Sliding into the front seat of a new car, you become instantly, painfully, aware of all the features your current car lacks. Luxurious nuances and special niceties add up to another world of driving experiences. They compel us to sign on the dotted line.
Attendees during this year’s Palm Desert Food & Wine festival sampled a similar feeling in Tent No. 1. For three days, they joined a string of celebrity chefs who took the stage behind a custom demonstration kitchen designed by Poggenpohl and Porsche Design and installed by Better Built Inc. The takeaway: Self-closing drawers will change your life.
“When people walked in, I said, ‘Come up here on stage. Open the drawers. Look in the fridge,’” says Salvatore Rizzo who emceed the demos and interfaced with the chefs. As owner/director of De Gustibus Cooking School in New York City, Rizzo has more than a casual relationship with Poggenpohl. The premiere German cabinet manufacturer designed the custom kitchen for his own culinary epicenter at Macy’s Herald Square.
Poggenpohl’s president called Rizzo about the event. “I believe Poggenpohl is all about quality, prestige, and satisfying the client. Being up there on stage in this full kitchen build out, everyone could look, touch, and feel that quality three dimensionally.”
The demonstration kitchen showcased beauty, craftsmanship, attention to detail, and understated European style — attributes that are synonymous with Poggenpohl and Porsche Design. The two powerhouses teamed up to show off precision engineering in an innovative design. Strong, simple, and linear, its modularity adapts to most any space. Aluminum-framed cabinets, finished in clean, handleless fronts, featured metallic materials sealed with anodized coatings for sleek durability.
“The custom drawers are something you don’t think about, but they do make a difference. You touch them and they open. Then they soft-close with a light push,” Rizzo says. He notes the easy-to-clean cabinets somehow don’t show daily wear and tear, and plates stack freely so the cook can pull them out. “I loved the aesthetic and the functionality.”
Beyond drawers that obey at the touch of a finger, internal organizers provide orderly storage that could bring home chefs to tears. Or make them sign on the line.