A small guide to feed yourself during the design week
Text by: Charlotte Garlaschelli
It’s been a few years since food officially joined the offer of Milan Design week, which in its urban expanse includes Salone del mobile and Fuorisalone with its famous “districts”.
So, amid Food Design offers and restaurants, the city is filled with old and new concepts. Where should we eat during the MDW 2018?
The first place goes to 28 Posti, which will offer a capsule collection, born as a result of a collaboration between two young creative friends: chef Marco Ambrosino and designer Odo Fioravanti. The project is a culinary path that reflects the double semantic sense of the word “dish”, which refers both to the traditional ceramic object that is used as a food container, and to its content as an “inseparable” creation. The proposal is therefore focused on the concept and the combination between the recipe-dish and its content. In order to access the restaurant, we recommend to book before, as there really are only 28 seats.
Davide Comaschi, winner of World Chocolate Masters 2013 and Director of Chocolate Academy Center in Milan, will be the protagonist of a cooking show, Saturday 21 at 17 at Casa Facile – design lab, Piazza Alvar Alto. He will materialise Pralina Sciara, the creation designed together with Giuseppe Tortato: a true food design product made of the finest dark chocolate with a golden foil. Cut for a tasting that involves taste buds and palate touch, space and time of taste physiology. Besides, let’s not forget another elìte praline made by Exquisita and architecture studio Baldessari&Baldessari (the package that turns into a tray) for the Rovereto MART just a few years ago: it really deserves a request for a re-release .
In the Tortona area there is the excellent Botanical Club, perfect for breaks, relax, business lunches, and fatal meetings between designers. In the same area you will find ECrudo, for a momentary journey in the well-being of both palate and spirit.
In the Brera district, Alessi celebrates its four shapes of design dedicated to the “Geometries of Time” with just as many recipes created by mario trimarchi, chef Marco Trimarchi at the Rigolo Restaurant, on via Solferino 11. The project is entitled WE R FOOD, to remind us what we are made of.
A Japanese oasis for NANBAN celebrates beer on Friday, from afternoon to dinner time. In this Japanese Kiosk you will be able to enjoy a selection of the best craft products from Japan. Since Nanbam can only be visited live during the design week and for the rest of the time it is an online e-commerce, this is really an opportunity not to be missed: a perfect chance to reflect about industrial design production and small and medium-sized enterprises. Many other reflections on the Japanese economy coming soon .. Nevertheless, two artists will be glad to distract you from heavy thoughts: Kensuke Koike and illustrator Rose Blake.
April 17 – 22, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Alcova, Via Popoli Uniti 11/13
You can’t miss Rossana Orlandi’s gallery, located on via Matteo Bandello, at least because of its context. The gallery owner renews her collaborations with international refined artists and designers: here you can relax in the courtyard with a simple bar and simple culinary offer, or sit in the new outdoor area, dedicated to conferences and projections. Or even join the brand new BistRo by Aimo and Nadia, designed together with the Rossana Orlandi Gallery. Absolutely recommended.
Design Academy Eindhoven, which yearly produces a small playful shock in town, has decided to make something less shocking and central, in order to realise that design is actually less artificial than we think. This year’s event is entitled NOT FOR SALE, in the brand new NoLo District, “design proposals are literally integrated into the urban setting along Via Pietro Crespi and Via Varanini, ending in Piazza Morbegno”. Martina Huynh’s Basic Income Café, for example is one of these projects taken place at the osteria at Via Crespi, 14. But is it really free? “It’s a complex installation, disguised and placed in a familiar context where people know how to behave but end up talking about big issues in society,” says Huynh. Also, at Osteria Crespi it will be possible to listen to the Breakfast Talks: Wednesday 18, Thursday 19, and Friday 20 April 2018 10.00 – 11.30.
For food trucks lovers, we suggest Giardino Ventura Lambrate with Just StrEat Week, Eat Urban Food Truck Festival in the courtyard of via San Vittore 49; Streeteat is the meeting point in the courtyard of Liceo Parini in Brera District.
Emporio Armani Cafè also takes part in the design week by offering new “design” cocktails and by staying open until midnight. You will be able to taste special dishes as well. Wednesday 18 will be a special night: a team of big chefs from Milan will contribute to a humanitarian cause with Respect Food Night, a charity dinner organised by Grundig with the participation of Massimo Bottura’s association, Food for Soul. Among others, the evening will be joined by: Matias Perdomo, Carlo Cracco, Viviana Varese and Andrea Berton. In any case, all these great chefs deserve a visit to their restaurants.
For those who simply want to have a glass of natural wine and enjoy stories of sustainable vines and raw production, we suggest Champagne Socialist on via Lecco, 1.
