Meet Stephanie Nass, also known as Chefanie, a New York-based caterer and designer. In 2019, she launched her own line of tableware and accessories to make home entertaining fun. While she uses her grandmother's table pieces often, she is also constantly renewing ideas and improving products to keep them relevant, fresh and new for today.

I sat down with Stephanie, wearing our Short-Sleeve Maxi Dress in Green Flora, to talk about pursuing a career in food, her favorite restaurants in New York and where she finds inspiration.

When did you fall in love with food and how did you decide to pursue it?

As long as I've been cognizant, I've never not been in love with food. It's a lifelong love affair. I first remember actively articulating the desire to pursue food as my career with I was 16 or 17 years old and taking cooking lessons in Western France. Meeting chefs who had turned a passion for food into a livelihood showed me it was possible.

In building your company, you've launched Victory Club, a catering business and a home accessories shop. How has your entrepreneurship journey progressed and what were the hardest parts?

The journey has progressed quite organically with ideas growing out of each venture. The hardest parts have always been the most rewarding - and have begun with not knowing how to do something. I'm now addicted to this process of trying new things. I'm currently busy developing a book! Cannot wait to share it with you.

Is there one thing in particular that has always inspired you or are you always finding inspiration in new places?

I'm constantly mulling over everything I see, hear or taste - painting, sculpture, nature, Pinterest, films, fashion, dishes at restaurants - for inspiration.

How does renewal play a role in your business?

With design, everything is built upon what came before it. My styles of hosting, cooking, decorating and socializing are, in many ways, a reaction to what my parents have shown me. These days, I'm adapting recipes to be keto, serving styles to be covid-compliant, table linens to be used outdoors, straws to be ceramic - renewing ideas and products to be relevant today.

Do you have favorite NYC restaurants that you'd recommend?

Felice 64, Casa Enrique, Shuka, Fiorello...

What makes you feel personally renewed and ready to take on what's next?

Time spent with smart, creative, kind, honest people.