Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/884376
DEPARTMENT HEADER october 2017 / the tasting panel / 45 for British chef April Bloomfield's new Hollywood project Hearth & Hound. The shapes of the hundreds of bowls and cazuelas made from draped and molded slabs of clay are straightforward, simple, and mostly glazed in white—all the better to show off the food. Los Angeles sushi chef Mori Onodera used to keep a pottery wheel behind his restaurant, where he could be found making pots between service. When a couple of chef-customers came back from Japan and told him they were blown away the gorgeous (and fabulously expensive) ceramics there, they asked Onodera if he could make something similar—and cheaper. He rose to the challenge and now designs ceramics for high-end restaurants, often sending sketches back and forth to the chef. Clients include Providence and Orsa & Winston in Los Angeles, as well as The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa Valley. Though white is more traditional, Onodera says he prefers to work with different hues to showcase the "many different colors" naturally found in food. Collaborating with chefs forces Peter Sheldon of Sheldon Ceramics to explore new glazes and shapes in his work. When he first moved to L.A., he approached new Chinese restaurant Pine & Crane to do some pottery; owner Vivian Ku ordered not only bowls, but ceramic condiment trays, too. When Chef Vartan Abgaryan came in for lunch one day, he saw the bowls and ordered some pieces for Cliff's Edge across the street. After leaving to open the high-profile restaurant 71Above in the U.S. Bank Tower building downtown, Abgaryan commissioned Sheldon to make ceramics for the restaurant in a spectrum of light to dark. "The challenge for us is to make ceramics that are cost- effective, durable, and uncompromising in design," Sheldon explains. A fermentation workshop inspired Berkeley, California's Sarah Kersten to create fermentation pots with subtle, cloudy glazes—and a good seal. Orders poured in and those pots are now sold at SHED in Healdsburg, and March in San Francisco, as well as online at Food52 and Quitokeeto. Chefs looking for local, handmade dinnerware quickly tracked her down. "For me, there's something incredibly captivating about starting with a bunch of mud or dirt and turn- ing it into something you can eat your dinner off [of]," says Kersten. Akiko Graham of Akiko's Pottery has made tableware for almost every restau- rant of note in Seattle. Her work is prized for its Japanese aesthetic (she's from Hokkaido) and restrained palette. Her greys shimmer like sharkskin, and some pieces are hand-built while others are thrown. She remembers young Blaine Wetzel of The Willows Inn on Lummi Island coming in to order some ceramics fresh off a stint at Noma. Because she likes to cook and eat as much as she likes to make pottery, Graham has a great rapport with chefs; in fact, she started out by approaching restaurants with her pot- tery. It wasn't easy; they all asked if her pieces broke. "Yes," she answered. "But pottery doesn't break itself. Somebody breaks it." A plate by Sheldon Ceramics holds a squash dish from 71Above in Downtown Los Angeles. PHOTO: BRADLEY TUCK Mirena Kim Ceramics, 5613 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, www.mirenakim.com The Pottery Studio, 2992 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles (Atwater Village), CA, www.thepotterystudio.com Morihiro Onodera, Los Angeles, CA, morichano@gmail.com, www.morionodera.com Sheldon Ceramics, Los Angeles, CA, www.sheldonceramics.com Sarah Kersten Studio, Berkeley, CA, www.sarahkersten.com Akiko's Pottery, 10847 3rd Ave. South, Seattle, WA, www.akikospottery.com