Compiled by Janet Hamilton
The Boston Globe (Dec 2000) had an article about the arts and pictured was a crane folded out of a restaurant check.
The New York Times (4/108/2001) in their food section had an article about madeleines, with pictures showing how to fold a napkin to hold these small cakes. The napkin fold is crown-shaped.
A New York Times article on April 17, 2002 was titled “Hand Over Your Folding Money and Watch It Live Up to Its Name”. “Alfred Rios puts on his glasses, examines a dollar bill and begins an intricate process of folding and unfolding. In a few minutes he hands you a tiny camel, an elephant or a perfectly folded shirt. Mr. Rios, a waiter at the Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown for 36 years, said he learned origami in his native Ecuador . Now the restaurant's offices are filled with his work, and perhaps, if he is your waiter at a late lunch in the Pool Room and he is not too busy, he will make a rabbit or a heart for you, too.” Accompanying this short article is a picture of Mr. Rios along with a dollar bill heart and a Montroll rabbit.
Spotted in several magazines - National Geographic
Traveler, Food & Wine, Gourmet, ESPN, and others - were highly artistic ads
featuring animals such as butterflies, an eagle, a frog, and an elephant. All
were depicted in three-dimensional origami that appeared to be folded from Stolichnaya
vodka labels. The origami animals are showcased in a variety of natural,
outdoor settings, devoid of any bottle shots. Featuring several specially
commissioned origami pieces created by Joseph Wu, "the animals pop
out of the background the same way the Stolichnaya brand distinguishes itself in
a crowded category.” http://www.origami.as/gallery.php?gallery=3
Jane Rosemarin reported working with a major international advertising agency on a campaign showing bank cash cards folded into things that they could be used to buy. The ads appeared on billboards and buses. Models included a Chinese-food take-out box, a shirt, and a sailboat. (April 2001).
In Restaurants and Institutions, Sept. 1, 1998, page 156, there is a black and white advertisement for Ambassador (a table linen company) showing a napkin folded into an origami shape and sitting on top of expensive china.
In April 2001 Burger King fast food restaurants were giving out kids activity books which included diagrams, directions and colored paper to make an easy origami dragon.
In January 2004 Burger King had the teenage mutant ninja turtles series of toys in the kids meals. Also inside was an activity book, and one of the activities was titled Ori-What-mi. It had a square printed with a shell pattern that could be cut out, and instructions for folding a simple turtle.
A McDonalds commercial asked "what can you do with two bucks?" Michael La Fosse provided models of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, a biplane, the space shuttle, an aardvark, a two-headed lama (push-me-pull-you), and a McDonald's restaurant with sign. All of the items were compound origami and made from real dollar bills. The production company gave Michael only four days to design and fold the models!
McDonalds Restaurants in Australia were promoting prawn cutlets using paper tray printed with an origami lesson. The sheet says "PRAWNS with sweet chilly sauce! MAKE YOUR OWN THE ORIGAMI WAY." The graphic is just a big red square on the left hand side with a dotted line to tear along and the right hand side has instructions for folding a simple prawn in eight steps. At the end of the diagrams it says "Now that you're thinking of prawns, why not try McDonald's new succulent crumbed Prawns...."
Advertisements for Harvey's, a Canadian fast-food chain, bragged that no one could get as much filling into a sandwich as Harvey's - and they showed several humorous attempts to do so. In one case, the flat bread had been 'folded' into a flapping bird shaped container, with the filling heaped up in the body pocket. The head, tail, and wings appeared to be single layers of bread, assembled into a bird shape.
Krystal Restaurants has a commercial where a hamburger box takes on the shape of two origami models.
Chili's restaurants had a TV commercial spotted on 8/8/2001 that featured origami. Red and green chili peppers were shown that looked to be made in a style similar to Vincent Floderer's crumpled mushrooms.
Christopher Holt reported working as a chef and folding large tortillas into cranes. He used a mesh form to hold the cranes while they were fried, then punched in the top of the model and put in beans, guacamole, lettuce, and finely diced tomatoes to make an attractive tortilla salad.
In the Fall 1997 issue of Art Culinaire - an international restaurant industry magazine, one of the featured chefs used an origami parchment paper box folded by Vicky Mihara Avery to contain and present his creation. The model was Giovanni Maltagliatti's one piece box from Paulo Mulatinho's book "Origami - 30 Fold-by-Fold projects."
