Caesarstone at Toronto’s IDS
Tom Dixon imagines a kitchen made of ice.
Quartz surface manufacturer Caesarstone is known for the witty ways it collaborates with designers to push the boundaries of its mineral medium—think quartz lily pads in a floating art installation, and even swing sets made of stone. At this year’s Interior Design Show (IDS), Caesarstone will unveil its most recent collaboration: an ice-themed kitchen created with London-based interior design label Tom Dixon. Inspired by Canada’s colder months, the label used quartz to evoke the frenzy of jagged ice blocks left behind by icebreakers deployed in frozen lakes and rivers. The result is a kitchen, aptly named Ice, featuring triangular counters rendered in cool quartz with sharp, clean lines that appear to balance on their points. Also included are trilateral prisms of various heights that serve as stools.
Attendees of IDS are invited to experience Ice in action—on January 21st, chef Stuart Cameron will use the kitchen to prepare a regionally-inspired seasonal menu. Foie gras with frozen maple syrup, saffron cotton candy, and nuts is an appetizer, and frozen yogurt with lime or raspberry hibiscus paletas for dessert. In step with the icy theme, the cooking process is transparent; the kitchen is designed for the spectator as much as the chef. “Where the contemporary kitchen seeks to hide the activities behind a series of minimal blocks,” explains Tom Dixon, co-founder and head designer of the eponymous label, “here we expose the chopping, the steaming, the freezing, and the scouring in all its active glory.” A cringe-worthy pun perhaps, but it does sound cool.
