Maker’s Mark

Go into any top eatery and you’ll likely be dining off a handmade ceramic plate. It’s no longer just about the food; chefs seem to care as much about what they serve their meals on as they do the food they prepare. Potters and their one-of-a kind wares have never been in such high demand. We talk to those in the know, from potters and collectors to restaurateurs, about the intimate relationship between food and ceramics.

KATHERINE SMYTH

Potter

Wellington-based potter Katherine Smyth first got into pottery because she was looking for an alternative to cooking. Smyth had been a chef for eight years and the stress of the job had forced her to look for an alternative. Art school beckoned and she moved to Sydney to study ceramics at the National Art School.

“I took to it like a duck to water,” she says of the art form.

What originally attracted the potter, whose ceramics are now stocked in boutique stores around the country, was the fact that she “couldn’t find what she wanted to put food on”. Like many chefs, Katherine was particular about presentation, and cared about how food looked on the plate.

When she finished her course, she returned to being a chef, first to pay for having been a student and then to supplement her income as she tried to turn herself into a viable potter. Moving to London, she found a job alongside some old friends when they started The Sugar Club there. And then she began talking to Sugar Club executive chef, fellow Kiwi Peter Gordon, about crockery.

“I used to work with Peter deciding what we would like for the restaurant. He was being generous and supportive too but we’d talk about things I’d like to make and what we could incorporate for the restaurant. We would talk about a dish and what would make it look