Practical, Beautiful, Sustainable: It’s the Moscardino Spoon-Fork!
Who is innovative enough to think up the Moscardino (or something called the Spork), a disposable spoon-fork made of foodstuffs which won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro ADI design award and is now part of the permanent collection at the MOMA in New York City? Only an Italian designer who avoids wearing suits and ties and comes up with his best designs while driving his car and listening to classical music, Giulio Iacchetti, along with his collaborator Matteo Ragni.
Moscardino means “little squid” in Italian and in this case it may refer to both the texture and shape of the object having one curved side and one side made of three short prongs. It was originally designed with the children’s market in mind and has since become a popular item for everyone from party and event organizers to campers and restaurant owners.
Though Iacchetti and Ragni were not the first to come up with the idea of merging a fork and spoon into a single utensil, they were the first to devise such an aesthetically pleasing and functional object made of an environmentally friendly starch-based “bioplastic” derived from corn, grain and potatoes. The beauty of their creation is multifaceted: the designers have taken something disposable and made it environmentally friendly to prevent adding more waste to landfills, they have used vegetables and grains to make something with which to eat your vegetables and grains, and they have made something so aesthetically pleasing that you want to put it in your hand immediately, which is exactly where it should be.
The original Moscardino can be seen at the MOMA and a set of replicas can be purchased at the MOMA store in New York, though they sometimes sell out. The manufacturer of the Moscardino is Italian company Pandora Design, which makes all sorts of wonderfully unique design objects for the “temporary table” – principally disposable utensils. To see the Moscardino and their other sustainable objects, including baroque looking plastic utensils capped with deep red skulls or icy green patterns, you can visit their online catalog.