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A dream emerged that perhaps all the great qualities of antique tools could be synthesized, updated, and made into unique new products.
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00 The Gestura Story
Gabe was born and raised in Los Angeles. A passionate cook from a young age, he used Jonathan Gold’s Counter Intelligence columns as a way to explore the city’s sprawl and taste food from around the world.
01 A passion for spoons
Unable to sit still in college, he decided to pursue cooking professionally — coming up at restaurants such as The Progress in San Francisco under Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, and Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles under Jeremy Fox and Andy Doubrava.
Collecting antique spoons and tools on his day off became a pastime. It quickly became clear that silverware of the past was made better than anything available at chef’s supplies stores. In fact, many industry shops would sell antique spoons knowing that cooks favored their deep bowls and interesting shapes.
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Instead of digging through crates and hoping to get lucky, maybe a new generation of tools could be designed? Honoring the past while pushing into the future.
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02 Dreaming of Spoons
A dream emerged that perhaps all the great qualities of antique tools could be synthesized, updated, and made into unique new products. Instead of digging through crates and hoping to get lucky, maybe a new generation of tools could be designed? Honoring the past while pushing into the future.
He then went on to pursue an education in architecture and design at SCI-Arc. There, the idea to merge his professional cooking experience with design thinking came to life. He became increasingly aware of the lack of innovation in kitchen product design and began asking, what would kitchens look like if chefs designed tools for themselves? What if the one-off qualities of certain antique designs were merged into more standard, replicable shapes? Gestura was born as an attempt to answer these questions.
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Industrial kitchen design needed an update and it felt right to begin with a spoon.
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03 The trip to Japan
Gabe wanted Gestura to think deeply about tools and how cooks interact with them day to day. Industrial kitchen design needed an update and it felt right to begin with a spoon, an essential utensil and a shared obsession of many fellow cooks and chefs. So, the thought went, let’s make a silhouette that feels classic but remove the engravings and ornamentation, and add some functionality.
Beginning with the launch of the 01 Spoon collection, Gabe sought out multigenerational manufacturers in Japan to craft his designs. Today, he continues to work on building unique and exciting cooking tools, and to provide thoughtful design for cooks and chefs — an often overlooked and underserved market. He hopes to continue looking at kitchens with a tilted head, and asking where things can be streamlined and improved.
