The Rhythm of the Meal
Ceramicist Jun Rhee’s new Jollof rice bowl for London’s Michelin-starred restaurant Akoko (image: Jun Rhee).
“In a restaurant, the plates meet your body, your lips, and your hunger,” ceramicist Jun Rhee says, discussing his latest commission to create a Jollof rice bowl for Michelin-starred restaurant Akoko. Uninterested in ceramics being observed behind glass in galleries, Rhee’s handcrafted works are made exclusively for the world of fine dining. “[Ceramics] are meant to be touched, stained, washed, and used again,” he says.
Rhee’s bowl is composed of two interlocking parts. The first, a larger bowl with a smooth, iron-rich red exterior and a pale, bone-coloured interior, cradles the rice. The second, at first glance a lid, shares the same clay and glaze, but diverges in both form and function. Etched with tactile details and topped with a conical handle, it inverts to serve again as a smaller bowl. This act of transformation is not a flourish, but a principle: one object, two purposes, shifting in step with the meal.
All of Rhee’s pieces are made by hand using British clays (image: Jun Rhee).
The brief from Akoko was exacting: the bowl had to trap smoke, retain heat, and respond intuitively to the needs of the dish. “It had to fit the rhythm of the meal,” Rhee explains. Meeting that rhythm required not a single solution, but more than 140 prototypes, each one thrown, fired, tested, and revised by hand. For Rhee, this process wasn’t a compromise. It was an invitation.
The bowl is a manifestation of Rhee’s broader design philosophy, one which values tactility, repetition, and endurance. Born and trained in Korea and currently operating out of Kiln, a ceramics workshop and café in Newcastle, Rhee’s entirely handmade pieces stand apart from many other suppliers working with Continental Chef Supplies, a platform that supplies plates to high-end kitchens. In an industry defined by precision, Rhee’s work stands not in opposition to consistency, but offers a different understanding of it.“Many British potters pursue creativity and personal happiness,” he says. “Korean potters pursue practicality and technique.” Each piece bears the imprint of a trained hand. No two are exactly alike, nor should they be.
A patterned plate and butter dish Rhee made for Akoko (image: Jun Rhee).
The Akoko jollof rice bowl is more than a functional vessel; it is a testament to Rhee’s pursuit of craft rooted in place and tradition. Made from deep red British stoneware, the bowl embodies Rhee’s refusal to import materials, insisting instead that “craft means localism”. Though he was trained in Korea, Rhee moved to the UK and committed to marrying his techniques with the distinct qualities of British clay – but the transition was far from easy. “The red stoneware from the UK responded differently in my hands. My muscles didn’t recognise it,” he recalls, capturing the physical and intuitive challenge of adapting to a new clay. Every detail of the bowl is a record of this dialogue between what Rhee knows and where he lives, embedded into its material, curve, glaze, and subtle imperfections.
The original Jollof rice bowl Rhee made for Akoko in 2020 (image: Jun Rhee).
“The dish exists for a moment, and then it’s gone,” Rhee says, describing the fleeting nature of fine dining, where the meal is swiftly devoured and the plates and bowls are cleared away to be washed and reused again. Nevertheless, he believes that the customers who use his pieces connect with him even if they don’t realise it. “I think they get a piece of my spirit,” he says. “We are connected.”
Words Robert Fawley