Boya Porcelain and Metropolitan restaurant, Hyatt Regency

        This photo was taken at the close of one cycle. It was a collaboration that turned into a friendship. Earning experience and refusing shortcuts is hard work. Then you meet people who work the same way and everything makes sense. This was one of those occasions.

         Milan Čotra, head chef at the Metropolitan restaurant of the Hyatt Regency hotel, started out as a young cook in that very place. One first meeting was enough to make the recognition between him and Bojana clear. Everyone else was glad to join in.

        Milan is a child of inner Dalmatia. That stretch between the middle Adriatic and Mount Velebit, a fertile plain that took the best of both sides. A perfect place to shape a cook. The direction for this set came straight from those scenes. The colours, textures, shapes, scents and memories that formed him. He trusted that those scenes would meet Bojana's aesthetic well.

        The ceramic sphere for the amuse-bouche was inspired by the walnut, a rich symbol across the Balkans. It was made in two natural shades of the material. Charcoal grey and white coffee.

         We already had the Orah collection, but we did not want to repeat ourselves. We wanted a new texture that would follow the atmosphere of the whole set.

The design of each piece was developed to suit the look of the dish itself.

         The nature of the Balkans was the guiding idea, so organic forms were the logical choice. This porcelain bowl carries the details of an olive branch.

         The main course plate carried the most poetic cue from Milan. He passed on to us the beauty of water resting on stone after rain.

          The porcelain bread plate. Although handmade, its lines are more restrained than the rest of the set and it comes as close to round as the hand could get. It is the piece that brings visual balance to the table.

         The dessert plate. Porcelain, of course, and of course the freest in form.

        The set consists of

• Sphere plate for amuse-bouche, light and dark, 22 pcs.
• Starter plate, 20 pcs.
• Main course plate, 30 pcs.
• Risotto plate with olive branch motif, porcelain, 26 pcs.
• Bread plate, 65 pcs.

        The order took four and a half months to produce.

Boya team:

Bojana Brkić

Sandra Đinovski

Luka Dudić

photo: Ana V. Đurđević

Hyatt workshop photo: Liyle Photography

        And it all ended with two workshops. First we took our closest collaborators to a New Year's cooking workshop in the Metropolitan kitchen. A few months later almost the whole kitchen staff was at our ceramics workshop.