“In Milan this year, we wanted to collaborate with Caesarstone to inspire architects and designers through a radical interpretation of how food and surfaces can interact in different ways, delivering a food experience that challenges all the senses in an exercise of materiality, luminosity and texture.

Reflecting on the four medieval elements, we have created totally distinctive smells, tastes and visual experiences within each room.” …..  Tom Dixon

British lighting and furniture designer Tom Dixon will be returning to Milan this year to present an exciting collaboration with Caesarstone.

Tom’s intention behind the cooperation with Caesarstone, is to inspire architects and designers “using a radical reinterpretation of the various possibilities for food and surfaces to interact and provide a dining experience that challenges all senses, while combining materials, light distribution, and textures.”

THE RESTAURANT is set at the Milan’s Children Museum, within the late baroque splendour of the Rotonda Della Besana. – a 17th century Cloister encircling a public garden and a deconsecrated church.

Demonstrating the versatility and beauty of the Caesarstone surfaces, combined with Tom Dixon-designed dining halls and products, each kitchen will feature a variety of colours and materials that complement the mood and atmosphere of each specific kitchen setting – inspired by the elements Earth, Fire, Water and Air.

THE RESTAURANT is presented in a cruciform building, with each kitchen serving one course from a conceptual menu, realised by Italian food design studio Arabeschi di Latte, led by Francesca Sarti

Processes such as freezing, harvesting , pounding and chopping will be celebrated, with the noise, steam, flame and smoke creating a theatre of food and cooking and demonstrating the hard wearing qualities, durability, flexibility and beauty of Caesarstone.

Throughout the Salone visitors will be encouraged to sit down, slow down and recalibrate

Open every day during Milan design week, with food served from 12pm until closing,

Menu Served from 12pm –  4 dishes €25

Every kitchen will have a theme that refers to a feature of the local culture; Water (ice) in Toronto, Fire and Earth in Milan and Air in Tel Aviv and New York

WATER

The exhibition in Milan is the highlight of the collaboration with Dixon, which began in January at the Exhibition in Toronto, Canada and will continue throughout the year around the world.

The exhibition in Canada introduced the first kitchen in the series – Ice, dedicated to the water element, deriving inspiration from the frozen breathtaking lakes of Canada, and the huge icebreakers which pave the way in its winter months, leaving behind them a frozen mix of angular pieces in a striking array of shades of white and grey.

The WATER kitchen reflects the jagged edges of frozen ice and has been interpreted using a spectrum of Caesarstone grey and white tonalities.

The base for the ice kitchen will be made from a series of triangular prisms in different sizes and heights, while creating dedicated areas for preparing and serving food.

Varying from steaming to freezing, the kitchen will experiment with the material by subjecting it to extreme temperatures.

Playing on the tradition of Canadian ice fishing and challenging Caesarstone surface materials with very low temperatures, food will be served on a floating water conveyer belt across frozen surfaces

WATER – Frozen “Stracciatella”
clear stock| frozen herbs and vegetables | egg | Parmesan
Hot, steaming broth transforms thin layers of crackling ice into a moving green, tingeing the liquid slowly as it circulates with floating pieces of Parmesan and egg. A twist on the traditional stracciatella. An induction zone and chill blaster transform water into all its states

EARTH

The Earth Kitchen was inspired by ancient Roman structures and integrates Caesarstone brown tones colors (the Tuscan Dawn 5380, Emperadoro 5104, and Concetto Albero 8330), made from assembled segments of petrified wood.

Complementary white lighting fixtures, with touches of gold from Tom Dixon’s collection were selected to complete the atmosphere.

This kitchen will serve vegetarian food prepared in an old European cooking method, using, among other things, a hay foundation to emphasize the natural flavors.

EARTH – The Root Box
roots | mushrooms | terracotta | hay | brown sugar

Ingredients pulled from the warm embrace of the ground are prepared to a recipe that makes use of the flavorful surroundings of barns and soil. The recipe is prepared with the traditional cooking method of the hay box, which uses hay to isolate the heat of the cooking process, stretching it for hours. The combination oven as well as the induction zone are utilized to re-create the feeling of soil life and all its comfort.

FIRE

The Fire Kitchen has a characteristic basalt look with touches of gold and copper – Dixon’s favorite design materials, suggesting flames, inspired by charred wood and smoke, using blackened beams and hints of gold in combination with Caesarstone’s dramatic blacks and dark greys: (Vanilla Noir 5100, Raven 4120 and Coastal Grey 6003 models).

