Ceramic plates and mugs from the Kinship Assortment, lately launched by chef Eric Ziebold and Celia Laurent. {Photograph} courtesy of the Kinship Assortment.
Chef-driven home-design traces have historically been the realm of culinary celebrities—the Marthas and Chrissies of the meals world. However the pandemic has kicked up new curiosity in cooking and small-scale entertaining. And so, an rising variety of native restaurant trade names moving into the approach to life sport.
Chef Eric Ziebold and Célia Laurent, the husband-and-wife crew behind Kinship and Metier in Shaw, simply launched the Kinship Assortment. The road of residence items—candles, soaps, linens, ceramics—channels the elegant minimalism of their Michelin-starred eating places, and generally borrows instantly from their tables. Diners would possibly acknowledge the pristine, off-white ceramic plates and bowls designed by Ziebold and produced by Olivia DiBenigno of Alexandria’s Studio North Ceramics. The gathering additionally options picnic blankets made with Los Angeles textile maker Through Verano. Ziebold and Laurent plan so as to add pantry objects like spice rubs, jams, and oils quickly.
The concept for a retail line was partially born out of necessity. Artistic home made parting presents have at all times been a part of the tasting-room expertise at Metier. There, visitors would possibly go away with seasonal tokens like basil syrup or apple butter created from the bounty on the restaurant’s backyard in Delaplane, Virginia. However throughout a 12 months of non permanent dining-room closures and pivots to consolation meals, the backyard’s wealth of herbs and flowers had threatened to go unused.
“We couldn’t sustain with harvesting. Stuff was blossoming and overgrown,” Ziebold says. So, he began making ferments and gallons of vinegar. After which, important oils and lavender soaps.
Subsequent got here soy wax candles—a aromatic mix of lavender, yarrow, and rue—that had been hand-poured on the restaurant throughout pandemic downtime. Now, the candles scent the eating places’ bogs—and may be purchased for $46.
“I walked within the rest room and it smells so good,” says Ziebold. “That’s the type of factor we deal with at Kinship and Metier. How do you make somebody happier getting back from the lavatory than they had been after they left the desk? The very fact we had been in a position to make it ourselves may be very gratifying.”
Whereas the Kinship Assortment focuses extra on decor, chef/restaurateur Spike Mendelsohn is channeling his experience into a brand new home-design model. The proprietor of fast-casual spots Good Stuff Eatery, We the Pizza, and Plnt Burger, has teamed up with Northern Virginia residence builder Van Metre Houses for Spiked Kitchens, a chef-driven design service.
“I really feel like there was a bubble within the trade just a few years again and I’ve been on path in direction of diversifying my portfolio,” says Mendelsohn, who made a reputation for himself within the early Prime Chef days.
Mendelsohn’s customized designs, which launched this previous fall, incorporate parts from open restaurant kitchens into the house. Take, for instance, an L-shaped island with chef-counter-style seating. Or a revamped pantry that appears extra like a hospitality trade prep kitchen with a sink, refrigeration, and counter house. “It’s for all of the nitty-gritty stuff you don’t need your visitors to see, or have to wash up an hour earlier than they arrive,” says Mendelsohn.
Along with kitchen design, Mendelsohn says he plans to supply extra at-home providers for his shoppers—whether or not meaning recommending chef-approved home equipment, cooking movies, and extra.
“Retail and design—I believe we’ll see loads of cooks moving into this class,” says Mendelsohn. “Lots of people wish to reinvent themselves proper now.”
Meals Editor
Anna Spiegel covers the eating and consuming scene in her native DC. Previous to becoming a member of Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia College’s MFA program in New York, and held varied cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
