Tomète at Valentine in Paris
At Tomète, we celebrate the art of hospitality.
Invite your guests, choose the menu, do the shopping, cook, set the table, arrange the flowers, select good wine and good music, finally sit down and enjoy the evening with your loved ones.
The Tomète collections are aimed at women and men who like to receive and are sensitive to the aesthetics and quality of the objects placed in their homes.
We decided to meet inspiring people, who have the same sensitivity as us.
It's Valentine Negroni's turn to open the doors of her apartment to us, where she lives with her husband Townley and their little Orso. 
Valentine divides her time between Paris, where she works, as well as Brittany and Corsica, where she escapes as soon as possible to breathe and reconnect with her family roots.
These different geographical influences are reflected in its clothing style and interior decoration, which are a subtle blend of sophistication and naturalness.
Valentine receives in her image: a pretty refined table and friendly dishes that tell her roots. Style and Corsican or Breton specialities, the assurance of an all-in-all successful evening!
Welcome to Valentine.
Tomète: What type of host are you? Reflection and preparations weeks before or rather "last minute"?
Valentine: Completely last minute – but super organized. With my husband we love to receive and we divide the roles: I choose the menu, and take care of setting a nice table, he manages the shopping and the cooking.
What is your ideal number of guests?
On weekdays I love dinners for 4, it's ideal to really enjoy our guests. On weekends and on vacation, rather large tables, 6, 8, 10… we are above all trying to create a team that works.
If you could invite just one guest to your next dinner party, alive or dead, who would it be?
Julia Roberts!
A piece that we will listen to for sure if we are invited to your house:
Your song by Billy Joel! And also a lot of Paolo Conte, Cesaria Evora… hard to choose!
The cocktail or the drink that we can hope to taste when arriving at your place :
I would like to say a Negroni… but rather a good bottle of white Burgundy.
Your dream menu includes...
I have two, impossible to choose. Linguine with langoustines or beef-carrot/coquillettes. Very different but I have a passion for both dishes.
What gift do you usually give to your hosts when you are invited?
Flowers without hesitation, it is done less and less and personally I love to receive them, or the Tomète jewelry napkin rings – which have their effect every time.
What place does the art of the table have in your family? A memorable memory or a specificity to share on your family meals?
Large tables have a central place in our family life. I have a very large family, and my oldest memories go back to my childhood, when we arrived in Brittany at my grandparents' and there were so many of us that there was the adult table and the children's table. My grandmother spent her days in the kitchen preparing lunches and dinners for 25 people, all that for 1 month! the tradition: 1 different cake every evening! Her cookbook that we got back is a real gold mine and each recipe is a Proust madeleine that we have in common with all my cousins.
My mom is also a wonderful cook, and setting a nice table is, for her as for me, just as important as the recipe. We spend time choosing our dishes, tablecloths, table decoration. It is a whole that contributes to the happiness of receiving.
A book of recipes or decoration to recommend to help our readers prepare their next receptions?
The book "Chez Miss Maggie's kitchen: recipes and art of living" I really like the vintage chic atmosphere of Héloise and her super friendly and easy to reproduce recipes.
Share an anecdote about the worst experience you've had at a party?
A dinner that turned into a fiasco. We received two couples of friends for dinner and I decided to cook one of my favorite recipes, cannelloni with brocciu, a typical Corsican dish. At the time of going to the table, moment of embarrassment, my first guest reminds me that he is allergic to goat cheese, while the other asks me if the sauce is vegetarian. The sauce is veal and the brocciu is goat cheese… My two guests ended up with spaghetti in olive oil, because I didn't even have a spare sauce and an empty fridge. It made the others happy, who were able to finish the dish.
Your favorite at Tomète:
The scalloped round placemats from the LE FESTIN collection. On a raw wooden tray or over a tablecloth, they give a table a crazy look.
Who would you like to see on our newspaper?
Maria de la Orden, a Spanish designer who loves the art of the table and whose world is incredibly elegant.
