Studio F | Toren Elste

Toren Elste is a Seattle-based real estate advisor and marketing expert, landscape architect, and sustainability specialist. Elste was born and raised in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but has also lived in Italy, Hawaii, and British Columbia. She also loves to learn new things and connect with people, whether it’s through her love of skiing, Lake Sammamish, her alma mater, or her passion for cooking and entertaining. Elste graduated from the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.

Instagram: @gracegirlusa

>> Toren's contributions on Future-ish

Distillery Design Marries Old with New

The distillery and visitor center of Southern Tyrol's Puni Whiskey is getting as much attention as it's award-winning spirits, which are actually the first single malt whiskeys made in Italy. Inspired by the windows in stone barns in the area, architect Werner Tscholl, created a structure for the distillery that honored the traditional local architecture yet kept Puni squarely in the modern aesthetic.

Additional Reading:

• Bertoli, R. 2016. Team spirit: one Italian family has produced a malt distilled with flair. Wallpaper.

Conceptual Kitchen

IKEA recently asked IDEO London and students from Lund and Eindhoven universities to explore the social, technological, and demographic forces that will impact how we behave around food in 2025. The result is Concept Kitchen 2015 - Envisioning the Future, a unique exhibit that was showcased at EXPO Milano 2015. How will we behave around food in 2015? How will we forage, create, and consume in our homes in 2015? Find out by visiting the exhibit link above.

Articles

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>> Green, D. 2015. Ikea has created the kitchen of 2025 — and there's no stove or refrigerator. businessinsider.com.

FAB Find | Beautiful Bee's Wrap

Simple. Sustainable. Stylish. That is the best and only way to describe Bee's Wrap, the "new" old-fashioned alternative to plastic for food bags and storage created by Vermont-based Sarah Kaeck. The keen technology? Organic muslin is infused with beeswax, jojoba oil, and tree resin. The antibacterial properties of beeswax and jojoba oil help keep food fresh and best of all, Bee's Wrap can be re-used again and again.

SeanChron | Canoe Crops on Top Chef

Sean the huge culture geek here and once again I was really pleased to see culture taking center stage in the final episodes of Top Chef Season 11. The season was primarily based in New Orleans, where culture also had a starring role, but the final episodes were on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

It should come as no surprise the chefs would want to showcase local proteins and produce that have cultural meaning and value but Top Chef took it a step further and in the elimination challenge of Episode 16, the remaining chefs (Shirley Chung, Nina Compton, Nicholas Elmi, and Louis Maldonado) were tasked to use the Canoe Crops that ancient Polynesians first brought to Hawaii.

The dish I was most impressed with (and perhaps a plug for who I think should have won the season) was Nina Compton's Grilled Opah with Taro Root and Coconut Puree (below).

ChefSteps Shares Art and Science of Modernist Cuisine

Molecular gastronomy is becoming more and more popular and prevalent everyday. It's one thing to order it at a restaurant or see it on TV, it's a completely different thing to try to make it yourself. The techniques, the tools, and the time involved can all be overwhelming for any budding chef. Luckily, things like the Modernist Cuisine cookbook series are helping us try our hand at these new and innovative culinary methods.

Taking baby steps into the world of molecular gastronomy just got even easier. Seattle-based ChefSteps offers online courses to introduce even the most beginner of chefs to the tools and techniques of exceptional modern cuisine. Lead by Grant Lee Crilly, Ryan Matthew Smith, and Chris Young - several of the original Modern Cuisine team - the website, recipes, classes, and community developed by ChefSteps are both aesthetically appealing and accessible.

We particular love this quote from ChefSteps:

"Cooking is an ancient art and science, an accumulated body of knowledge passed down through generations, which we modify every day."

Here at Future-ish we coined a design style called 'Progress Chic' that references tried and true elements of life and design and then re-imagines them for the present. ChefSteps is a perfect example of this. Where molecular gastronomy offers many Progress Chic moments for food and restaurants broadly, ChefSteps does this for recipe instructions, cooking classes, and videos through it's almost poetic presentation methods.

So throw on your apron or labcoat (both would be appropriate) and get started on the essentials of spherification, sous vide, and whipping siphons!

