With years of experience in the business, Valda Goodfellow makes her predictions for what will make an impact in the new year. Think colour, considered details and maybe even a move away from stoneware for casual dining chefs…
Cole Porter knew a thing or two about the fickle finger of fashion, when he wrote;
“The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today,
And black’s white today,
And day’s night today…”
I won’t go on with the entire lyrics but way back then, you could say that it was just the same as it is now; anything goes!
Or at least anything, that is, that looks right for the moment and at the start of a new calendar in our crazy plate world, it’s our job to guess what is right for this moment and this new year.
The only real proof of whether we get it right or not is sales. People will buy it if they think it’s right, if they like it, and if they can afford it (and will sometimes buy even if they can’t afford it). Capturing the zeitgeist before it evanesces from the collective gaze can be tricky, but isn’t it fun?
I love the prospect of another clean page on which to scribble the plan for this year’s collections. If not in specific form, then at least in trend form. So, if you’d like to know more about my predictions for 2024, then read on dear reader, read on.
Valda says…
“It is not quite a thing yet, but remember you read it here first – casual dining chefs are starting to explore alternatives to their favourite stoneware staples, as porcelain manufacturers become ever more adept at mimicking the stoneware look.”
Firstly, forget the doom and gloom that we seem to be globally immersed in. We are part of the hospitality industry and if you ain’t ready to party, then forget it. All bets were on 2023 for being a really bad year for consumer spend, yet who tore up the rule book? Taylor Swift, that’s who. What a performer, businesswoman and talent she is. Tay Tay can even change the economy!
The point is, she created something exciting, exclusive, and enjoyable. All the ingredients you need in hospitality. After all, people go out to enjoy themselves, so the first thing is: make it feel special. To do that with tableware means thinking hard about elements of surprise that really work together with the food, the surroundings, and the service. Taylor would never go on stage saying, ‘I’ll just wear this old thing’.
Really think about how you want your diners to feel about the effort you have put into the details. I am not saying anything that’s bling goes, because it doesn’t. It must work with all the other elements, not just be put on a table when it has no relevance to anything else.
A good way of achieving the ‘wow’ effect is to introduce it at a point in the meal where it will stand alone, or at least not have to fight with a lot of other items on the table at the same time. Think how you could reimagine a popular dessert served in a fun way; or serving seafood out of a glass octopus dish!
My second divination for 2024’s trends is… colour. We do this every year: we take a guess at what will be the nation’s favourite colour palette, whether it is for fashion, home interiors or tableware. Well, my guess this year will be not one colour but an expression of freshness. Whether it is crisp white mixed with vibrant green, or tonal greens; green will be this year’s colour. Always a great choice for serving food, but this year it gets interesting as we’re also putting green where you would never expect it, like on an afternoon tea stand! What a difference this makes. A normal stand becomes part of the show, not just the supporting act. In fact, you can have whatever colour you like but this green is particularly fresh and fun, yet not gimmicky.
Of course, it would be remiss of me not to offer green tableware as well, and this beautiful Narumi’s Queen’s Garden range of bone china, suits the afternoon tea stand theme impeccably.
The delicacy of the tone and the straight-sided design is an updated twist on the classical afternoon tea service.
Green isn’t just for afternoon tea; it is a great colour to use for food plates. From soft and subtle muted greens to highly coloured and vibrant greens, there is a green out there to suit everyone’s cuisine. My favourite is the Pax plate from Figgjo. The colour is a more subtle green which would suit casual dining equally as well as it does for finer dishes.
My final prediction for the tableware trends of 2024, is that fine dining tableware will continue to move further away from casual dining looks. This really took root last year with the emergence of elegant white tableware as the primary choice, and we will see this trend continue with Michelin star chefs aiming to achieve a look of exclusivity, refinement, and the highest quality. It is the ‘quiet luxury’ look for the table. It is far from boring and captures enough interest in terms of texture or form to properly frame the chef’s masterpiece. One of the best examples of this is the Evolution Plate from Hering Berlin.
And so, to round off my soothsaying for 2024 – it is not quite a thing yet, but remember you read it here first – casual dining chefs are starting to explore alternatives to their favourite stoneware staples, as porcelain manufacturers become ever more adept at mimicking the stoneware look. Who knows, maybe they too will start looking to differentiate by adopting a whiter, cleaner style. I wouldn’t be at all surprised, as we are already seeing a huge surge in popularity of Serax’s Inku range as a go-to-choice for casual dining.
I have a feeling that white plates will be the trend for a very long time. As my friend Taylor says, ‘cause we never go out of style’!
