including what is on the table. Chefs and artisans have worked together to create special tableware in order to valorize flavours and the multi sensorial perception of new dishes. In particular, the work of Luesma & Vega shows how tableware is part of the success of great Spanish and Catalan chefs. In his pieces, glass and ceramic are transformed into delicate leaves, lunar surfaces, black waves or white splashes, which are used to offer amazing and coloured gastronomic dreams.

Another example of this trend is the collaboration of the Roca brothers with designer Andreu Carulla Their work is a strong example of the pure Catalan sense of investigation and research: from the gastronomy and the design, they mix their particular point of view to search -and find- innovative eating approaches. Nature is often a main inspiration and in Andreu's hands a simple element like a boulder or a piece of bread can be transformed into poetic and gorgeous plates.

In the case of the 'Facetat' plate, the geometry is the starting point for this revolutionary system where a flat sheet could be modelled to create infinitive shapes. The final result is a wide ensemble of unique and futuristic pieces which trace a new road in gastronomic innovation.