olive tree with tapered steel toothpicks by Caroline Sipos from uk

Where would Italian food culture be without the ancient olive groves? An homage to the stately tree, this stainless steel sculpture holds 50 olives. A much larger version, suitable for hotels and restaurants, could hold skewers of olives, prosciutto and mozzarella di bufala campana for a grande aperitivo.

We hosted a modest aperitivo and watched how people engaged with the food and utensils provided. Toothpicks emerged as the essential ingredient that accompanies the constant human interaction which makes aperitivo an active, rather than a passive food ceremony, and lead to the inspiration for this design: picking olives from the tree.