By Ju-Wei Chen, Creative Director at Txengo Studio
Valentine’s Day is often reduced to a single evening: flowers, a reservation, a fleeting gesture. But love like design is built through rituals repeated over time. The objects we touch daily, the way we set a table, the atmosphere we create for someone we care about these are quiet declarations of affection that outlive one night.
Photo: Courtesy of Alighieri Casa
Few artists understood this better than Salvador Dalí. For him, food was theatre. His legendary dinners were not about sustenance; they were immersive performances where guests stepped into another reality. A fish might arrive inside satin slippers. Frogs might leap across a tray. It was absurd, decadent, sensual and deeply intentional. Dining was transformed into art.
Today, that surreal lineage lives on in a new generation of designers who treat tableware not as background objects, but as sculptural expressions of intimacy. Cutlery becomes jewellery for the table. A spoon becomes a small act of ceremony.
Photo: Roe Ethridge / Courtesy of Gohar World
Danish designer Arje Griegst once rejected the cool minimalism expected of Scandinavian design, choosing instead biomorphic, rebellious forms that symbolised growth and life. Contemporary jewellers continue that spirit. Gala Colivet Dennison reshapes spoons from fragments of other objects, balancing function with poetic impracticality. Rosh Mahtani’s Alighieri Casa casts tactile brass pieces that feel ancient, grounding the act of eating in ritual. Orit Elhanati embeds dark stones into gold-plated utensils, turning a casual meal into an event. Laila Gohar elevates tablescapes into dreamlike installations, blurring the boundary between nourishment and fantasy.
Photo: Courtesy of Griegst
What unites them is a shared belief: the everyday deserves magic.
Valentine’s Day, at its best, is not about extravagance, it’s about attention. The lighting softened. The weight of a spoon in the hand. The sound of glass meeting porcelain. A table that invites someone to slow down. These details communicate care more powerfully than any grand gesture.
Photo: Courtesy of Alighieri Casa
At Txengo, we see the home as a stage for emotion. Design is not only visual; it is sensory and relational. The objects you choose become part of your personal narrative. A thoughtfully set table is not decoration, it is an invitation: stay longer, talk deeper, savour this moment.
The most romantic gift, then, is not something consumed in a night. It is something that becomes part of a shared ritual. A piece that returns again and again to the table. A reminder that love lives in repetition in breakfasts, late dinners, quiet Sundays, spontaneous celebrations.
Not just once for a night.
But every day after.
