A good sturdy kitchen towel comes in handy for all those inevitable messes, but the better it cleans the better it stains. All those bright cotton towels on display become too precious to taint, especially when disposable paper towels are readily available.
What if there was a towel that camouflaged the stain? Or better yet, celebrated the stain with a mixture of beauty and chaos? A towel that mimics the sloppy counter, spattered range and the smeared plate.
Cooking, like life is a messy venture. Why hide the imperfections when you can revel in unavoidable disaster?
Over 20 meals were created in the research of this project, from appetizers to mains to sides and desserts. For each dish, one white towel was used to clean up every smudge and spill. Cluttered cutting boards, saucy pots, and bowl residues were wiped away, leaving unique colorful patterns splayed across the blank canvas.
Five dishes/towels were selected for further exploration. Utilizing the actual stains on the towels, a stylized topography emerged from the random splotches, imitating the stains one might encounter in real life. Each towel depicts the ingredients used to create the dish and the ensuing mess, all in a 3 color print. Superimposed together, the before and after images relate a story that is rarely seen on a finished plate, a story told in chefs knives and rolling pins, blenders and dutch ovens, resounding with the love and life of a well used kitchen.