Enrico Products’ Salad Bowl, Servers Make Oprah’s List

The holiday season is here and along with it the announcement of Oprah’s Favorite Things for the 2013 holiday season, including Enrico’s Spiral Salad Bowl and Servers in tangerine orange from its Casual Dining Collection. The products are featured in the December issue of O Magazine, along with other items selected by Oprah Winfrey and her staff.

“The reclaimed mango production process is a flexible one, which is part of the beauty,” said Dave Hoots, one of three partners in Enrico Products. “We start with an idea, loose sketches, then tighter drawings, and then we work directly with our overseas partners – the carvers and finishers – and work through the samples until we find the look, the feel, the rhythm we are after in a collection. 

“This isn’t close-tolerance machining, so no two pieces are exactly alike,” he explained, “but they form a cohesive group. It’s about experimentation, artisanship and collaboration.”

The deeply carved spiral bowls, salad servers and the accompanying platter have colorful, sculptural visual impact and tactile appeal. The products are available in five colors on mango wood and in natural acacia, carved from the native Thai acacia trees. 

Enrico Products was founded in 2005 by partners Jim Ratti, Chad Richardson and Hoots in Seattle. The first product was the Enrico grater, based on an original design by Enrico Ratti, Jim Ratti’s grandfather. The grater is still one of Enrico Products’ top-selling products. During the early cheese-grater development, the Enrico team encountered the reclaimed fir material that would become their popular RootWorks Collection; this discovery set the tone for the materials and sourcing practices all of their collections now follow, which Enrico has coined “eco-intelligent.”