Juicy Salif

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Juicy Salif
Type Citrus reamer
Inception1990
Manufacturer Alessi S.p.A.

Juicy Salif, a citrus reamer designed by Philippe Starck in 1990, is considered an icon of industrial design, and has been displayed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art [1] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art [2] in New York City, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. [3] It has also received this distinction at the RISD Museum [4] and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. [5]

Contents

Description

Made of cast and polished aluminum by the Italian kitchenware company Alessi, the tool measures 14 centimetres (5.5 in) in diameter, and 29 cm (11 in) high.

But the device is not easy to use, and its polished aluminum finish is vulnerable to corrosion and producing an unpleasant taste, as conceded in its official instructions. [6] The kitchen tool is not dishwasher-safe, and must be washed by hand, while taking care to avoid injury from its sharp point. [6]

History

Brief interview with Alberto Alessi by Dezeen (video)
A Juicy Salif mould at the Design Museum in London Juicy Salif mould.jpg
A Juicy Salif mould at the Design Museum in London

The sleek, exotic-looking shape was inspired by a calamari squid; the original drawings were sketched on a pizza-stained paper placemat. [7] [6]

The founder of the manufacturer, Alberto Alessi, later recalled:

I received a napkin from Starck, on it among some incomprehensible marks (tomato sauce, in all likelihood) there were some sketches. Sketches of squid. They started on the left, and as they worked their way over to the right, they took on the unmistakable shape of what was to become the juicy salif. While eating a dish of squid and squeezing a lemon over it, Starck drew on the napkin his famous lemon squeezer. [8] [9]

Alberto Alessi, in a recorded video interview posted on Dezeen , said "I am very happy with this project because I consider it a big joke to everybody. [...] It is the most controversial squeezer of the century I must say, but one of the most amusing projects I have done in my career." [7] He regarded it as one of the company's most successful products. [7]

Sales

For the tenth anniversary of its launch, 10,000 Juicy Salifs were issued, individually numbered and gold-plated. But this luxury version came with instructions warning that the juicer should never be used with actual fruit, because the finish would corrode. [10] There has also been a grey/black (anthracite) coloured version, of which 47,000 un-numbered examples were produced between 1991 and 2004. [11] Both now are collectors' items, though an urban legend perpetuates the idea that the anthracite version is rarer than the gold-plated one.[ citation needed ]

By 2003, a total of more than 500,000 of the iconic design artifacts had been sold. [10]

Critical reception

Starck has publicly stated that his citrus reamer was "not meant to squeeze lemons" but "to start conversations". [10]

An image of the Juicy Salif was featured on the front cover of Donald Norman's book Emotional Design . [12] The gold-plated version was described as an "ornament" because citric acid from fruit would discolor and erode the gold plating. [12]

An article in the Financial Times about bad design included the Juicy Salif among other examples, and proposed that the original "chamber of horrors" at the Victoria and Albert Museum be revived, to showcase modern examples. [13]

Related Research Articles

Alessi is a housewares and kitchen utensil company in Italy, manufacturing and marketing everyday items authored by a wide range of designers, architects, and industrial designers — including Achille Castiglioni, Richard Sapper, Marco Zanuso, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass, Wiel Arets, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Hani Rashid, Tom Kovac, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Jean Nouvel, UN Studio, Michael Graves, and Philippe Starck. The Alessi company in the UK is worth around £2.4 million.

<i>Citrus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calamansi</span> Hybrid species of citrus

Calamansi, also known as calamondin, Philippine lime, or Philippine lemon, is a citrus hybrid cultivated predominantly in the Philippines. It is native to the Philippines, parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, as well as parts of southern China and Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grapefruit</span> Citrus fruit

The grapefruit is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The interior flesh is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark pink/red.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Starck</span> French architect and industrial designer

Philippe Starck is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. His most popular pieces were made in the 1980s and the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandarin orange</span> Small citrus fruit

A mandarin orange, also known as mandarin or mandarine, is a small, rounded citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Tangerines are a group of orange-colored citrus fruit consisting of hybrids of mandarin orange with some pomelo contribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juicer</span> Tool for extracting fruit and vegetable juices

