This Chef Says a Great Table Can Save a Boring Guest – 8 Conversation-Sparking Pieces to Try at Your Next Dinner Party

‘I don’t really style for perfection – I style for appetite,’ says chef, food stylist, and experiential tastemaker Mariana Velásquez. This could explain why we're so insatiable for her new Sur La Table collaboration, which pushes her ‘more is more' maximalist ethos into tabletop territory that leaves little room for hunger. Or a dull dinner party.

‘I’ve always thought of the table as something alive – something that speaks,’ Mariana tells H&G. ‘It’s a wink, a flirtation, a reminder that gathering is sensual and expressive. Food is intimate. Conversation is intimate. Why shouldn’t the objects reflect that?’ For Mariana, this collection ‘felt like a way to quite literally give the table a voice.’

To that end, octagonal silhouettes, hand-painted botanicals, and playful motifs (cheekily musing Mariana’s own iconic red lip) appear in full gabby glory, splashed across plates and runners, even rendered as beaded napkin rings.

For Mariana, mastering a maximalist table is all about courage. ‘Pick a direction and commit to it. Color, pattern, mood – just don’t hesitate,’ she urges. ‘The mistake people make is pulling back too soon or trying to look like someone else.'

And if a punchy, hexagonal, red-on-blue embroidered rose-motif cocktail napkin doesn’t look like something Suzy next door would ever have, we don’t know what does.

Ultimately, Mariana teamed up with SLT to solve a common problem: boring dinner parties. A well-dressed table, she insists, can carry even the most uninspired guest list.

‘The table can do a lot of heavy lifting,’ Mariana explains. ‘If I know I have a stiff group coming to dinner, I make it irresistible, almost defiant – color that pulls you in, textures you want to touch, something slightly unexpected that makes you look twice. That’s where Sur La Table really comes in – giving you the tools and pieces to create that kind of energy.'

'Maybe the flowers feel a bit wild, I mix people up, separating couples or friends so that they get to interact, maybe something is just a little off in the best way,' she continues. 'If the table has energy, people tend to meet it there. And if they don’t… at least you’ve created something worth gathering around.’

Ahead, every conversation-sparking piece we’re starving for.

A chatty, calla-lily-clad table can carry a night, but according to Mariana, it helps when the host brings the same joie de vivre. ‘A fun dinner party is one where the host is having the most fun. Everything else follows,’ she muses.

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