It’s easy for one to get breathless listing out Sophia Roe‘s many titles and accomplishments. Writing them down can quickly veer into run-on sentence territory. Spanning food, design, and advocacy, her talents are indeed impressive. The NYC native is a James Beard Award–winning chef; a writer; the founder of Apartment Miso, her Bushwick culinary studio where she develops recipes and cooks client dinners; and the Emmy-nominated TV host of the series Counter Space, which she also produces. Most recently, she was brought on to be the food editor of the new arts and culture journal Family Style. In partnership with Family Style, Roe got to check off yet another career milestone this month: showcasing an installation at Salone del Mobile, Milan’s prestigious annual design fair.
“There’s really nothing more special than feeding people your style of food among other artists and across all mediums,” says Roe of her first-time experience at the event. Roe, in partnership with Family Style and the Amsterdam design studio Drift, set out to show how foods can be “objects of affection.” For her taste experience, Roe focused on her love of breadmaking and braids. Growing up with little to no passed-down traditions of her own, her work has existed as an active pilgrimage to fortify her own sense of family, tradition, and community. Breadmaking, with its laborious preparation and many forms and facets, is where Roe has found a sense of home and belonging.
When coming up with the idea for the installation, Roe knew immediately she wanted to find a way to illustrate her love for braids. “For me, a braid signifies family, unity, and abundance. I knew I wanted the pieces to be free-form, edible, and, of course, delicious,” she says. After Roe saw a digital rendering of the snakelike stainless steel table she would be able to use for her presentation, it became clear that the installation needed to be interactive in some way. From there, Roe’s large-scale editorial installation was born. “The nontraditional style and unconventional look of the finished product is not just an expression of the imagination. [It’s] also a design link to show how even [with] the strangest or most challenging of biological family circumstances—with the presence of community support or social network—a thing of intrigue or deliciousness is not lost but experienced as transcendent,” Roe explains.
The presentation was a full-on labor of love, requiring over 60 batches of dough (imagine the amount of flour needed!), 54 of which were made by Roe herself and the others made by her kitchen assistant Pietro at the location. It was no easy feat. “I was blown away by how engaged and excited people were to watch the process of breadmaking and even more excited to have had no bread left over,” Roe says.
In the end, inviting people inside her creative brain proved to be an utterly fulfilling and rewarding process for Roe. We asked the inspirational multi-hyphenate to document her time in the stylish city of Milan, and she shared her favorite meals, beautiful floral finds, and breadmaking ensemble as well as a peek at the installation coming together via a photo diary.
“A photographer friend of ours, Miriam, took us to this incredible farmers market right outside the city center. I bought the most jammy and sweet plums and the most salty/sweet sun-dried tomatoes ever.”
“I’m a sucker for flowers in general, but every block or so, I was met with some of the most stunning tulips I’d ever seen. Yes, I bought a ton!”
“There’s nothing I love more than an artichoke. They’ve got a short season in NYC. The very first place we ate after landing had some of the most delicious artichokes I’d ever had in my life.”
“We made it a mission to take public transport as much as possible given Milan has so many options.”
“I wore a simple Helmut Lang button-up and a collab apron from my favorite Ghetto Gastro team and Sacai.”
“The table itself was also part of my inspiration. I wanted to make sure my bread felt very much a part of the table.”
“While a still-life food installation exists as a thing of beauty, I cherished the idea of people walking up to these wild and very labor-intensive pieces of bread to admire them and then devour them. I really wanted people to see that I was feeding them.”
“I’ve always wanted to find a large-scale way to illustrate my love for bread symbolically through breads. The shape and symbol have always meant a lot to me.”
“I made rather untraditional loaves of bread, as I wanted to create a feeling of intrigue and curiosity for the attendees I’d be feeding. It was amazing to spend over 100 hours baking and to watch people move from curiosity to hunger to eventually coming back for seconds!”
“This project has been such a labor of love. I’m so honored to have, in conjunction with Family Style, shown a work that honors abundance, tradition, family, and the power of what it means to feed people.”