The food – smoked, seared and burned – will complete the conceptual experience

FIRE – Black Flat
layered dough | spices | cheese | smoke
Dough and heat go into play around crispy surfaces and layers that are about to merge. Blackness, as the remains of a lapsed fire, entirely enlaces the bread. Cheese balances out with a savory softness. The sear hob, a flat, heatable metal square, works here as a cooking device able to roast like the sun or heat as a fire that just dwindled.

AIR

Inspiration for the Air Kitchen came from urban architecture and is assembled from thin Caesarstone slabs in a design that combines cooking and work surfaces with frames and shelves floating in the air (Raw Concrete 4004 and Noble Grey 5211), thus creating an urban ambiance.

Loyal to the air element, the kitchen will create an urban, light background for the completion of the culinary experience – the dessert bar.

AIR – Skyfruit
cream | meringue | fruit of the air | egg | aromatic herbs
In a small collection of recipes, air is the very matter of preparation. Egg is the fruit of this environment, its versatile combinations with air and whipped cream arranged with other uplifting counterparts to create a landscape of aromatic clouds and void. For this purpose, the vacuum sealer and mixer work with air’s transforming powers, creating density of all kinds.

About Tom Dixon

Established in 2002, Tom Dixon is a British product design brand.

With a commitment to innovation and a mission to revive the British furniture industry, the brand is inspired by the nation’s unique heritage and produces extraordinary objects for everyday use.

Dixon is considered to be a bold original designer, a leader of exciting and innovative design trends, with work that is both outstanding and that attracts an audience.

Dixon rose to international prominence in 1987 with the iconic S-shaped legless chair he designed for Cappellini.

In 1988 he started working for Habitat, the British furniture retailer, and after two years was appointed its creative director.

In 2002 he left Habitat and founded his own brand, named Tom Dixon, in order to revive the British furniture industry.

He has since become one of the most influential designers in the international design scene, and his exhibitions in design weeks across the globe, are always a magnet for public attention.

In 2013 he revived the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) where he exhibited, among others, the Adidas Future Capsule collection.

In London Design Week 2015 Dixon opened the Cinema Multiplex – “Tomorrow’s Convenience Store”, in an attempt to examine how shops in the future would look, sound and smell.

This was also his first collaboration with Caesarstone along with famous brand names like Sony and the prestigious Wallpaper* magazine. This year, Wallpaper* will throw its annual party at Tom Dixon’s Caeserstone collaboration exhibition in Milan.

About Caeserstone

Tom Dixon with Yos Shiran, CEO of Caesarstone at Cinema Multiplex 2015

Established in 1987, Caesarstone pioneered the original quartz surface and continues to be a leading developer and manufacturer of premium surfaces.

Caesarstone surfaces consist of up to 93% quartz and utilize advanced technologies and proprietary know-how.

The surfaces are highly functional, design forward and have endless application possibilities including kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities, flooring, wall panelling, furniture and more.

The unique and rich variety of colours, patterns and textures gives each customer the ability to find their ‘ultimate surface’ and create their own unique interior environment.

Caesarstone’s extensive designs are constantly evolving and developing to meet the latest world trends and the highest level of international quality standards.

About Arabeschi di Latte food design studio, led by Francesca Sarti

Francesca Sarti

Arabeschi di Latte is an Italian food design studio founded by Francesca Sarti in 2001.

Blurring the boundaries between food and design and using food as a tool to communicate, the collective, has created and exhibited a variety of food-related projects such as pop up cafés, interactive installations, special dinners and workshops around the world.

Arabeschi Studio offers a creative consultancy service ranging from exhibition design and setting, food and interior styling to food space ideas and start-up including the products research, visual and packaging design

Florence-based collective Arabeschi di Latte has taken up the course of new design experiences.

Providing a copious supply of inspiration with food-related workshops, exhibitions, and events, founders Francesca Sarti and Silvia Allori, together with Cristina Cortese and Arianna Pescetti encourage people to share their fascination for the power of food.

About Rotonda Della Besana

The Rotonda della Besana (also known as Rotonda di Via Besana or Complesso di San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, and originally as Foppone della Ca’ Granda) is a late baroque building complex and former cemetery in Milan, Italy, built between 1695 and 1732 and located close to the city centre.

The complex comprises a lobate hectagonal colonnade portico enclosing a garden and the deconsacrated church of San Michele ai Sepolcri (“Saint Michael by the Sepulchers”).

The portico was designed by architects Francesco Croce and Carlo Raffaello Raffagno, while the church was designed by Attilio Arrigoni.

Although originally a cemetery, over time the Rotonda has been adapted for a number of other uses; today, it is a leisure area and a venue for cultural events.

The complex covers an overall area of 7,100 m² and owes its current name to its location, at number 15 of Via Enrico Besana.