Mantelet’s
original design
for the Household
Drying Machine.F
rench serial inventor Jean Mantelet
(pictured) lived and breathed
kitchen gadgets. For his own
company Moulinex, he developed
devices for mashing, grating, grinding,
chopping and slicing. In 1971, he
added spinning to the list. As French
households embraced salads, he devised
a fresh twist on their preparation, the
salad dryer (later dubbed the salad
spinner). Water, he reasoned, was the
enemy of leaves, making them go limp
and preventing oil-based dressings from
sticking to them. Using centrifugal force,
his device spun rinsed greens in a
colander so the water flew out the sides,
collected in an outer plastic bowl and fell
into the base. (He wasn’t strictly the
first to use that principle. In the 19th
century, zealous salad eaters in Sweden
reportedly twirled baskets of greens
around their heads to dry them.)
Ooh, la, la, said cooks around France- no more wasted paper towels or jiggling
a colander and hoping for the best. Soon
after, compatriot Gilberte Fouineteau
came up with his own spin: he dispensed
with Mantelet’s central column, which
then allowed the user to remove the
basket, as in the version we know today.
Meanwhile, in 1973, Mantelet
launched his Household Drying
Machine in the US, but its reception
was decidedly limp and critics consigned
it to back-of-the-cupboard status. By
the late ’70s, however, as the trend for
healthy eating gathered momentum,
Mantelet’s marvel found its way back
to the benchtop.
SALAD SPINNERS
Recently, Swiss kitchenware brand
Zyliss has arguably made the spinner its
own. In 2004, it patented a system where
the pull-string operation included a brake.
The resulting Easy Spin was awarded
a Red Dot design award in 2004. And,
in 2007, while Chef’n pre-empted it in
introducing a lever to turn the basket,
Zyliss incorporated the system on the
Smart Touch the following year and
won another Red Dot for its efforts.
In 2014, Zyliss upped the ante with
its AquaVent system. “Our design team
came up with the idea of increasing the
surface area of the basket to increase
draining efficiency,” says Grant Race
director of marketing, DKB Household
UK (aka Zyliss HQ). But there’s more.
The AquaVent system’s wavy basket
and top and bottom vents alsoimprove
drainage and airflow. In 2016, it scored
Zyliss another coveted Red Dot.WHAT IT MEANS TO US
Australians love their salads and their
spinners. Since Zyliss launched its
version here in 1978, this market has
grown for them to become second only
to the US – and that’s not per capita, but
in total units sold. “Zyliss has in excess
of 50 per cent of the Australian market,”
says Michael Anstee, marketing manager,
lifestyle & household, DKSH Australia,
although he’s keeping the lid on actual
numbers (“It is difficult to quantify
exactly as there are a number
of brand-less products on the market.”).
And prepackaged leaves pose little
threat, adds Race. “We have not seen
a drop in demand. Bagged salad is
perhaps one of the highest waste items
in terms of packaging, and a lot of
customers still wash their prewashed
bagged produce in a spinner. Try it and
you will be surprised by the results.”
Our advice? Give it a whirl. #
Zyliss; http://www.cg.dksh.com.au.Design moment
1971
Saddened by the sight of limp,
soggy salad, a French inventor
devised a device that sent cooks
into a spin, writesChris Pearson.2016
AquaVent
technology has
made Zyliss’ Swift
Dry salad spinner
a multi-award
winner.2004
Zyliss’ pull-string
operated Easy
Spin device, now
with brake.Photography from Getty Images (portrait), Alamy (vegetable masher), Zyliss.Mantelet’s rotary
vegetable masher,
precursor to the
Drying Machine.1932
Fouineteau’s
tweak of
Mantelet’s
machineproved
the design
for the times.1973
HGINSIDER
64 | AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN