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15 May 2017

The New Indian Express Profiles Couture Table Stylist Ami Kothari

One of South India’s leading daily newspapers, The New Indian Express, recently profiled couture dining stylist Ami Kothari after a workshop she conducted in Chennai. The home dining decor expert has conducted similar events in Mumbai, Surat, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Kolkata and even New York. Ami is married to Ritesh Rupen Kothari; she is the daughter of Nina and Satish T. Mehta and daughter-in-law of Sandhya and Rupen Kothari.

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Table it...she’ll tell you how

From your kid’s toy box to bracelets you don’t use, Ami Kothari can style your dining table with almost anything.Her workshops on simple styling techniques have taken her to many cities in India, and also to New York City.

By Abinaya Kalyanasundaram | Express News Service | Published: 16th April 2017

CHENNAI: Sipping on her ginger tea, Ami Kothari has had a long day balancing her work with Fragile X Society of India, and conducting a workshop for 20 people in Chennai on table-styling. Yes, table-styling! She explains, “Yes, it is something new that is catching on in India! (Laughs) Raised in a Gujarati family, we’ve always entertained guests at home. I’ve seen my mom and grandmom arranging the whole set-up tastefully, and that’s where I learnt most of it.”

This 40-year old homemaker from Mumbai made a career in table-styling unexpectedly. Being appreciated and encouraged for her well-decorated table, she started her first ever ‘workshop’ in her home for a few friends. “Before I could even realise, it had snowballed into several workshops. I even got a studio ready in Mumbai to host them!”

That was two years ago. Now, over 60 workshops later, she has enabled several homemakers and women to host parties like a pro. From buying classic crockery that can be used for years to selecting complementary colours for table mats and runners, her workshops equip everyone with tips on how to bring the appropriate aura to any table setting. Her USP is she uses inexpensive and generic elements available from seemingly unrelated places, sometimes even from your kid’s toy box or your jewellery cupboard — bracelets as napkin holders, for example. “It’s all about making your guests feel special, by enamouring them with the creative lengths you’ve gone to appeal to them.”

The most important principle in table-styling is to have a theme for the table design, but with a plethora of items to choose from, how does one select the theme? “The order of priority for deciding the theme of your table should be — occasion, cuisine, and colour combination. You should also consider the kind of guests, whether friends, formal acquaintances or family, or kids,” she clarifies.

After working in several cities across India — Calcutta, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore etc, she recently conducted a workshop in New York, for the first time going international. “The crowd was mixed — Indians, NRIs and a few Americans as well. They really appreciated the techniques and styles that I taught them,” she exclaims.

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