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Chipotle's "Back to the Start"

A recent TV ad by everyone's favorite sustainable fast food burrito chain, Chipotle, has created quite a stir. Some say it upstaged the Grammy Awards during which it aired and it has now won several awards. The ad/short film, produced by Creative Artists Agency and Nexus Productions and directed by filmmaker Johnny Kelly, Back to the Start, supports Chipotle's long running position on developing a sustainable food system. As an animated farmer learns about the gritty details of industrial farming, Willie Nelson covers Coldplay's tune The Scientist, the perfect soundtrack to make the spot hit home all the more.

In a June 2012 interview with Matt Lauer on TODAY, Matt Miller, President and CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), commented on the ad, winner of AICP's best commercial for 2011,

"it says that you can sell and have a social message, that's kind of what advertising is going towards right now".

We agree on all fronts, sometimes shaping the future does require going back to the start...to do things right from the beginning.

Mod Fresh Food

What's old is new again. A new project by Jihyun Ryou adds high design to traditional knowledge about food preservation. Shaping Traditional Oral Knowledge combines the wisdom of ages and modern aesthetics to produce simple and stylish solutions for keeping food fresh.

Gastronomy Geek | Jared Levan

The worlds of science and food have been colliding for years in the field of molecular gastronomy. Finding chefs that get into the science of food isn't too difficult but finding scientist foodies is like finding a lone sprig of rosemary in a four feet wide pan of Valencian paella.

We recently stumbled across one of those rare individuals in NYC-based scientist, food stylist, and writer, Jared Levan. His degree in microbiology is from Cornell but his sense of style and passion for food are all his own. These days Levan applies his scientific curiosity to the kitchen creating new dishes on his own and styling food for others, including the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, ABC, and Chef Rocco DiSpirito. Lucky for us, Levan's food-science insights aren't gathering dust in some university library, you can read all of his Food Scientist and other posts on his blog, In Food We Trust.

Bookish Chocolate Bars

Consider it chocolate for the smart set. TCHO in San Francisco offers a wide range of high design, tasty, and sustainable chocolates that are sure to keep you coming back for just one more square. From small sets of bite size collections to the luxury box set above, TCHO has something for everyone.

Year-round Wheat

Image Credit: Dehaan via Wikimedia Commons

If Wes Jackson succeeds in his life dream, the annual autumn wheat harvest may come to an end...and that's a good thing. In 1976, Jackson founded the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas to revolutionize modern agriculture by researching and demonstrating the concept of perennial polyculture. Conventional agriculture uses large amounts of water, chemicals, and fossil fuels and only produces crops once a year. By domesticating perennial crops like wheatgrass and hybridizing them with annual crops like wheat, the resulting crops are more productive, much less resource-intensive to maintain, and more in tune with the prairie ecosystem within which they grow. Best of all, as a strong proponent of sustainable agriculture, Jackson accomplishes all this without the use of genetic engineering. We've also heard that the Land Institute's annual Prairie Festival, full of lectures, storytelling, and music, is not to be missed.

SeanChron - Seahouse Restaurant

Me enjoying a POGmosa at Seahouse Restaurant on Maui. I don't know why people like taking photos of me when I'm quenching my thirst but it seems to happen a lot. More importantly, the BEST bicuits & gravy IN THE WORLD happen to be served at Seahouse.

Couture bag clips

Be gone ugly bag clips! French design firm Tout Simplemente have created a stylish and sustainable alternative with their wooden bag clips. Available at the A+R.

Responsible Rice from Italy

From Haberdash for Humanity...When it comes to a food staple around the world, few would argue that rice tops the list. Many would be surprised to know that rice grows around the world and one of the most innovative rice growers, Acquerello, hales from the Vercelli province of the Piedmont region in Italy. The history of rice in Italy goes back to the 1400s and is rich with culture and connection to the land. The family behind Acquerello, the Rondolino family, has been growing rice in the area for three generations and has brought rice cultivation firmly into the 21st century. One of their boldest innovations was to go completely organic in 1998. Along with this committment comes an appreciation for the land and ecosystem connected to rice farming. Today, the paddy fields, known as Tenuta Colombara, are thriving with fish, frogs, and rare birds. Even the product can reflects this committment and appeciation for the natural world. Acquerello is also a support of the Slow Food movement, even more reason to sit back and savor a fine dining experience with some responsible rice.