Lucali Outtakes
AT LUCALI
Shiny minced garlic shimmering in a bath of hot oil. A wild ripping fire and the whistle of brick-oven mechanisms. Fresh herbs and wine-rolled dough. This is the buttery trance of Mark Iacono and company, roasting garlic and perfecting pizza at Lucali. This is also the trance that we got to capture specifically for our special edition candle, Aglio.
The origins of our garlic-y invocations begin with our Director of Partnerships, Theo. Through kismet, Theo was seated next to Mark at an event and, as New Yorkers do, they spoke about their jobs. Mild conversation about work allowed Mark to bring up his affection for the smell of sautéed garlic, the essence of it splashing and roasting in a cast iron pan. Several meets-up and stories later with both teams inevitably turned into the permanent collection we have today, a gastronomical exploration: Erbe E Aromi, Al Forno, Caffè Corretto and Aglio.
But back to Aglio! How do you make a garlic candle? How do we get it smelling caramelized and oily? We wanted precision and worked with raw materials to articulate its profile. The throw of garlic is both provocative and comforting. We abandoned the optics of tickling hair-follicle pungency. Less crunch and herbaceous snap; more smooth and warm notes.To borrow a term from Amy Gerstler, we evoked the garlic's "fleshly relevance." As the candle burns, the wax takes on the familiar goldish tones of roasted perfection.
We also wanted fun. With many visits to Lucali (research purposes!) and sharing stories with Mark of favorite scented memories (his grandfather's spiked espresso, fresh basil sprinkled over Lucali's thin-crust pizza), we captured a range that delivers on Mark's culinary obsessions as well as his very personal Italian-American heritage, seen through Joya's unique lens: subtly sweet, sophisticated, original and direct evocations of recalled emotions and moments in time.
