Taking advantage of the new website we will do something that we have done many times, but never in writing: explain our history. We all like to know the history behind peculiar objects, and we have a lot (of objects and stories).
The oldest pieces of sculptural tableware that you can see in our showroom date from 2007 and were designed and manufactured by Alberto (at that time Adorno did not exist) in a mini workshop in the Horta neighborhood of Barcelona.
And how does a sculptor come to make tableware? Thanks to word of mouth and a restless chef: in 2007, chef Alfonso Aranda decided to revolutionize the Carpe Diem Lounge Club restaurant, on the Paseo Marítimo in Barcelona, among other things, with tableware. He runs a small “contest” between different creatives and falls in love with Alberto’s style.
The first piece for Carpe Diem saw the light in 2008, the Delicious, “a tree that is not a tree” according to what the chef requested, in which a dessert consisting of exotic fruits, cream and chocolate is served. It was quite a challenge to use an “expensive” plate for a dessert, which are usually the cheapest dishes on the menu. And it was a resounding success: the people who saw the Delicious pass between the tables pronounced the typical “I want it”. This piece became an icon of the group, all the restaurants of the CDLC group have it, and the first pieces, which have been in use for more than 10 years, continue to fascinate the diners of the Carpe Diem.
The Club Sandwich followed immediately: a piece with very elegant organic lines where to present a sandwich with garnish and sauce. It is about giving each dish magic, be it a sandwich or the most sophisticated preparation.
In these first pieces we can already see what is a constant in our work: the mixture of materials: wood, steel and porcelain, steel and stoneware, etc, etc and etc.
The following year the commitment to spectacularize the Carpe Diem tableware continued, followed by the Sukothai, the Arabic tray and the Kobe plate with hot stone.
The Sukothai is a monumental piece, in a spectacular golden color, which, completely changing the register of the previous pieces, performs an interpretation of the work The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai.
The Arabic tray draws attention, even today, due to the combination of minimalist general lines with openwork legs with Arabic motifs.
“Delicious Kobe meat always to the perfect point cooked on a stone for individual use” – that is the concept of the Kobe plate with hot stone. A ceramic plate with a compartment to place a stone at 300ºC to cook the meat to your liking. The design of this plate took many tests, until reaching the correct mass of stone, so that it would last hot for the necessary time, and the way of manufacturing the ceramic plates so that they would resist the thermal shock that occurs when the hot stone is placed on top of it. The best thing about this work is that many of these tests consisted of cooking and eating the portion of meat corresponding to the plate, to verify that the stone really cooked.
In the following season, 2010, coinciding with the creation of a sushi bar in the restaurant, Air temaki and the first sushi tray are born, along with other pieces that complete the restaurant’s design, such as the menu and the skewer of kitchen.
Air temaki is a design with very marked oriental lines with a general feeling of lightness, where temakis practically float.
The first sushi tray combines painted steel and glass, the glass with a dark background creates a mirror effect that enhances the beauty of the sushi pieces. As the sushi is consumed, diners discover the restaurant’s logo cut out of the base plate.
The menu and the kitchen skewer (nowadays a museum object due to being outdated by technology) are more humble objects, which may go unnoticed by an untrained eye, but they are precisely the type of details that complement the design of the space.
In 2011, after the success of the sushi tray, the order is a tray to put 1 meter of sushi! A luxury combo that needs an equally spectacular piece: mirror-polished stainless steel, black glass and light. The Deluxe is a piece that 10 years later continues to cause a sensation in the room when it appears.
We show you the Deluxe of the restaurant that for a season was part of the CDLC group: Km5 de Ibiza.
In the same year, the Tao closes the cycle that we could call of Alberto’s great Carpe Diem pieces (the following will already be as a team). This dish to share plays with the concept, unseen up to that moment, of presenting food hanging.
Of all the pieces that we have presented here, only 3 are in disuse, the rest are part of the usual tableware of the Carpe Diem Lounge Club restaurant, pieces with more than 10 years old that maintain the validity of the design and are in perfect condition state of conservation.
Atribución imagen Katsushika Hokusai
De Según Katsushika Hokusai – Restored version of File:Great Wave off Kanagawa.jpg (rotated and cropped, dirt, stains, and smudges removed. Creases corrected. Histogram adjusted and color balanced.), Dominio público, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5576388
