His cookbooks can be found in over 20,000 Swiss kitchens - and now co-author Joel Adank has also created the matching plates for his dishes, which he supplies to some of his favorite restaurants.

As a cookbook author and food photographer (including for FOOBY), Joel Adank was constantly on the lookout for "props" to showcase his recipes: Beautiful plates and bowls, wooden boards with patina and kitchen towels with exciting textures. Because he wanted to create the items himself, he enrolled on an intensive pottery course in October 2021. "After all the photo shoots, I had developed a good sense of which colors and shapes show off a dish to its best advantage." Shades of grey, beige and blue proved to be the perfect contrasts to the warm colors of the food.

He didn't want to keep his new tableware just for himself: He set out to find a manufacturer that could mass-produce his designs. He found one in Portugal and was also able to convince two restaurants of his idea, which gave him the start-up funding he needed.

Joel particularly appreciates the exchange with chefs and hoteliers in his work. On the one hand, it gives him ideas for new products, including decorative items for the table such as vases and candlesticks. On the other hand, Joel feels vindicated in his work: "When Andi Bolliger, head chef at Restaurant Rechberg 1837, told me that he was delighted with my pasta plate because it showed off his dishes to their best advantage, that was the best compliment I could have imagined".

In addition to pottery, Joel was also able to familiarize himself with other techniques such as wood-turning. This opens up new possibilities for other products. "I dream of designing everything around the table in addition to beautiful tableware
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Joel calls his workshop and brand "Atelier Agave" - a tribute to the warm places in the world where Joel is always drawn. "My dream would be to furnish an entire house in the south one day". However, the aesthetics of his brand are also influenced by his studies, which Joel spent partly in Copenhagen. The natural, simple aesthetic popular in Scandinavia fits well with Joel's visual and furnishing style.

Our tableware is produced in small batches in selected factories in Portugal. The choice of location is no coincidence: the companies based here have many years of experience and many skilled workers are trained in the region every year. The short distance allows us to follow our production at close quarters and often to be on site ourselves. One of our most important principles is that we know all our producers personally and build long-term, sustainable relationships.

We have intensively studied ceramics and spent a lot of time with our producers in Portugal. Because we find the topic very exciting ourselves, we thought we'd answer some questions that we asked ourselves at the beginning.