The RIVSALT product range is designed by Swedish entrepreneur and designer Jens Sandringer. Jens came up with the concept while dining at a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant in Beijing. An experience that sparked the initial product idea, which coincided with the rise of new Scandinavian foodie and design trends.
The original RIVSALT product was launched in Sweden 2012.
This is the story of RIVSALT.
The inspiration
In 2008, I was living and working in Beijing for three months. Soon after I arrived, I found this teppanyaki restaurant that I really liked. It quickly became my favorite restaurant. Great food of course and a master chef who ended every serving with grated Bolivian rock salt using a large Japanese Oroshigane grater.
I thought it was a cool experience and I wanted to buy a product that could match the experience to bring home and put on my dining table. There was just one problem it didn’t exist in the way I was visualizing it. So eventually I started to sketch and design it based on the parts that I saw at the restaurant and the rest is RIVSALT history.
The final product was the result of a large number of prototypes, first in cardboard, then in wood and metal (including a Oroshigane Japanese grater). Already from the start, I wanted to create a centerpiece for the dining room table.
It should be beautiful so that it remained on the table as design object. It should also be simple to use to encourage people to try it. People should see it, be curious, talk about it and – last but not least – be eager to try a new gastronomic experience.
RIVSALT is all about design, communication, and experience. To grate salt over your own food adds to the dining experience and the beautiful design adds to the dining table set up.
I think this makes the product a great communication piece and the dining experience more fun. And then we have the different types of rock salt that go with different dishes, which makes it a really interesting product for foodies. And folks.
