Dish and Design night offers ‘Cozy Comfort’

Just days away from the autumn equinox, Detroit News Homestyle readers gathered at the Great Lakes Culinary Center Tuesday for an evening celebrating the warmth and comfort of fall. 

Presented by Busch’s Fine Food Market, Homestyle’s Dish and Design’s third installment for the year, “Cozy Comfort,” featured short demos from four local businesses, heavy appetizers, giveaways, cider and doughnuts and tons of ideas for cooking, entertaining and decorating for the upcoming season. 

The sold-out event started with a colorful array of cheese, charcuterie, dips and vegetables from the center’s chef Reva Constantine-Smith and ended with a savory Georgian beef dumpling from Supergeil’s Brendan McCall. 

“I like all the foods and the drinks, that’s for sure,” said Susan Keith of Royal Oak, who attended with Alicia McEwen of Berkley and Kim Baydoun, also of Royal Oak. While Keith didn’t necessarily come for the decor demos, she found the center piece tutorial from Karen Brown of Eastern Market’s Savvy Chic to be useful. “The centerpiece designs look pretty easy. Something I could accomplish.” 

Brown has owned eclectic boutique Savvy Chic, 2712 Riopelle in Detroit, for 24 years. She demonstrated the use of silk flowers, which can be used inside and out. She said they can also be easily styled, reused and you don’t have to worry about the weather or squirrels getting to them. 

“Everyone should have silk arrangements. No more plastic ladies, they have to go,” joked Brown. She also exhibited some uses for paper rolls that have different patterns, textures and colors to dress up a table cloth or kitchen island. 

More seasonal design ideas came from Rachel Nelson and Taylor Morgan of Detroit-based interior design strategy studio Concetti. Using mood boards and evoking the five senses, they transformed a sample vignette from summer to fall “vibes.”

Nelson and Morgan had several simple and effective ideas for the audience, including picking a few “investment pieces” that could be cheap or expensive, so long as they have personal meaning and are something you want to look at year-round. They suggested swapping out different blankets, dried floral or candles to match your favorite pieces to the season. 

“When you look inward … the pieces are going to mean something to you, it doesn’t matter if they’re low end or high end if it’s something that means something to you as a person,” said Morgan.