Boulud & Smith cook up new line

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/8/2004 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

NEW YORK A pair of New York City restaurateurs — home textiles industry veteran Park B. Smith and internationally renowned chef Daniel Boulud — recently joined forces to cook up a designer line of kitchen textiles that will hit stores this fall.

Titled the Daniel Boulud Kitchen collection, Smith's company Park B. Smith Ltd., based here, will manufacture the line and work in conjunction with Boulud to create the designs.

"I consider beautiful, well-made and well-designed kitchen textiles part of our lifestyle in the kitchen," said Boulud, who owns and operates four restaurants — three here and one in Palm Beach, Fla. Smith, a renowned wine collector, is a partner of Veritas, located in Manhattan's Gramercy neighborhood.

"In my own kitchen, the aesthetics of every piece of equipment is just as important as the functionality," Boulud added. "I wanted to bring this same spirit to my textiles."

Initially, the line will consist of four pieces — aprons, oven mitts, pot holders and terry towels — that complement the chef's line of cookware, cutlery and kitchen tools launched last fall.

The look of the line is still in development, said Hester Longley-Cook, senior textiles stylist for Park B. Smith Ltd.

It will include one solid-color group comprising six colorways based on Boulud's décor at his restaurants — two hues of red, deep blue, fern green, black, metallic gray and natural.

"We're really looking at very deep saturated colors, especially deep reds, which he likes so much," Longley-Cook said. "Obviously with his French background, (Boulud) has incredibly good taste."

Aside from the solid-color group, she added, "We'll layer other groups as well, such as a print and a woven."

Boulud is also personalizing each product by including a recipe written on a laminated hang tag.

Each of the four items comes with a different recipe — an hors d'oeuvre, an appetizer, a main course and a dessert — that are adapted from his cookbooks and his restaurant menus to form a complete Boulud meal.

The next rollout of product for the collection is slated for spring 2005 when table linens — tablecloths, place mats, napkins and possibly café curtains — will be added.