New York Times
Spice Containers
Joe Fletcher for The New York Times
FLAVORFUL The chef Mourad Lahlou tests out the Bottle grinder set by Menu at Zinc Details in San Francisco; about $60, (415) 776-2100, zincdetails.com.
By RIMA SUQI
MOURAD LAHLOU knows a thing or two about spices. Mr. Lahlou, a 44-year-old chef who grew up in Marrakesh, Morocco, has a restaurant called Aziza, in San Francisco, that earned its first Michelin star in 2010 and has maintained it ever since. Last year he published “Mourad: New Moroccan,” his first cookbook, and early next year Williams-Sonoma plans to introduce a line of spices bearing his name.
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When it comes to storing those spices, Mr. Lahlou prefers to put them “in carton canisters lined with a tin film to keep ground spices from staining the carton.” Amateur chefs could try a version of this at home, he suggested, by putting spices in a poly bag, sealing them and putting them in a shoe box. “This works because no light gets in, and the box won’t get hot,” he said.
As storage goes, this is “cheap and effective,” Mr. Lahlou said, but he acknowledged that it might not be ideal for anyone concerned about aesthetics.
His hunt for better-looking containers that offer appropriately cool, dark storage began at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito, Calif. Mr. Lahlou has used the company’s products in his restaurants for more than a decade, and he found several viable options there, including the Container Set with cork tops.
“The use of cork as a lid is great,” he said. “It allows the spice to breathe but also makes these easy to open. This is the kind of thing you’d want for spices you use quite a bit.”
At Zinc Details in San Francisco, he tested the Bottle Grinders by Menu, made to store and grind a variety of spices. “These are not your grandma’s containers,” he said. “They look cool and classy and modern, and have a sexy shape.”
Online, he liked the “very functional” stackable containers by Culinarium. “They come across as very new and modern,” he said. “But there is an old-style handcrafted feel to them.”
Browsing on Etsy, he found a vintage spice-jar set by LaGardo Tackett at the House of Séance shop. “I absolutely love that they come in that box, and that they put the names of spices on the jars,” he said. “How cool is that?”
The Henry Watson jars, on the Web site of the Fante shop, were another favorite. “They’re cute and very countryside, but not sexy countryside,” he said. “It’s the Hamptons version.”
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