The Du Toit Sisters' Guide To Lit Dinner Parties
Sophie and Anna Dutoit share their secrets to a cool dinner party that makes you want to go back every time.
A dinner at the home of these Gen Z sisters is the stuff of cool girl Instagram dumps with mood lighting and eclectic table settings that feature anything from vintage cutlery to random objects picked up on their travels. Perhaps it’s to do with their artistic backgrounds: The 22‐year‐old Sophie is a university student majoring in global studies and a mini social media sensation for her effortless style and slice‐of‐life content (her TikTok account @soapyduuutwahhh, for example, has clocked some 1.8 million Likes), while Anna, 23, is an artist and an assistant curator at home‐grown art platform GOFY, which focuses on Southeast Asian art. No, you can’t join in the party (the elaborate meals they host are private affairs), but you could hold one like it. We get them to spill some tips on tablescaping and more.
HI, ANNA AND SOPHIE! TELL US WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN FOOD.
Sophie: “Food has always been central to our upbringing and our appreciation for it was shaped by our parents. As a family, we have never resisted trying out new cuisines and dining experiences, and our parents have always made sure that we were exposed to all kinds of food growing up ... Having grown older, we’ve come to realise that food and the experience of eating together is not just about feeling satiated. Ultimately, it’s a social experience and about shared enjoyment.”
WHAT LED YOU TO START HOSTING YOUR OWN PRIVATE DINNER PARTIES AND MAKING IT A POINT TO PAY SO MUCH ATTENTION TO THE SETTING?
Count on plenty of candles – often half‐melted for extra‐atmospheric vibes – and the prettiest pavlovas whipped up by the older Du Toit, Anna.
Sophie: “We live on the Nanyang Technological University campus, as that’s where our mum works, making it a complete trek for friends who come and visit. This used to deter us from trying to host anything at home, but when Anna hosted her 19th birthday party at our place, we discovered how much we love the process of preparing, decorating and arranging our living and dining spaces for guests. Now, whenever friends come all the way to our home, we want the experience to be magical. Every gathering is different and exciting, and no two are the same because the occasions for them aren’t either.”
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Anna: “A big disclaimer: These dinners that we host are almost always cooked entirely by our helper Neng, who has been a part of our family for more than 20 years and is essentially our second mother. She’s a wizard in the kitchen who’s self‐taught and can easily cook up a 10‐course meal in a single afternoon. We sisters only prepare the starters, desserts and drinks. Our love of plating and hosting grew partly from wanting to present Neng’s cooking in ways that complement the dishes she prepares. For example, we’ve discovered so many ways to plate nasi kuning (yellow turmeric rice), inspired by both traditional and modern approaches drawn from Instagram accounts that we love, such as that of the Parisian creative culinary studio Balboste (@balboste_paris).”
YOU’RE MAKING US DROOL. WHAT’S USUALLY ON THE MENU?
Homey but make it haute might be an apt way of describing the Du Toit sisters’ approach to styling their dinner parties.
Sophie: “We typically serve a range of Indonesian dishes cooked by Neng. Her signatures usually comprise of the following: beef and chicken rendang (a stew with spices and coconut milk); ikan bilis (dried anchovies) in sweet dark sauce; nasi kuning topped with bawang goreng, or fried shallots; Indonesian corn fritters; bergedil (fried potato patty); and gado gado (an Indonesian salad) with thick peanut sauce. Anna will always finish off with some kind of baked dessert that she creates. Her pavlovas are absolutely divine, topped with heaps of forest berries and drenched in vanilla bean cream with always a few wild flowers framing the serving plate.”
AND HOW DO YOU USUALLY GO ABOUT MAKING A DINING EXPERIENCE IN YOUR HOME A VISUAL ONE TOO?
Sophie: “We’ve always loved tablescaping and sourcing for inspiration for it from just about anywhere – from Instagram to Pinterest. People are so incredibly creative and have such a strong aesthetic vision for how to make the eating experience different. Think of the process as similar to dressing up a set using ordinary objects, crockery and decorations. Since our dining table and cutlery remain the same, we like to add random things such as small stones Anna had picked up in Italy, which we use to hold down some napkins. And depending on who the guests are and the occasion we’re celebrating, we adapt our set‐up accordingly. If it’s just one guest, we might opt for something smaller scale and intimate, focusing on decorating solely the dining table, for instance. If it’s a birthday blowout with many friends sharing the space, we might create a self‐serve cocktail station and set up a lounge area in our living room so that every guest can move around freely, and not feel confined to the dining area alone.”
READ MORE: Sunny Han: On The Chic Art Of Hosting, Decorating And Dining
FAVOURITE ONLINE RESOURCES FOR TABLESCAPING INSPIRATION?
Anna: “My all‐time favourite food Instagrammer is (the New York‐based self‐taught baker) Aimee France. I’ve followed her since 2019 and I love her elaborate presentation of food.”
Sophie: “I rely heavily on Pinterest because I can find any kind of inspiration on it without it being specific to one creator or account. Things pop up on my feed all the time that I just know I would never have discovered if it were via Instagram or the net.”
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WHAT’S A MUST‐HAVE FOR CREATING A GOOD MOOD WHEN HOSTING A DINNER PARTY AT HOME?
A tip from this bohemian duo: lighting is everything, and throwing in unexpected elements, such as rocks used to hold down napkins, add a touch of fun and are conversation starters.
Anna: “Candles – warm, glowy, indirect lighting makes a dinner party. We tend to use a bunch of different candles from Ikea: those that are tapered, tealights and even stumpy ones used for kids’ birthday cakes. The differing heights and shapes of the candles help to add a sense of visual dynamism to the tablescape. I also like to intentionally let the wax collect when the candles are lit because it makes the environment more atmospheric. Used candles look beautiful too and can symbolise or suggest the number of times you’ve played host and lit them.”
AND WHAT’S A NO‐GO?
Anna: “Lighting is everything, so I’d say bright, sterile lighting, which immediately ruins the mood.”
Sophie: “Definitely exposed or bright sources of light. They completely change the ambience and character of the space in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable.”
OTHER TIPS ON THROWING A STYLISH DINNER PARTY?
Instead of buying new decorations each time, they tap the eclectic range of homeware and tableware they and their family have collected over the years – such as steel cutlery by South African artist Carrol Boyes (above left corner). It makes the experience more authentic and intimate, says Anna.
Anna: “Dinner parties feel authentic when you work with the space you have and the things you already own. This, in our opinion, gives the space personality and makes things feel approachable for guests. Using different plates and cutlery for each guest lends a special, personalised touch and makes one feel more like they’re in a home than at a restaurant, which is how things should be. We got this hack from House, a now‐defunct restaurant at Dempsey that served its food and drinks in all manner of eclectic objects.”
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Sophie: “When it comes to arranging the dining table, we think about what decorations or objects would visually complement the food. For example, to go with another Indonesian‐themed dinner recently, Anna draped large banana leaves across the dining table and used an assortment of tropical plants to frame the dishes.”
THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR BREVITY AND CLARITY.
This article first appeared in the December 2024 Food Edition of FEMALE