visual diary: design & excellence at the table

This post is a recap of a press trip I went on back in May, as DLISH and Eleit.it’s guest. You can download the press release here.

The need for food and the act of eating is elementary necessities for the life of every human being, connect us on a universal level. That food has always connected to tradition, to rituals, to power, to economy and to culture, is not news to us.

The story that follows is one that has food at its centre, but happens around it. It starts when Mona Bavar, Iranian-American founder of Dlish invited me to Naples for this trip. DLISH is a bespoke gifting service where Mona and her team meticulously curate gorgeous gift boxes that contain beautiful and high quality pieces for the table.

The trip was co-hosted by Titti Gallucci, the founder of Eleit.it, a startup that unifies the Italian excellences of raw material in gastronomy, with spectacular design and skillful craftsmanship. The result is breathtakingly beautiful objects for the table, which have a fascinating story from the research in history and mythology, to function, selection of the material and production.

“Riti” at full moon on the sea

In our first evening, we dined at the exquisite Palazzo Petrucci where chef Lino Scarallo passionately talked about the creation of the “Riti” (rituals) lines of objects with Eleit.it (while serving us his delicious yet simple Michelin starred food). We were dining together with the designers of the objects, and the craftsmen who produced the objects, which were then of course used as a part of the dining experience in this unique restaurant facing the sea, at the full moon.

The most incredible high school

This part of the trip effectively took my breath away, and I have been talking about it to anyone who would listen since I’ve come back. We went to Capodimonte, which is a hilltop neighbourhood in Naples. There’s a park, and in the middle of it there’s The Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte, one of Italy’s oldest and most historical institutes for the preservation of ancient craftsmanship and ceramic art that was established by none other than King Carlo of Borbone in 1743 as a Royal Ceramic Factory. Today the institute is also a high school. Yes you read that right, it’s also a high school. A state high school. I keep thinking what was that horrible experience I went through that was also called high school while here you learn to create astonishing ceramics the ancient way, mixed with modern innovations.

Here we learned about Pyxis, an magnificent dish to hold, serve and conserve buffala mozzarella. Then we went to pizzeria Concettina ai Tre Santi (in Rione Sanità, must go place in Naples), where among many, many dishes, were served mozzarella in this beauty of a dish, made based on history, mythology and practicality, all closely related to Naples.

Then sun, the earth, the spring & the olive oil

Our next stop was at the Rua Catalane, a neighbourhood born in 1343 when Queen Joanna I of Anjou granted the Catalan metalsmith their own road to boost trade in the Kingdom of Naples. And these craftsmen, or at least some of them, are still there, working metals in these “botteghe” (workshops) that are more than 600 years old. I was awe struck.

Here is where they create another Eleit.it line, that now has its own giftbox on Dlish. The Famiglia Oliva, a three piece series, to smell (Pigi: the Spring), serve (Elio: the sun) and taste (Gea: the earth) olive oil that has been designed in collaboration with sommelier and olive oil expert Mariella Caputo, who has now implemented these objects in her family run hotel and Michelin restaurant La Taverna del Capitano, in a tiny fishing village in Marina del Cantone in the coast near Sorrento.

We were lucky enough to drive all the way to the coast of Sorrento and dine at Taverna del Capitano, where I had one of the most amazing meals of my life, that including a small tuna caught in the coast, cooked on hot rocks from the hill, with wild herbs of the same hill, with olive oil (of the same hill) poured on it, from of course The Famiglia Oliva serving piece.

The next morning we visited the Le Colline Lubrensi Oil Company in Sorrento, a bottle of which now accompanies the DLISH giftbox that contains the Famiglia Oliva.

I said this during our trip many times, and I probably have written it already more than once here, but this trip truly took my breath away. In a world that keeps rushing forward, crushing numbers and counting the profits, there are projects that truly are slow, based on true excellence, human intelligence and manual skill, with so much poetry inside them you’d expect to rise up and sing. These are stories that should be told again and again and amplified at any opportunity. I am honored and very grateful to Mona and Titti, these incredible women and entrepreneurs for taking me along this journey of wonder.