Abracadabra! This whimsical tableware turns dinnertime into a magic routine

“What’s for dinner?” It’s the question every parent fears. Which is why I’d love to present my children with an empty plate, place on a lid, remove the lid and, PRESTO.



Broccoli again! Bwahahaha. 



This is the promise of Magic Tableware , a provocative concept developed by the London design firm Special Projects . It’s a series of three pieces of tableware—a butter dish, dessert plate, and carafe—each of which feature a revealing moment of delight for guests.



The dish and stand are based upon the classic dove pan trick that makes food “magically” appear on a plate (the classic version of the trick involved igniting liquid in a pan or hat, covering it, and then revealing a dove flying out). The underlying mechanism is relatively simple: The lid conceals a second pan or liner that’s released when you put it down. You simply preload the lid with your food (or bird) of choice. 



Meanwhile, the carafe lets you presto-change-o between two different poured liquids (say, coffee and cream). It’s based upon the inexhaustible bottle trick—a gimmick that’s nearly 400 years old. The carafe channels two different chambers through the same funnel.



How does the user activate these tricks? It’s the one piece of magic that Special Projects prefers not to disclose, though co-founder Clara Gaggero Westaway promises, “The method is easy, and with a bit of practice, non-magicians will be able to perform it.”



Another point of appeal is that, while most magic tricks look pretty cheap in person, Magic Tableware is beautiful, rendered in ceramic, and borrowing inspiration from Aldo Rossi’s La Conica espresso maker commissioned by Alessi. Only the butter dish has been fully produced, while Special Projects has been looking for a retail partner that might want to license the designs for mass production.



Magic Tableware has been more a labor of love for the past few years, tied to Special Project’s raison d’etre of rethinking the core UX of products and experiences that we might otherwise take for granted.



“This could be interesting to people in hospitality,” notes cofounder Gaggero Westaway, “[But], like, everything could be enhanced. Everything can become more magical and inspiring, even the things we don’t know we have a problem or frustration with.”