Featured in an episode of "Reading Rainbow" in
December 2001 was a book called "The Paper Crane", by Molly
Bang. A restaurant owner and his son lose business when a new highway bypasses
their street. When a poor man comes in one evening, he is gladly served a fine
meal. Before leaving, he gives his hosts a paper crane which turns into a
living, dancing bird when they clap their hands. The dancing crane brings crowds
to the restaurant and prosperity to the kind owners as well as a joyful surprise
to readers at the story's end. (ISBN 0688073336)
The Capitol Tokyu Hotel in downtown Tokyo, Japan, has a restaurant/coffee house called “Origami”: Open
6am-midnight, “From breakfast through lunch to dinner - not to forget snacks and cocktails
- a wide-ranging menu served by courteous and friendly waiters.” http://capitoltokyu.com/english/index.html
The New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles has a Japanese restaurant called Senbazuru (A Thousand Cranes). http://www.newotani.com/
and http://www.newotani.com/restaurantsenbazuru.htm
Japanese restaurants in Minneapolis and Minnetonka, Minnesota
called “Origami Restaurant” serves Sushi, traditional Japanese
cuisine, and some American favorites. http://www.origamirestaurant.com/
This US Government Report “FAS Daily Attache Report Digest” (8/13/2003) makes mention of Origami and Tomoko Fuse in the section entitled: Food Processing/New Products/Market Trends:
The Origami Research Task Force, made up of Japanese scientists and engineers have launched plans to promote industrial applications for Origami, a traditional Japanese craft in which square pieces of paper are folded into various shapes. Applications already exist for canned beverage products. In another example, using a method created by origami artist, Tomoko Fuse, a cup noodle container can be made with no glue and only one sheet of paper. (g 7/27) http://www.fas.usda.gov/scripts/gd.asp?ID=145985757
In the 10/7/2004 New York Times food section there was an article called "The Dining May Be Sit-Down, but the Ads Are Take-Out" by Florence Fabricant. Now that smoking is banned in New York City restaurants no longer give away matchbooks as take-home ads. One Japanese restaurant gives toothpicks dressed as hina dolls: "Doll-like origami figures in beautiful Japanese paper kimonos hold toothpicks at Megu, 62 Thomas Street (West Broadway). Hiro Nishida, the executive vice president of the corporation that owns the restaurant, has his mother make them in Japan." The printed article includes a photo, but the Web version does not. They are beautiful; I hope no one takes them apart to get at the toothpick. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/dining/06LITT.html
The last page of the Nov/Dec 2005 issue of CHOW food magazine gives directions for folding a foil swan for re-eating/serving leftovers. The directions are from the Reynolds Wrap website http://www.alcoa.com/reynoldsfoodpackaging/en/about/swan.asp
At the tail end of the first episode of Bravo network's new elimination reality show "Top Chef" there is a teaser of scenes from upcoming episodes. One of those is a quick shot of a plate of food garnished with two origami cranes.
The May 2006 issue of Gourmet magazine carried an article by Shelley Wiseman called "A Package Deal". The description states, "Wrap fish in paper; immerse package in water; toss onto coals. Yes, we're serious." Photos of the folding method are in the "Kitchen Notebook" at the back of the magazine.
A
restaurant called SushiKoo has an origami fish as part of its logo. http://www.sushikoo.com.au/
June 17 and 18, 2006 - the Aspen Food and Wine Festival had a booth where part of the decorations were 750 traditional origami lilies folded by deenbob@ecentral.com. The booth was for Choxie - Target's new gourmet candy, and were folded from printed paper using the same designs as the chocolate wrappers.
The new cruise ship Carnival Liberty has an eatery called "Origami Bar" serving sushi.
July
22, 2006 at the Black-Ships festival in Newport, RI, there was a man making
"Origami Sugar Cranes". They were not actually folded, but the
pre-shaped pieces were stuck together by heating them until the sugar melted
slightly. For a video of the process taken by Gilad Aharoni, see here http://www.giladorigami.com/Articles_Sugarworks.html You
can buy these online made of sugar or clear acrylic at http://www.sugarworksllc.com/ .
Sugarworks, LLC has a new product that is a wedding cake topper - made of
acrylic customized in colors for the bride and groom. The website states, "Cranes
are believed to be the symbol of Honor & Royalty
because they mate for life and they are extremely loyal & faithful to
each other. ...They are placed in an angled position so that their head &
wing tips (representing mind & body) are touched together for
eternity."
In
the July 31, 2006 issue, page 32 of BusinessWeek, talks about Origami Foods, a
company that is experimenting with edible vegetable and fruit films, for
wrapping sushi and other foods to add appealing color and a variety of tastes. http://www.origami-foods.com/.
