Stefanie Hering and the white gold

"I met Mr. Hesse at the Maison & Objet design fair in Paris and I was fascinated by his eye for detail. Then I met him again in Berlin and our cooperation took its course ".
That’s the way how Stefanie Hering, who is the founder & managing director of the porcelain manufactory Hering Berlin, describes the first meeting with our managing director Lutz Hesse about 15 years ago. Guests of our two Michelin starred restaurant FACIL can enjoy the aesthetic result of this valuable collaboration, because the exquisite delicacies, which are prepared by our culinary director Michael Kempf & his team, are served on the elaborated porcelain by Stefanie Hering.

See more here on the website of Hering Berlin Porzellan >>.

A brand is born
Because her handicraft skills have been evident since her childhood days, it was clear from the early beginning, that porcelain designer Stefanie Hering would choose this career path. In 1992 it had been accomplished: After her apprenticeship and studies, the Stuttgart-born designer opened her first workshop in a former parcel outlet in Prenzlauer Berg. Her heart has been beating all along the unglazed, so-called biscuit porcelain. Only diamonds are harder than the sturdy and durable material with the slightly rough feel and so Stefanie Hering did something that no one had dared to do before - she produced biscuit in series. What’s more is her timelessly beautiful design with the clear shapes that gives the porcelain its unmistakable signature. Stefanie Hering loves her items to play with the light and in terms of product development she has always been experimenting with the limits of the material porcelain, also with the statics of the vessels.

In the beginning, she gave herself one year to find out if her ideas appeal to the market and design lovers. The echo was overwhelming. Meanwhile, Hering Berlin is an internationally known brand and is distributed in 35 countries. Over 250 star chefs around the world use her porcelain.

Porcelain for everyday use
Use is a good keyword, because Stefanie Hering expressly wishes that this happens with her porcelain. After all, her pieces are artistic indeed, but also highly functional and thus too good to stand in a museum or showcase. In addition, the production of the dishes from the white gold is very complex and passes through up to 80 hands before its completion. That’s because Hering Berlin lies in pure handicraft made in Germany. The unique items are produced in a factory in Thuringia.

Meanwhile, there are existing several tableware collections with sonorous names and different topics. Some impress with their spectacular paintings, others with unique patterns but always with their characteristic shapes.

By the way, a cup without handle from the series "Pulse" belongs to Stefanie Hering's favorite pieces. Biscuit is less heat conducting and therefore you can hardly burn your fingers by touching a cup filled with hot tea.

Stefanie Herings personal highlights
Finally, we wonder, what might have been the highlight in Stefanie Hering's previous entrepreneurship? Is it the opening of her first workshop or being awarded with the German Design Prize?

It is neither this nor that: Much more important for her are the latest projects, such as her art exhibition "Din Clay Ton" at the BACC Bangkok museum, which was created in collaboration with the Goethe-Institute. Stefanie Hering shows for the first time sculpture-like vessels made of porcelain and ceramics with a height of up to two meters, which was a special production challenge and a whole new dimension of ceramic design.

Another highlight for Stefanie Hering is the cooperation with great partners. She finds it very exciting to see how chefs use her porcelain as a stage for their dishes. She is especially pleased when her porcelain is used as part of a whole, for example when our patissier Thomas Yoshida selects her blue plate as canvas for his dessert "The Cloud". This means poetry to Stefanie Hering, true to her motto: "Food is art! Great cuisine is not just a culinary delight, it is also always an aesthetic pleasure."