Six stellar designers set the stage. Eleven chefs created five remarkable dinner parties. Mixologists and magicians, fire-eaters and fans of fine dining, music folk and friends gathered at the Lumen private event space on the first five nights in June. They were celebrating St. Louis Magazine’s fifth annual Food Wine Design.
Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Monday: Surf ‘n’ Turf
Interior designer Jacob Laws employed a minimalist palette of green, gray, blue, and white for his opening-night tabletop. “A surf ’n’ turf design needn’t scream ‘Jake’s Crab Shack,’” he says. “I opted instead for materials and colors that would speak of the prairie—the turf—and of the sea. ”Laws layered the table with leather hides and placemats made from Mexican serapes, handwoven in gray and white. “The chargers are tiles of Brazilian black slate,” Laws says. “The napkins aren’t hemmed; they’re stitched back so the edges fray, adding texture.” Blue Murano glass vases filled with flowers in monochromatic green sparkled alongside clear candelabra hand-blown from sea glass. Small pots of succulents nestled in between. With deft strokes, Laws created a singular, memorable design.
Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Tuesday: Celebrate Missouri!
Interior designer Amie Corley and paper impresario Cheree Berry share a friendship and a clean, uncluttered design aesthetic. Their collaboration for Tuesday’s “Celebrate Missouri!” dinner resulted in an exuberant, polished tabletop that played to the strengths of each woman. “We wanted to create the feeling of a garden party,” Corley says. “I chose French bistro chairs, brass-and-glass lanterns in varying shapes and sizes, and a simple blue-and-white color scheme. We mixed patterns and shapes in the two colors to create a balance. Cheree selected her signature white paper flowers mixed with live greenery to fill blue vases. We printed blue ‘Field Notes’ with fun facts about Missouri: the state flower, animal, and bird.” Their mindsets—and designs—are fresh, current, and smart.
Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Wednesday: Viva Italia!
At Wednesday’s dinner, interior designer David Deatherage deftly mixed the best of several decades of Italian design. Two Art Deco bronze urns stacked with a polychromatic mix of garden roses, snapdragons, and greenery were interspersed with 1980s fluted Lucite shells, with lush peonies anchoring the design. A 1960s Curtis Jeré metal dandelion sculpture in a vintage white Gucci ceramic pot held the center. “The chargers of fluted brass and four vintage Italian brass chairs, two at each end, tie into the brass urns,” Deatherage says. “We made the table cover from a specially printed amethyst pattern and folded the custom napkins to resemble a flower.” He added a personal touch to the VIP table by hand-lettering place cards with the guests’ names.
Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Thursday: Old World Inspiration, New World Dedication
The gleam of gold in the napery—the rich jewel tones of tablecloth and chargers, and the soft light of candles held aloft on iron bases, created by the sure hand of Mary Tuttle—electrified the tabletop for Thursday’s dinner by chefs Bill Cardwell and Lou Rook. “I’ve worked with both chefs,” says Tuttle. “I know the styles they like. We trust each other. I can work with people, but I’m not big on copying. Each design evolves until it’s right. “We used a Jan Barboglio design for the iron bases of the candleholders, an Old World style,” Tuttle continues. “The glass chargers, in a peacock pattern of aubergine and gold, repeat in colors of the flowers. Eggplants and artichokes, olive branches, bay and scented geranium leaves reflect the chefs’ interests in farm-to-table.”
Photograph by Kevin A. Robets
Friday: The Grand Finale
For Friday evening’s finale, wedding coordinator Katie Turner of Kate & Company and her crew of wizards created a big top like no other. They named it Le Freak, a head-turning homage to the world of dark television. “We pride ourselves on thinking outside the box,” Turner says. “We developed an adult-driven circus theme inspired by dark shows. We built a 16-foot round table strong enough to hold the large floral centerpiece, placed supports around the center, and draped greenery to create the big top.” The red-black-and-white-striped table cover reinforced the tent theme. “We used clear glass place settings so they would fall away visually,” Turner says. “During the cocktail hour, we hired two clowns, a fire-eater, and a unicyclist. We let the design speak for itself.”
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Katie Turner is a wedding coordinator.
