Dining with style (Alessi Cutlery Collection)

Member Name: pjs21

Product:	Alessi Cutlery Collection
Date:	05/08/02 (1846 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top Quality, Style, Unique

Disadvantages: Prices

Right, first things first...

I was saving myself for a nice little op on Alessi in General, but as that category hasn't yet appeared I thought I may as well write something for a category that already exists, making Dooyoo's life a little easier and giving me a little more time to finish the actual op I want to post.

There, with that out of the way here is my op on the Alessi cutlery collection.

Who, you may well ask, is Alessi? And a fair question it is too.

Not everyone has heard of them and I doubt that everyone cares. For those who do, here is a brief description (full description when correct cat. appears!)

Alessi are an Italian company founded very early in the 20th Century who became renowned worldwide for not only the quality of their work but also for the design.

They major in kitchenware but also have a large range of tableware and general household objects. They are most famous for their stainless steel items.

Their range of cutlery is beautifully crafted and as far as I'm aware, it's all fully forged where as most cutlery is stamped, unless you pay an arm and a leg for it.

The difference is that stamped cutlery is literally that, a large piece of metal has the items stamped out of it, where as forged cutlery is moulded from on piece of metal, this will give you a much stronger piece and better shape to the item. The most obvious item to look at is the spoon. Most stamped spoons are almost flat where as forged spoons take on a much deeper bowl shape at the end.

Anyhoo, that's the technical stuff, here's a list of the collections.

I'll only talk about my two favourite sets and then give a brief listing of the others they do.

"Caccia" which I understand is pronounced Chachia is probably my favourite. It's the one pictured on Dooyoo so that helps.

Originally designed back in 1938 by Gio Ponti with only t
he main pieces going into production. Alessi began to make the cutlery in Nickel Silver in 1990 and then in stainless steel with the new pieces being having been designed in 1988 by the same designer.

The handles are solid and comfortable to hold. The knives are long bladed and cut incredibly well, the dinner forks come in either 3 or 4 prongs and the full set is truly beautiful to look at and use.

The cost of this set will vary from shop to shop but you should be looking at anything from £6.50 for a fork, £6.00 for a spoon and £14.00 for a dinner knife. Or a 24 piece set of 6 each of the following: Dinner Forks, Dinner Knives, Dinner Spoons and Teaspoons will set you back around £199.00. And a 36 piece, which includes the above along with 6 Dessert Knives and Forks, is about £299.00.

The full set includes: All of the above plus: Dessert Spoon; Cake Fork; Ice Cream Spoon; Coffee Spoon; Serving Spoon; Serving Fork; Fish Knives and Forks; Fish Serving Knife; Fish Serving Forks; Meat Knife and Fork, Ladle; Soup Ladle and Salad Servers.

These range in price from said £6.00 upto about £55.00 for each of the fish serving pieces and £155.00 for the salad servers.

Definitely a set that's worth having for those special occasions.

Next is Nuovo Milano, probably their most popular range of cutlery.

Designed in 1987 by Ettore Sottsass this was the second range of cutlery to be produced by Alessi and winner of the 16th Golden Compass Award (whatever the hell that is!)

Again, fully forged cutlery with beautiful form. Unlike the slim handles of Caccia the handles of Nuovo Milano are wide and rounded so that they fit into the centre of your palm when holding them. Again the shapes are incredibly pleasing to look at and the bowl of the spoon curves like, well, like a very pleasing curvy thing.

The balance is incredible and the stainless steel is so smooth to the touch. Sotsass said that he want
ed it to be as smooth as a stone rounded by the sea. I think they may have succeeded.

Again there is a vast range of items in this collection but it is slightly cheaper. A dinner knife will set you back £9.50, teaspoons about £6.00, dinner forks £6.00, and the salad servers from this range are a bargain at only £29.00 a pair. The most expensive item I have found is the ladle at £40.00.

A 24-piece set of Nuovo Milano is around £159.00 and a 36-piece set will cost you £229.00.

This is really an incredible price for such good quality. I know that I spent about £100 on a 24-piece set that is nowhere near the quality of Alessi and I am now rueing the day I didn't spend an extra £50 or so.

<PJS pauses to pull himself together>

Okay, so there you have my two favourites from the range. To be honest, they're the two I know the most about and there's no point rambling on about the rest, it would simply be made up nonsense.

Other collections to look out for are:

Dry, designed Achille Castiglioni in 1982, this was Alessi's first range of cutlery, it has brushed steel handles with polished ends. Very square in design and the blades seem to be slightly offset from the handles which makes them quite unique looking. Not my taste particularly, but probably someone's? Somewhere?

Grand Prix designed originally in 1960 but never made it to manufacturing until 1997 due to technical difficulties with producing the dinner knife. They are almost dolphin-like to look at as the tail of the handle curves round at the tip. Not as big a collection as some of the others but very stylish and would look good on the right table. I don't know the costs of this set but if Alessi say "We eventually found a way of manufacturing them, at a high, but reasonable price." Then they will probably be up a few price brackets from Caccia!

Valle was designed by one of Alessi's mo
st popular designers, Michael Graves. He's the man behind the kettle with the blue handle and the bird whistle, which is their biggest selling single item of all time.

Valle is incredibly simple in design with the handles running seamlessly into the tops of the utensils.

Rso1 comes from another Alessi renowned designer, Richard Sapper, His range was inspired by a set of cutlery his aunt had in his youth. They are flat at the handle, becoming thicker in the centre and then flattening out again to the prong of the forks, bowl of spoon etc. The handles are wide, square ended and flat, apparently they have the perfect balance.

Faitoo. What can I say about these? Designed in 1995 by one of the world's most eccentric designers, Phillipe Starck. This is a range of hanging cutlery and utensils for the kitchen, including dinner plates, which I can only describe as disgusting. Phillipe Starck is one of those people whose work you love or hate. He designed the famous Alessi Citrus Juicer, the one that looks like a space rocket. I like some of his stuff, but even for open-minded little old me, this range is a little too strange. Oh, and you also need to like garish green if you buy this range as that's the colour of the hanging racks and handles on the utensils.

The only other two ranges I know of are Duna, designed by Marco Zanuso and Yong by Guido Venturini. Yong is small range with blue transparent coated handles, looks like an expensive version of the Ikea cutlery, and Duna is another classic looking set with brushed handles.

There. Well done if you got this far.

So, my final verdict on Alessi Cutlery is this. If you're looking for something a little more special and don't want spend thousands in Dickens and Jones, Debenhams, Selfridges and other department stores on boxed cutlery that's not really anything special in the end, hunt down an Alessi stockist and take a look. Caccia
is the one I'll be getting for those posh dinner parties; it's relatively inexpensive and looks a class above any other cutlery I've found.

"Fact"

It takes, on average, 3 years for a person to find their ideal cutlery.

PJS Fact

Those people didn't know about Alessi.

Selfridges and Harrods stock Alessi, and for those near Richmond there?s a little cookware shop called "The Kitchenware Company" who stock a huge range of Alessi products including both Caccia, Nuovo Milano, Yong and Faitoo.

Selfridges is quite over-priced on most of their Alessi range.

Who's that snoring at the back?

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