In line with the spirit of the MDW “Be the Project”, interpreted by Iris Ceramica Group through the concept “The Humans Behind”, Quarto Fuoco® project by Fondazione Iris Ceramica Group invites the people it supports to consider themselves a growing and evolving project. Through ceramic materials, shaped by the hands and decorated with fine gestures, everyone has the opportunity to express themselves, learn a trade, become part of a group, working creatively to join the community, enhancing both personal and collective well-being. The individual as one and part of the whole. Art and beauty as a form of care.

A charity project able to engage the world of associations and beyond, demonstrating the high inclusive potential of ceramics. Indeed, ceramics blend art and function, as both a useful tool and an art form at the same time. Just as happens in the kitchen, where art is expressed in the dishes.
This union becomes common ground for a unique collaboration between Quarto Fuoco® and Chef Davide Oldani, in the name of solidarity.
During the Milan Design Week, the ceramic tableware decorated by the participants of the inclusive workshops run by the Quarto Fuoco® associations will be used in the restaurants D’O and Olmo run by Chef Davide Oldani, becoming an integral part of the culinary excellence.
Four different shaped plates for four courses of Chef Oldani’s iconic menu, each with its own story and meaning to tell. On one hand, the identity of the ceramic decorator, each in line with their own potential, and on the other the sensory experience represented by each dish, in which ingredients become a means of expression in the hands of the Chef and his staff. 

In this charity project, “The Humans Behind” are the creative hands that decorate, cook, plate up and serve. Each one helps to tell this story, leaving their own indelible mark.
Just as happens in the kitchen, where every ingredient plays a fundamental role in creating the dish, each one impresses its own perceivable mark – of taste and smell – and just like each member of the ‘brigade de cuisine’, who each with their own work contributes to the end result.
All are equally important, and are all present in the dish served to the diners.

The plates used to serve four iconic dishes from Chef Oldani’s menu were decorated by hand by the young people from the Quarto Fuoco® associations.
And so, for the two “Origami plates”, the decoration of a traditional striped sheet becomes firstly a ceramic airplane and then a rolled-up plate offered to the diners.
And then, a ceramic flower painted with the three colours of saffron welcome the Chef’s iconic riso: purple, the colour of the flower before it is harvested, red, the hand-picked pistil and yellow, the explosion of flavour in the dish. Finally, a small red terracotta candelabra becomes a container for the Chef’s famous “Beeswax”.

No decorated plate is identical to another, and yet they all talk of the same project.
From the ceramics workshop to the kitchen, hands create.
One gesture for shaping, one for cooking. One for decorating and another for plating up.
One gesture creates art and beauty, the other nourishes mind and body.

A gesture of charity that binds Chef Davide Oldani to the Fondazione Iris Ceramica Group Quarto Fuoco® project for the international design appointment in Milan.