When Chef Michael Poiarkoff reached out to us because he had noticed our work in Hudson, NY, we were gladly surprised and humbled, but when he told us he was looking for someone to create custom dinnerware for his kitchen at the Maker Hotel in Hudson, we were ecstatic.
He was working on two new dishes and wanted to enhance the patrons' experience by serving them appropriately in custom made plates.
The first was a very deep plate, almost a large bowl with straight walls, that could be used for serving fish or meat with season vegetables, that could all be emerging from a shallow soup. The second set was directly inspired from traditional Moroccan tajine dishes, where the top would allow the staff to reveal the meals directly on the table.
Taking inspiration from the beautiful hotel ornamented with myriads of art pieces made by local artists or collected by their owners, it wasn't hard to soak up the mood that reigns inside.
We thought we had to step out a little bit from our other collections and we came up with a color scheme that would allow the two sets to work together as a dual collection. We used our Forest green color for the tajines and a deep rich red for the plates adding some speckling to both and finishing them entirely with a clear shiny glaze.
The tajines had the traditional overall shape but we spent more efforts designing the plate as it would need to look interesting by itself too and we wanted to give it a more contemporary look.
We designed the red plates with a flat heavy bottom like a plate would, allowing for a very comfortable reach inside without feeling cramped by the edges. The high walls on the other side, allowed to adjust multiple sizes of broth like a bowl would.
We aimed at making the sets rich and bold in texture and color that would pair well in the essence of the hotel. Patrons will be able to enjoy the "mise-en-scene" of Michael Poiarkoff's crafted menu in plates designed to let them drift in wonder.
