In tiny Capraia, part of the Tuscan Archipelago, the streets don’t bustle; they hum quietly with the sound of footsteps. The island, which sits just over 30 miles off the Tuscan coast, comprises two settlements: Il Porto by the sea and Il Paese, the historic village. Largely uninhabited, Capraia is teeming with flora and fauna, an oasis for nature lovers. A quick stroll through its scenic trails reveals why it’s called the “wild island.”
Home to exquisite seafood, Capraia’s famous Squid Festival — the Sagra del Totano — has been running every autumn since 2000, transforming the whole island into an open-air restaurant. But the island’s calamari clout extends even further: Capraia is the birthplace of the world’s first squid-shaped juicer. The product, known as the Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer, is a cult icon in the design world, earning a spot in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Calamari at Il Corsaro: a recipe for creativity
Like so many great inventions, the Juicy Salif was born by accident. In 1988, French designer Philippe Starck had been assigned to devise a tray for Italian design house Alessi. While on vacation in Capraia, he sat down to eat calamari — known as totani locally — at the pizzeria Il Corsaro. As he dressed his plate with lemon juice, eyeing the combination of ingredients, something clicked for Starck: A lemon squeezer shaped like a squid would be both logical and charming. Why not? The designer was suddenly inspired.
While waiting for his second course to be served, Starck drafted several concepts on the paper placemat in front of him. Some resembled long-legged spiders, while others took the shape of upside-down disco balls.
The thought behind Starck’s structure went like this: The user would place the citrus on the tip of the juicer, and a glass under it to catch extracted juice. She’d apply pressure while rotating the fruit as if cracking open a jar. At this point, juice should be trickling down the ribbed surface, the three “legs” serving as stable bases.
Starck mailed his greasy, scribbled-on placemat to Alessi, who immediately recognized the potential in the idea. Two years later, Alessi began official production of the Juicy Salif.
The only flaw? As a functional juicer, it completely failed. Without a filter for seeds or a container for collecting excess juice, the product resulted in messy countertops and frustrated customers (that is, for those who actually used it to juice lemons). On top of that, its long, spindly legs barely supported the top-heavy product. And so began the negative reviews from serious fruit squeezers and home cooks: “All form, no function” was the most common accusation.
The rise of the aluminum squid
Despite its lack of utility — or perhaps because of it — the Juicy Salif eventually gained unmatched success. Its market performance skyrocketed, with sales surpassing 500,000 by 2003. In Italy alone, an estimated 200,000 home kitchens have Juicy Salifs, according to Alessi representatives. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 72% of sales came from the design-minded north, where the Alessi brand was established. (Company headquarters are not in Milan, as might be expected, but in the small industrial town of Omegna, in Piedmont.)
Within two decades, the Juicy Salif landed spots in museums around the world, from New York’s MoMA to Milan’s Triennale. It appeared in famous TV series and films. Thousands decorated their homes with aluminum squids. The Juicy Salif was no longer reserved for design gurus or champions of contemporary art, but became a status symbol of sorts, accessible for everyday lemon lovers and collectors of kitschy knick-knacks.
On the product’s tenth anniversary, in 2000, Alessi released 10,000 limited-edition, gold-plated juice squeezers into the world. Amusingly, a disclaimer from the brand warned users not to use it as a juicer, as the acidic fluid could damage the gold-plating. (This ethos of prettiness over practicality still carries weight for some in the Italian design world; in summer 2023, Missoni Mare’s dry-clean-only swimwear springs to mind.)
By 2015, the Juicy Salif had turned 25 — and boy, did it age gracefully. The design house issued two exclusive (and equally non-functional) versions to celebrate, including the six-foot-tall Juicy Salif XXL.
A “social lubricant”
How did an arguably useless 29-centimeter juicer become such a globally sought-after artifact? Well, maybe it’s not about function at all. Maybe there is more to design than function. Form follows function, design experts insisted. Watch me prove you wrong, Starck retorted.
To many in the design world, Alessi’s amusing juicer stands as a symbol of originality. The Juicy Salif challenges hard-and-fast design principles and axioms that, while attempting to develop expertise in the name of meeting users’ needs, discourage creativity and risk-taking. It is strangely empowering, challenging the user to question the adages and measurements by which they design their lives.
But more than that, Starck — who’s still actively designing today, at 74 — continues to insist that “joy is a function.” With the Juicy Salif, sparking conversation comes first, squeezing lemons comes second. Items like it have a way of breaking — no, destroying — the ice.
Starck famously illustrated this with the following anecdote: A newlywed couple invites the groom’s parents over. The young man and his father retreat to the living room to watch TV, leaving the bride and her new mother-in-law alone in the kitchen. Whatever shall they talk about? Oh, just that weird squid-shaped lemon squeezer someone gifted them. Phew. Beautiful and bewildering, seductive and amusing, the Juicy Salif may be functional after all.
Get Francine Segan’s calamari recipe, inspired by the Juicy Salif’s origin story, here.
