The Table

Mepra S.p.A. is the Lombardy-based cutlery maison whose family workshop in Lumezzane has shaped the European fine-dining table for nearly a century. My relationship with the house began commercially — and matured, through the Shin'Labo years, into one of the most considered design collaborations in my brand portfolio. Every piece of cutlery on every Shin'Labo table was co-designed with the maison and bears my signature. In January 2026, Mepra named me its first Malaysian Ambassador. The recognition was earned by the depth of the work the maison was willing to do alongside me.

The maison

Mepra was founded in 1948 in Lumezzane, the small town in Lombardy that has been at the centre of Italian metalwork for centuries. The workshop has held continuously to the family-craft tradition since — flatware, hollowware, table accessories, all made to the alloy and finish standards that have kept Mepra on the European fine-dining table beside names such as Christofle and Sambonet.

What sets Mepra apart in that company is the specifically Italian standing: precise, considered, modern, attentive to alloy and form together. The maison’s published commitments — to the recyclability of stainless steel, to the durability of forged composition, to designs that pass through generations rather than across seasons — sit within the European workshop tradition the kitchen-and-atelier group honours alongside Gaggenau and The Plan.

How the relationship began — commercial, then committed

The relationship with Mepra began as a commercial one. I purchased the maison’s cutlery for Shin’Labo in the run-up to the restaurant’s 2022 opening; Mepra sold; the transaction was straightforward. There was no ambassadorship in view at the time, no framing — just a chef sourcing the cutlery that read most truly to the cuisine.

What changed over the months that followed was the maison’s posture towards what the room was trying to do. The Krug Chef’s Table had relocated from Enfin to Shin’Labo in February 2022; The Macallan twenty-four-month Dining Experience had begun in the same window; the yōshoku form that Robb Report would name Ryoutei Shin’Labo was establishing itself. Mepra, watching what their cutlery was being asked to carry, made a quiet decision.

The Shin’Labo sponsorship — the maison’s commitment

Mepra sponsored the entire cutlery at Shin’Labo in full across the restaurant’s operating period. Every fork, every knife, every spoon, on every table at every service, the Krug Chef’s Table, the Macallan Dining Experience programme, the Mortlach launch — all carried on the maison’s cutlery as a sponsorship rather than a sale. It is one of the most generous single brand commitments I have been on the receiving end of, and one of the clearest acts of faith from a European maison towards a Malaysian kitchen that I have any record of.

That commitment is what made the design work that followed possible.

The co-designed range — every piece bears my signature

Inside the sponsorship, the maison and I worked together on the design details of each piece of cutlery used at Shin’Labo. Weight, balance, proportion, profile, finish — each choice was held in conversation between the workshop in Lumezzane and the room in Lalaport KL. The result was a co-designed range, made for the cooking, made for the yōshoku table, made for the way the diner’s hand would meet the plate.

Every piece bears my signature and brand. Not a courtesy stamp; a co-author’s mark on a working object. The pieces were used at Shin’Labo across every service for the duration of the restaurant. No other establishment in Malaysia served on this co-designed range during the period.

The Pininfarina Stile rose gold edition — the Krug Chef’s Table

Within the wider co-designed range, the most distinctive single chapter was the special edition created for the Krug Chef’s Table at Shin’Labo — a Pininfarina Stile by Mepra collection, developed with my endorsement and signature, and executed in a special rose gold treatment specific to the Krug Chef’s Table.

Pininfarina, the Italian design house behind generations of Ferrari coachwork and the most consequential European industrial-design language of the twentieth century, brought its own discipline to Mepra’s Stile by Mepra line. The maison brought its alloy and finish craft. I brought my signature and the working brief from the Krug Chef’s Table itself. The rose gold treatment was the gesture that mattered: Asia’s only Krug Chef’s Table at the time deserved a cutlery that the eye would land on with the same recognition the Krug Grande Cuvée drew. Pininfarina Stile delivered it.

The pieces sat on the Krug Chef’s Table table as the resident expression — Italian alloy, Pininfarina design language, my endorsement and signature, rose gold finish, all in one hand. It is the most considered single piece of cutlery design I have been involved with.

First Malaysian Ambassador, January 2026

In January 2026, Mepra named me its first Malaysian Ambassador — the inaugural placement of the maison’s flag in Southeast Asia, and one of the very few brand chapters whose active chapter began after the closure of Shin’Labo and the wider 2025 turn from restaurant operations to cultural diplomacy.

The Ambassadorship is the formal recognition of a relationship the maison itself had been investing in for years. It honours both sides: my Italian-cutlery standing, and Mepra’s own quiet commitment to the work the cutlery was being asked to do at Shin’Labo. The trust did not need a new public room to be confirmed; the trust had been built inside the room that had just closed.

Where Mepra sits in my work

In the brand portfolio, Mepra holds a specific position. The champagne, cognac, and single-malt houses brought what was in the glass. Gaggenau and The Plan brought the kitchen and the room. Mepra brought what the meal was eaten with.

The cutlery is the bridge between the food and the diner. It is the maison closest to the hand. The discipline a chef brings to the plate is undone if the implement that meets the plate is wrong. Mepra was the implement that was right — and the maison whose own commitment to the table at Shin’Labo, course after course and year after year, earned the recognition the Ambassadorship now names.

What continues

After the closure of Shin’Labo in 2024, the co-designed Mepra range and the Pininfarina Stile rose gold edition for the Krug Chef’s Table both passed into the historical record. The January 2026 Ambassadorship continues. The next table the relationship sets — wherever it lands and whatever room hosts it — sits ahead of this page rather than behind it.

I owe Mepra the recognition that sustained sponsorship, deep design collaboration, and faith all deserve, and the gratitude that goes with each of them.