Barr Cutlery
for Table Noir

The cutlery set is designed in close partnership with Table Noir and executive chef Thorsten Schmidt of Barr to enhance the restaurant experience further. In the fall of 2018, the cutlery set will be sold online and in selected stores, enabling more people to participate in Barr's culinary story.

The launch of the Barr cutlery represents a new focus on product design for Snøhetta, aiming to strengthen further the firm’s transdisciplinary approach to design and architecture.

The bespoke cutlery has a stonewashed surface, giving it an approachable, sturdy feel, adding contrast and novelty to the typical fine dining experience. When treating the material's surface this way, the steel color naturally transitions into a darker gray tone. This contributes to a unique expression, which aligns with Barr's food philosophy, an ideology where every ingredient and its processing is carefully selected to create new and original dining experiences.

According to executive chef and restaurateur Thorsten Schmidt, the new cutlery optimizes Barr's tactile and physical dining experience. Furthermore, Schmidt points out that cutlery is not merely defined by aesthetics or functionality; it enhances the enjoyment of the food and thus elevates the eating experience. When you lift your spoon or fork, the sturdy weight of the cutlery gives you a stronger sensory experience in relation to the food. This has also shown to be correct by a study conducted by Oxford University's Crossmodal Research Laboratory team in 2015. 

The cutlery conveys a nostalgic yet modern expression through recognizable cutouts in the handles. The shapes are carefully aligned, creating harmony between the individual pieces of cutlery so that they form a natural whole, like letters in the same font. The handles are shaped to contribute to a more ergonomic experience and are designed to stack easily into each other and lie steadily in the table setting box.

The Barr Cutlery set won the Red Dot Award in 2019.