SCULPTURES 4 COOKING in QUARANTINE
Featuring OUR OBJECT OF THE MONTH MAY ’20
HERBAL STEAM COOKER
By JULIO MARTÍNEZ BARNETCHE, Mexico
This month we want to highlight this intriguing steam cooker to you, and a range of cooking utensils made of hand-carved volcanic stone.
We all spend more time at home due to the current crisis and probably many of us are valueing various objects around us much more, some being precious, some everyday.
We experience an increased interest in cooking, with more emphasis put on the preparation of food.
We could talk about a renaissance of the kitchen at home. Slow food, good ingredients and healthy cooking gaining more respect.
Rituals are not only giving us stability but also ground us and help us structure a day. Hence cooking in great equipment is pure delight. The pieces we encounter here, are sculptures for cooking. They are high-craft for our senses.
That is a great moment to speak about Julio’s work, and present his volcanic stone series of cooking utensils. Julio also loves food and its rituals around it.
This piece, the herbal steam cooker, is from a series of cooking utensils designed and hand-carved by Julio.
which includes vessels, ovens, steamers, a coffee maker, and even a water filter.
Volcanic stone or Basalt (Basaltico / Recinto) is an emblematic Mexican material. It has a humble and inherent beauty with its porous surface.
Closed cooker with hood. SIZE: 32x56x25 cm / 18kg
FOOD
Few areas of human activity are as lineally and unalterably linked to the past as the food we eat.
Even with the enormous progress humanity has made, procuring food is still subject to laws of nature that are beyond human control and
phenomena intricately related to and determined by the most basic principles of life on the planet.
Agriculture and food production around the globe are finding they must look to the past as they seek to redirect development.
Long- forgotten paradigms are being reexamined as we attempt to adapt technology to new realities.
Like farming, the culinary arts have been turning their attention to wild, local and ancient ingredients.
Likewise, chefs are going back to the roots of their craft as the only viable starting point for new ideas and innovation in techniques, materials and cooking methods.
Herbs can be placed into holes and will infuse their aroma into the food below.
STONE
Carving objects out of stone is one of the most ancient forms of human expression.
However, the technological and ritualistic applications of stone were overshadowed by the discovery of metals, whose immediate advantages quickly superseded those of stone in many areas.
The subtle benefits of using stone in technological processes went unnoticed, given the obvious practicality of metal.
Today, stone is not easily separated from its history. Its use reinforces that link and the importance of restoring the connection between origin and contemporaneity,
invariably bringing us back to the dual purpose it has had throughout human history: objects of everyday and ritual use.
The pieces you will see remind us of the dual purpose stone has had throughout human history as objects of daily and ritual use,
while proving that it is possible to combine different areas of human activity (in this case practical objects and gastronomy)
with the esthetic and conceptual discourse of artistic creation.
Each piece when used conveys a RITUAL, like cooking and eating are rituals. The objects provoke a thoughtful engagement with the elements of foodmaking and consumption.
They make us curious to feel and experiment more when getting in touch with food and cooking and the way we are serving our food.
Apart from their usefulness the pieces are at the same time sculptures and high craft.
Each piece is carved by hand in a highly laborious process.
pieces are made to order.
The following piece is called the ‘HORNO DE HUEVO'‘, the ‘EGG COOKER’, due to its form.
Julio is an artist, sculptor and designer, but not just this, he is also a FOOD EXPERT and has explored a lot into food preparation
and how it develops certain properties when cooking with ancient Mexican stones, here the volcanic stone.
Under this aspect he has created an extensive range of cooking utensils in volcanic stone, ranging from vessels, dishes, right up to ovens,
heating systems, a man-sized water filter with Jade elements and a coffee maker,
where he is convinced that it makes one of the best coffees in the world.
“The aesthetic marriage of materials is forever a dance between tension and harmony, permanent and transient and soft and hard.”
To see more pieces of the range of cooking utensils by Julio, please go here:
Featured
