Sister Act

Catering as installation art? Tableware with a sense of humor? The creations of Laila and Nadia Gohar have turned food-world self-seriousness delightfully on its head.

- By Tamar Adler

When I arrive just before the winter holidays at Laila and Nadia Gohar’s office in Chinatown which they share with Laila’s food-and-art company, LG Studio—Laila tells me that she and Nadia kind of imagine Gohar World, the Cairo-born sisters’ nine-month-old line of cheeky and exquisite host- and tableware, as a planet. Laila is standing in a voluminous white Simone Rocha skirt and snub-nosed Gucci slides at an induction burner making studio lunch. (At least once a week, Laila’s endearingly grandmotherly studio lunches can be glimpsed on Instagram. Today it’s strozzapreti and potatoes.) “Or maybe a touring circus company,” she offers, tipping water from a tomato can into her pot. “Especially when we go places, and there’s food flying out of the car and highly toxic materials like shellac.”