Spotted
August 2006, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories website has instructions on folding "crane
croutons" using wonton wrappers., and then deep-frying them. http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/EdibleOrigami
Origami Sushi Bar Japanese Restaurant, Wells, Maine. http://www.origamisushibar.net/
Origami Japanese Restaurant, Key West, Florida.
Origami Express restaurant, Austin, TX.
Origami Japanese Cuisine, Round Rock, TX.
Origami, a Japanese restaurant at Hotel Nikko Jakarta.
September 6, 2006 in The Oregonian, "Peeling away the secrets of color and flavor" By Brendan Borrell. "The color of a young red wine comes from anthocyanins, a category of plant pigments that makes roses red and cornflowers blue. For these pigments, the transition from red to blue can be instantaneous: like that final tug that turns a folded sheet of paper into an origami swan."
Disk 4 of the free "Art attack" CD ROMs on Kellogg's Breakfast Cereal packages is called "Building stuff" and includes "master origami". http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/artattack/
The Prime Grill in Beverly Hills has a ceiling described as having an origami pattern.
Origami Restaurant, Santa Clarita, CA.
January 31, 2007 in the Meadville (PA) Tribune: "Woman decorates restaurant with hundreds of origami figures" by Kristen Boyles
March 2007 - Japanese Bento Boxes have become a new food trend in Mumbai, India. One restaurant promoting the Bento Box is called Origami.
July 2007 - Whiskas cat food ads feature origami animals representing the
different product flavors.
ORIGAMI Seabass is an adaptation of Teochew-style steamed fish baked in an origami box made of parchment. The dish was created by Singaporean chef Chris Yeo, who is opening a new restaurant with US Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artiste and actor Ludacris. Called Straits Atlanta, the US$2.7million restaurant is slated to open in April, in the rapper's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
May 2008 - The GET-IT Finger Guard is a potholder that looks like a fortune
teller (cootie catcher or salt cellar). It is produced by iSi North America. http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/video/video-isi-fortune-teller-getit-finger-guardinternational-home-and-housewares-show-2008-046811
June 2008 - Origami Bistro & Bar in Los Angeles at 257 S. Spring Street #101, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Owner Brian Lee proudly explains that his kitchen will serve many familiar Japanese favorites such as udon and gyoza alongside specialty dishes like Kobe beef skewers, Origami buffalo wings and Euro-Asian tapas.
June 2008 - "What a Good Idea" by Stephanie Cook Broadhurst in the
Christian Science Montior. Using her knowledge of origami, Sarah O'Brien
designed a fruit bowl with compartments for each piece of fruit that would
minimize bruising and diminish the transfer of ethylene gas to other fruit. She
named it "Elizabowl" because it resembles the ruffled collars worn
during the Elizabethan era. http://www.csmonitor.com:80/2008/0701/p17s01-hfks.html
Origami sushi restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida.
The Origami Spoon designed by Michael Sholk from Prague,
Czech Republic. Bent from one piece of thin material (paper,
plastic, silver foil). http://www.sholk.com/laboratorium/15.html
http://www.sholk.com/pd_01.html
February 2009 - McDonald's has two Origami Chickens pictured on their chicken sandwiches cardboard boxes.
March 2009 - The PBS World show "Pennsylvania Diners and other roadside Restaurants" included a waiter in State College showing two dollar bill jumping frogs and demonstrating how one of them jumped.
April 2009 - A review of the The Plough And Harrow Hotel on Sunday
Mercury.net, Lorne Jackson states, "Because, apart from my youthful and
vigorous party of diners, the Plough’s patrons were all very elderly.
How elderly?
Well, there were more creases, folds and wrinkles on show than you’d find at
the Origami Olympics." http://www.sundaymercury.net:80/lifestyle-news/restaurantreviews/2009/04/11/restaurant-review-the-plough-and-harrow-hotel-in-edgbaston-66331-23366223/
There is a restaurant called "Origami Sushi" at 6507 W Waters Ave, Tampa, FL and at 3647 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL.
September 2009 - Reported by Karen Reeds - the box says "25 figured tea
bags"
A recipe for "Origami Sea Bass" along with a video showing how to
fold the parchment paper box for steaming the fish: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/food_wine&id=7121813
The Flying Crane Cafe at 11747 Somerset Ave., Princess Anne, MD is named for both Eastern Shore bird life and owner Neal Carey's love for the art of origami. He courted his wife Angela with origami roses. http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100120/SH01/1200338
February 2010 - Chef David Wong opened Oru in the new Fairmont Pacific Rim in
downtown Vancouver. Joseph Wu created a 180 foot long light sculpture from
folded Nomex for
the restaurant. http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephwuorigami/sets/72157623304294819/
