Along with creating sculptures in steel, brass and wood, Richard has created minimalist design For over a decade Danish design studio Frama: a day bed, a lounge chair, candle holders, a shelving system, a “very minimalist” lamp for the restaurant Noma.
Sophie Charara
Frama passed on Tool One, however, Richard kept it at home until he stumbled upon Kitchenware Studio workAlso based in Copenhagen, which makes professional kitchen-inspired tools. For cofounders Daniel Ronge and Christian Lorentzen, it was love at first stick.
We rave about the sheer simplicity of this thing, but Richard's inspiration came, in part, from pottery in Asia. Cooking chopsticks, often made of bamboo, have long been used by professional stir-frying chefs for tasting and sampling in the kitchen.
“I had some chopsticks at home that I used to stir my oatmeal in the morning for a few years, and it was too small to do that,” he says. “Then I thought I could scale it up into a design that could also flip a pancake. In Japan they have some really big chopsticks, but they still use them in pairs when they stir, and they're quite fun to handle. ,
There is more practicality. Wooden utensils can last for decades versus years for silicone options (if cleaned and stored properly), and has been a much discussion Lately how many toxic chemicals can regular black plastic spatulas users be exposed to.
Sophie Charara
In terms of design, it's clear we've been heading in this direction for some time, primed to crave more and more with less. The minimalist Joseph Joseph kitchen tools and stacking bowls we've been curious about for some time now, while Jony Ive did for computers what his predecessors in industrial design said, iconic chairs and lamps.
Abstract wooden Scandi baby toys in beige, cream and cool greys, however, can be quite infectious. They should be bright red and bright green and make a lot of noise. And blocky, featureless nativity sets we can't abide. Ludicrous. They're just taking the piss. But I think we can safely say that you can't get more than a stick minimum.
As Wired senior editor Jeremy White said, “How could something so ridiculous be so desirable?” Is a stirring stick inherently more macho than a spoon, perhaps? like something bear's Carmy Berzatto can throw in a kitchen?
“It's a humble tool. I was amazed at the simple thing of having a stick to stir my food,” Richard said with a slight laugh. “It took me back to something… I couldn't explain it, but it was a good feeling. I felt like I was taken back to a Neanderthal.”