LA CORNUE X KONGO
“I pushed my skills to the limit,” says Cyril Phan, a Parisian street artist better known as Kongo, of his collaboration with French luxury brand La Cornue. “I had to imagine my art in three-dimensional space and master fire.”
Of the six Chateau 150 model ovens he created in honor of La Cornue‘s 110th anniversary, only one found its way to the U.S. Inside the Middleby Residential showroom at theMart in Chicago, guarded by red velvet rope and coated in black-and-white graffiti, it awaits claim by its rightful owner.
Jaime Laurita, creative director of Middleby Residential, says people slow down in front of the showroom and peek inside. “It has a magical energy,” says Laurita. An accomplished chef, Laurita has offered to cook the first meal on the status symbol for its buyer.
But the French cooker will cost you: The Kongo-designed model in Paris sold for a cool $300,000. “The owner is out there,” Laurita says. “It belongs to somebody who can appreciate it.”
