Restaurants, hotels and bars often reveal future trends of our living surroundings. Kitchens turn into real laboratories which unveil new flavours of tomorrow’s cuisine ; restaurants, with astonishing and innovative designs, become places of entertainment. In order to append a recognisable style through original features, restaurants and hotels often spend a great part of their budget to decorate their venues. A worthwhile strategy thus benefiting the tableware industry. Looking for new concepts through forms (square and round), colours (self or multi-coloured) or materials (wood or slate), the industry has shifted its focus, in recent years, towards more classic ranges that are modularity and evolutionary to meet the requirement for new trends in food consumption.When one looks at Equip’Hôtel’s success every year, hence the first international session will be held in Abu Dhabi at the end of the year, it is no wonder why tableware are still in the limelight. With a creative and conceptual emulation that prevailed in the past, the industry is now going for more timeless ranges that complemented with one another and elements that can be diverted from their primary use. Hence, despite the fact that restaurants and hotels limit the number of their suppliers to overcome restocking problems, they also want multifunctional elements that can adapt to the chef’s creative moods.The plate is used to sublime the food and to do so the industry uses several subterfuges. As Mr Chignon, Arc International Marketing Manager, explains : “The Show Food is the trend. We go to a restaurant to be entertained. Whilst see-through glasses have opened the kitchen doors, the food preparations are produced, like at the cinema or theatre, to complete the restaurant surroundings and make the customer live an original experience.” The impression of huge plates are commonly admitted even if, sometimes, smoothing out the...