A juicer, also known as a juice extractor, is a tool used to extract juice from fruits, herbs, leafy greens and other types of vegetables in a process called juicing. It crushes, grinds, and/or squeezes the juice out of the pulp. A juicer clarifies the juice through a screening mesh to remove the pulp unlike a blender where the output contains both the liquids and solids of the processed fruit(s) or vegetable(s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange (fruit)</span> Citrus fruit

The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange, is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid Citrus × sinensis, between the pomelo and the mandarin orange. The chloroplast genome, and therefore the maternal line, is that of pomelo. The sweet orange has had its full genome sequenced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achille Castiglioni</span> Italian architect and designer (1918–2002)

Achille Castiglioni was an Italian architect and designer of furniture, lighting, radiograms and other objects. As a professor of design, he advised his students "If you are not curious, forget it. If you are not interested in others, what they do and how they act, then being a designer is not the right job for you."

Patricia Urquiola Hidalgo is a Spanish architect, industrial designer and art director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Hutten</span> Dutch designer

Richard G. J. Hutten is a Dutch industrial designer, art director, and artist who is active in furniture design, product design, interior design, and exhibition design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrus reamer</span> Utensil to extract juice from citrus fruit

A citrus reamer, also known as a lemon reamer or simply a reamer, is a small kitchen utensil used to extract the juice from a lemon or other small citrus fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemon squeezer</span> Kitchen utensil

A lemon squeezer is a kitchen utensil designed to extract juice from lemons or other citrus fruit such as oranges, grapefruit, or lime. It is designed to separate and crush the pulp of the fruit in a way that is easy to operate. Lemon squeezers can be made from any solid, acid-resistant material, such as plastic, glass, metal or ceramic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemon</span> Yellow citrus fruit

The lemon is a species of small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar, and China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micrantha (citrus)</span> Citrus fruit and plant

The micrantha is a wild citrus from the papeda group, native to southern Philippines, particularly islands of Cebu and Bohol. Two varieties are recognized: small-flowered papeda, locally known as biasong, and small-fruited papeda or samuyao.

Salif may refer to:

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Emeco is a privately held company based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The Emeco 1006, known as the Navy Chair, has been in continuous production since the 1940s. Today, Emeco manufactures furniture designed by notable designers and architects such as Philippe Starck, Norman Foster, and Frank Gehry.

Xiaomi Mi MIX is an Android Smartphone manufactured by Xiaomi. It is designed by Philippe Starck, and awarded multiple top design awards for product design. It has been taken by multiple museums around the world as design collection, including Centre Pompidou in Paris and Design Museum. It is the world's 1st 3 border bezel-less phone category. It was succeeded by the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 in September 2017, followed by the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 on 25 October 2018 and the latest Xiaomi MIX 4 on 10 August 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assam lemon</span> Lemons found in Assam, India

The Assam lemon, also known as nemu tenga in Assamese, are cultivars of lemon, which are found and cultivated in the Indian state of Assam. The most popular of them are 'Kaji Nemu' and 'Gul Nemu'. "Kaji Nemu" has been declared as the State Fruit of Assam, by the Cabinet. The Agriculture Department of the Government of Assam has amplified its production, boosting its originality and uniqueness.These lemons are an important part of Assamese cuisine .These lemon are also famous for their significant smell.

References

  1. "Philippe Starck. Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer. 1988". MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  2. ""Juicy Salif" Lemon Squeezer". The Met. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  3. "Juicy Salif | Starck, Philippe". Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  4. "Juicy Salif". RISD Museum Collections. Rhode Island School of Design. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  5. "Juicy Salif Citrus Squeezer". Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Orr, Christy (1 May 2019). "Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif lemon squeezer: Genius design or just a cool fruit squeezer?". DesignStudies1. Medium. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Hobson, Benedict (9 July 2014). "Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif was "the most controversial lemon squeezer of the century"". Dezeen. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  8. "Starck Juicy Salif", hivemodern.com
  9. "'Juicy Salif' lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck for Alessi, 1990". Powerhouse Museum. 2000. Retrieved 27 November 2008.[ dead link ]
  10. 1 2 3 Chadha, Radha (22 November 2016). "The irrationality of pure design". Mint. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  11. Alessi Company Archive[ full citation needed ]
  12. 1 2 Norman, Donald Arthur (2005). Emotional Design . Basic Books. p. 114. ISBN   0-465-05136-7.
  13. Heathcote, Edwin (30 October 2015). "Design horrors: the bad, the ugly and the dysfunctional" . Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.