SMEG: The fashionista of Italian appliances
Trust the Italians, those purveyors of style, to design fashionable appliances for the ultimately stylish kitchen. True to the Italian creed to back up design with hardcore craft, technology and industrial excellence, the Italian brand SMEG doesn’t just deliver kitchen eye candy. Coming from a country that is passionate about the arts of cooking and fashion, serious cooks know that SMEG appliances deliver a high level of performance.
It's easy to understand why. SMEG, founded in 1948 by Vittorio Bertazzoni Sr., started off as an enamel and metalworking business in Emilia Romagna. The brand name is an acronym for Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla, reflecting that beginning, then into the Fifties as the company began producing appliances. All through the decades, as its expertise in appliance manufacturing grew, it consulted with known Italian artists and architects to design its logo, its headquarters, and the appliances themselves.
What turned SMEG into an international icon and status symbol is the retro-looking Fab refrigerator, immediately recognizable for its rounded shape in pastel and vibrant hues. This popular mid-century look extends to their other appliances like ovens, toasters, kettles, ranges, juicers, coffee makers, mixers, blenders, and trolleys. These are now offered in more palettes including metallics and matte finishes. For the ultimate in wow factor, there is the collaboration with Italian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana.
Catering to Filipinos who share the Italian flair for food and fashion, the newest SMEG showroom recently opened at the East Gallery Place in Bonifacio Global City. With plenty of natural light filtering in through tall windows and cozy counters, it’s an inviting space that feels more like the kitchen of your favorite fashionista than a showroom.
Designed with Filipino elements like capiz and bamboo, it’s the perfect spot to explore the world of SMEG where appliances cross the boundary into art and design. You can try out their new range of multi-functional ovens or simply sample locally produced Commune coffee, made in the elegant SMEG bean-to-cup machines.
Karen Concepcion painted the colorful “Twelve Koi in Kyoto” artwork hanging on one wall at the request of her husband Ton. She explains, “We have been carrying SMEG for 20 years already! We were happy that we were offered the distributorship because we love art, and the pieces are a showcase of art and design by Italian architects. It’s such a privilege to work beside appliances that are beautiful, that highlight your home. At the same time they give you the solutions you’re looking for, they are space saving, and, of course, there’s the aesthetic. SMEG is really known for style.”
At the opening of the East Gallery Place branch, chicly dressed guests avidly shared the pieces that they love. Apart from a big fridge for the kitchen, Menchu Concepcion keeps a beige one for chocolates and cosmetics. “It’s near my room,” she says. Fashion chameleon Tessa Prieto likewise uses a SMEG fridge to store her chocolates, makeup and skin products. Nicole Ortega is happy with her red fridge, food processor, immersion blender and toaster. Some fans, like Rica Concepcion, have practically the entire line in their kitchens.
At the showroom, you cannot help but be drawn to two collaborations with Dolce & Gabbana. One is Blu Mediterraneo where the oven, matching hood and fridge are covered with motifs echoing the scenes, ceramic patterns and famous landmarks of the region in cool blues that reflect the skies and seas.
Their other design collaboration is called Sicily is My Love, where patterns by famous Sicilian artists were reproduced on an industrial scale and unveiled at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. The appliances have bright orange backgrounds with designs of lemons, grapes, pomegranates, cherries, and pears. These were based on the famous Sicilian horse-drawn carts, which are richly decorated with ornate paintings of Sicilian folklore, Mount Etna, ornamental friezes (decorative bands) and Moorish touches.
Domenico Dolce was born in Sicily while Stefano Gabbana hails from the area of Milan, but their design aesthetic has always referenced Sicily since their first ventures into fashion. Apart from the traditional and highly ornate Sicilian horse-drawn cart, they took inspiration from Majolica ceramics and the marionettes of folkloric tradition. These are the cultural symbols of Sicily, which is a crossroads of the southern Mediterranean from early times. Ancient Greeks, North Africans, Normans and Spanish have contributed to the island’s multi-cultural and mythical appeal.
There are many who buy SMEG appliances simply for their design which fuses style, art and fashion, and who can blame them? For even non-cooks, displaying a SMEG item in their homes is akin to exhibiting a piece of art. But to fully appreciate the technological value of SMEG appliances, you need to cook with them.
The Dolce & Gabbana-designed ovens and hoods, for example, might inspire a home cook to whip up something a bit more out of the ordinary, perhaps a risotto made with adlai. The appliances can also help you produce something as simple and comforting as a sinigang.
But given the exotic appearance of Sicily is My Love and its cultural significance, you could go all out and whip up a truly Sicilian pasta, the pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines). You melt a couple of anchovy fillets into olive oil and sauté them with slices of fennel, onions and raisins. Toast bread crumbs and pine nuts separately, adding them into the mix before tossing with freshly cooked bucatini. The anchovies and fennel speak of the island, while the pine nuts and raisins tell of an ancient Arabic influence. Your richly decorated SMEG oven, and the exotic, sweet and salty flavors of this pasta, will transport you to a sunny Mediterranean isle, or any place you wish to visit via your kitchen.
