Making Bowls for Arkle Restaurant, Grosvenor Hotel, Chester.

A bowl can feel very different depending on where it is used. In someone’s home, it might become part of the everyday. In a restaurant like Arkle, it becomes part of the presentation of a dish, with the food very much the focus.

That was something I thought about after making bowls for Arkle at The Chester Grosvenor.

Elliot Hill, then Executive Chef at The Chester Grosvenor, got in touch about making bowls for the restaurant’s tasting menu. He was already drawn to the exposed clay in my work and chose one of the hand-shaped bowls from my collection.

The form he chose is one of my favourites. It is simple, but not perfect or uniform. Each bowl is shaped by hand, so although the form stays consistent, the surface always carries small differences and marks from the making.

For Arkle, the bowl was there to become part of the way the whole plate was presented, with the food as the focus. That was the part I found most interesting.

In my own studio, I know the bowls as objects I have made. I notice the curve, the weight, the rim, and the way the exposed clay sits against the glaze. But seeing them used at Arkle changed the context completely. The food became the focus, and the bowl became part of Elliot’s way of building the dish.

Elliot sent me photographs as the dishes were being developed. Seeing the bowls being used, with the food bringing them to life, was the best part of the commission.