Tuesday 17 January 2012

BrIT Girl: Can you beat The Cube?

Assistant editor, Britta O'Boyle
Electrolux has created travelling pop-up restaurants, called The Cube, to celebrate its 90th anniversary and showcase its professional and domestic appliances. No clues for guessing which lucky girl was invited to its latest destination – Milan!

Pop-up restaurants have become a global phenomenon – from Dishoom Chowpatty Beach Bar (brilliant name) on London’s South Bank through to The French Laundry at Harrods, which opened for just 10 days. You snooze you lose. It was only a matter of time before the kitchen industry embraced this bang-up-to-trend culinary movement. And boy am I glad it has!
Appliance brand Electrolux has taken the lead with its pop-up restaurant, The Cube. In fact, since last year, there have been two Electrolux Cube restaurants travelling throughout Europe, to arrive on-top of landmark sites for just three months. Now you see them, now you don’t. I wonder what the sight-seers have to say about this!


Electrolux Cube pop-up restaurant on top of Milan building

Electrolux introduced its The Cube pop-up restaurant to celebrate 90 years of professional heritage. And fresh from its jaunt to Brussels, The Cube I was invited to visit had just landed in Milan. The 140sqm restaurant has been located on top of Number 1 Via Ugo Foscolo in Milan – overlooking the cathedral - and will be there until April 26. Then it makes its way across to the UK later this year. I must admit, I am very much looking forward to finding out which London building it will be landing on, any thoughts?
From its lofty position, The Cube claims to offer ‘fantastic tastes and never before seen views’ – a big statement? No. Not in the slightest. With the landscape and the beauty of the building itself, it was pretty incredible and quite frankly made me speechless (not an easy accomplishment).

The Cube not only looks uber-stylish (understatement of the year), but its design is pretty clever too. It boasts a table, which seats 18 guests, that drops from the ceiling for meal times. It overlooks the kitchen featuring professional and domestic appliances. And when the meal is finished, the table raises back into the ceiling, allowing guests to mingle for post dinner drinks.

Don’t even get me started on the food! One word – amazing. Seven courses (I know) were prepared by Michelin Starred Chef Andrea Sarri, one of 13 chefs on a rotation system whilst in Milan. The chefs are selected from the country the restaurant is in and they must work with Electrolux professional equipment within their kitchens. But with 50% of Michelin Starred restaurants around the world using the equipment, they aren’t stuck for choice.

The Electrolux Cube also allows guests to interact and learn from the professional chefs, ‘inspiring its guests with a once-in-a-lifetime’ and ‘memorable’ dining experience. I’m sure they probably won’t be forgetting the brand anytime soon either!I’m not joking when I say it’s not marketing fluff. The restaurant might be temporary, but it certainly won’t be something I forget in a hurry!

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