MUJI India hosted a Table Style Workshop by renowned Couture Table Stylist Ami Kothari at their outlet in The Black Box – VR Mall Bangalore.  Until today, I never knew that there is a niche field in the industry for Table Styling. The focus of the workshop was to understand the important of Table Styling for fine dining, coffee table and high tea arrangement.  It applies not only to the restaurant but also in our houses.  The purpose is to give a great dining experience for guests.

History

Ami Kothari has always had the passion and desire to do Table Styling.  She has worked in other field before looking to work on her passion.  It has been nearly 2 years and there has been no looking back.  She has done more than 60 workshops all across the country and many abroad as well.

Table Styling is an area where people have limited knowledge and are ready to invest time & learn from the experienced people like Ami Kothari.

In Restaurants

Restaurateurs very much need help to setup their tables that are visually appealing to the guests.  Some of the times, guests may not enjoy the food if the setup around the food isn’t good.  As they say food is eaten with eyes before the tongue.  Eyes not only sees the food, its presentation but also where its kept and the surrounding.

We have generally seen good restaurants in star hotel really focussing on Table Styling.  But I think it is an essential aspect that even a medium scale or casual dining restaurant, café or pub should also be thinking.  It only makes the customers happy and they would be more than willing to pay for the expereince.

At Homes

We usually setup the tables very well when the guests visit our home for party or dining with family.  Before the guests arrive, it takes effort to setup the table, cutleries and present the food.  Soon after the guest leave, it goes back to the old setup.  But, if we can keep the table clean and sheik on daily basis, we would not need to spend much time when guests come over.  If you consider everyday as a celebration, we would always want to keep our homes impeccable.

Ami was also telling that it is not necessary to buy anything very fancy to style the table at home.  We can reuse many of the items that are already there at our homes.  It is also useful to pick up items that have multi-purpose so it become more cost effective.

Styling Tips and Presentation

Ami shared some tips during the workshop, like – Usage of Eucalyptus branches with leaves giving the refreshing aroma, Use of candles around the table, Stacking up multiple sized plates, Keeping napkin in each seats, Writing the name of the guest on a leaf & wrapping it around the plates, Use of real & artificial flowers on the table, Having hanging paper balloons, Using the right glassware and many more.

She setup 2 tables and used most of the points mentioned above.  Both were quite wonderful and looked special.  Just to add, most of the items used for the decoration were from the MUJI Store in VR Mall Bangalore.

About MUJI

MUJI is one of the well-known brand in Japan that sell various items ranging from Clothing and Household good to food and even houses.  It was founding in 1980 and the idea was for creating simple, low-cost good quality products.  They re-examine products through 3 lenses – Material Selection, Inspection Process and Packaging Simplification.  The products are pure and fresh. 

They have been credited with being resource-saving, low-priced, simple, anonymous and nature-oriented.  MUJI has more than 700 stores around the world, carrying more than 7,000 items.

The store in Bangalore is quite huge and sells many products.  And in every item I could see the simplicity and the brilliant finish.  It may not have been eye-catchy but it looks neat. 

About VR Bengaluru

VR Bengaluru is a first-of-its-kind community centric integrated lifestyle destination in India and is host to a boutique hotel, collaborative work spaces for start-ups and a multi-level premium retail arcade, along with select wellness, entertainment and F&B services.

Overall Experience

It was a great workshop by Ami Kothari and I was glad to have been part of it.  Various aspects of Table Styling were shared.  The workshop was conducted in the MUJI store which has the best of products, that can be used to setup a wonderful table. This is great start in Bangalore and I think there would be many more such workshops coming up.  Hoping to be part of them, learn and share the experiences.