DORO, Fabiola Lairet’s new store, opens its doors with 600 models of Japanese handcrafted tableware, brought directly from the Gifu region.
After years of experience in Japanese high cuisine with the successful restaurants Monster Sushi and Robata, Lairet starts a new business adventure that combines art, tradition and functionality. We spoke with Fabiola about her bond with Japanese culture. The selection of pieces and how DORO seeks to bring Japanese craftsmanship to all kinds of audiences, from chefs and decorators to private homes.
From Japanese cuisine to ceramic curation
Was it a thoughtful decision or a spontaneous discovery to devote yourself to curating traditional ceramics?
The fact of having two Japanese restaurants, Monster Sushi and Robata, made me consume this product, which was impossible to get in Europe, and I had to go to Japan to buy it. Once I left the kitchen, I wanted to continue to be linked to gastronomy, and I decided to make it possible through this project.
Part of the interior of DORO. Editorial credit: Magazine Horse.
Your history with Japan began years ago, as a sushichef apprentice. What did you learn in those Nishiwaki workshops that are still with you today, even in a ceramic store?
My first contact with Japanese gastronomy was in Los Angeles, and later I traveled to Nishiwaki where I was in the Matsuda family restaurant. There I learned how Japanese culture is linked to gastronomy and how ceramics were present.
I have a beautiful anecdote about this. At events such as weddings, the owner of the restaurant would choose the specific tableware to be served. The tableware room was a huge room, about 100m2, there were very expensive and delicate dishes from artisans, and at the end of the service a crew of women arrived, 70 and 80 years old, who washed each dish, dried them and put them back in a careful way.
We have four types of seasons, while there they can count between 12 and 24 micro-seasons – Fabiola tells us.
I was fascinated with the colors, the shapes and the way the dishes were combined with each dish. All that knowledge is what I have brought here, and being a Japanese chef also makes it easier for me to make the selection of dishes. I know that the tableware is perfect to use, and not only in Japanese cuisine, in any of them.
You have moved from the kitchen to the design of spaces through tableware. What role do you think good tableware plays in the gastronomic and sensory experience of a table?
The tableware plays a role as important as the food itself because it is the setting for the product. In Japan, the tableware is part of the dish, for example, in kaiseki cuisine they combine textures and colors with the type of cooking, etc., as well as the adaptation of the seasons with seasonal products.
Japanese art is reflected in the colors and symbols of the store. Editorial credit: Valentina Lecuona.
We have four types of seasons, whereas there they can count between 12 and 24 micro-seasons, taking into account the duration of the products. For example, the tear pea harvest is at a specific time in Catalonia, and that time, however short it may be, is already a micro season for them. So they create a specific plan to honor the product through the tableware that accompanies it.
You have contacted the artisans of Gifu. What was it like to gain the confidence of this traditional guild to bring their work to Barcelona?
Having already had a resume of 15 years working in Japanese gastronomy favors trust with them. They start to feel that you are like a good ambassador, and you will be able to preserve the craftsmanship of more than 13 centuries ago that they respect so much. In my case, I contacted the organizations in charge of organizing trade relations in Japan, and they were the ones who put me in touch with the artisans’ guild and the suppliers.
I gained their trust when they knew that I knew their culture, and that what they were handing me would be treated with care and value. This step is important, because you honor from the first person who took out the clay and turned it into clay to mold it, paint it and bake it, to the last one who holds the ceramic pieces in his hands.
Matcha tea has become very popular, how did you experience this recent boom when you opened the store?
I started this project in January last year when I had my first interview with the artisan guild. At that time I didn’t think about matcha tea bowls, and in the first phase I didn’t place many orders, I only brought back a few pieces. A good matcha tea bowl is a spectacular piece, like a work of art for a ceremony, but months later came the hype.
From left to right: Unkaiha plate and Kuro Sudare sake pitcher. Editorial credit: Valentina Lecuona.
The selling price of the bowls is about 60 €, but the current high demand is raising that amount. Even so, the people who come to look for it do not look at the price because they are going to give it a daily use. Every day they will use the bowl to make their Japanese tea in the traditional way, and that is the only thing they have in mind.
What type of customer is DORO targeting?
Any type of customer is important. They come from hotels and restaurants, and now there are many interior designers interested in this type of ceramics because they are unique and different pieces. Designers can let their imagination fly and create spaces using any ceramic that reflects the Japanese essence.
We are in the Japanese era, in which we all want to have a little piece of Japan at home – Fabiola confesses.
In addition, I believe that we are in the Japanese era. In which we all want to have a little piece of Japan at home, or at least something that brings us closer to its philosophy and culture. That’s why DORO is addressed to people who want to renew the tableware in their homes, as well as to those who are collectors or those who want to reinvent spaces in hotels and restaurants.
Explore, touch, choose and preserve
Each shape and glaze of the pieces has a meaning. How do you help the customer to discover those hidden stories behind each piece?
In the store I have 600 pieces, although the original catalog in Gifu is 1500, there are so many that even I am discovering them little by little. A particular piece can be made in many ways, with specific techniques, and we can say “everything enters through the eyes”. Then you touch it and you fall in love with it or not. In fact, the store is designed to discover and explore, like the Japanese tableware stores. I have customers who have come with a fixed idea of what they were looking for, but it is a very sensory, tactile and auditory experience, and they leave with very different pieces.
Fabiola Lairet with some of the ceramics and Source Akai Sumizu. Editorial credit: Valentina Lecuona.
In terms of how I help the client to choose, in the case of restaurants it is essential to know the use they are going to give to the tableware. For example, if it is high or low rotation, the type of food they serve. If the service is fast and they pile up the dishes, or if it is a smaller place and they want a more exclusive tableware. On a more particular level, on many occasions they seek to complement the dishes they have at home with new pieces such as coffee cups, glasses, bowls, etc.
Many of these tableware products are designed for intensive use in the hotel and catering industry. How do you manage to maintain their resistance without losing their handcrafted aesthetics?
Many of DORO’s tableware can go perfectly well in restaurants because they are made for that purpose and have a lot of resistance. However, we also have more delicate pieces such as those used in kaiseki cooking, lighter dishes for starters, which are made with a different quality of clay.
With this type of tableware it is dangerous to put it in the dishwasher or in the microwave, and they are much more porous pieces. It does not mean that in two days they will spoil, but they do need more care. They have a high quality glaze, and I would say that they age beautifully. At Robata we still keep tableware that is 7 years old, and although you can see the wear in the glaze, they are still intact pieces.
What actions do you take to implement sustainability at DORO?
As I said, at Robata we have dishes that have been in the kitchen for 7 years, for me that is being sustainable. With these types of dishes we avoid ultra-consumption, buying and throwing away, because they are durable. In addition, for shipments and collections we use cardboard wrapped in newspaper that is recycled again, avoiding plastics.
Sample of the newsprint Fabiola saves and reuses. Editorial credit: Magazine Horse.
I like to be consistent and not throw away cartons and papers if they can be reused. For example, I use the wooden boxes that the greengrocer in the street leaves me. The guy leaves me two or three and they are very useful for deliveries in Barcelona or to store the pieces in the back room. In addition, we give a second life to decorative objects, and we have tables, lamps, second-hand shelves scattered around the store.
