Menageri by Kay Bojesen: Oak Bowls, Mills and How They Pair

Menageri is the Kay Bojesen range that moves the brand from the shelf to the dining table: bowls, mills, a serving dish and bar tools turned from oak and walnut. This piece looks at what each object does, how the two bowl sizes work as a pair, and how to build a table setting from the range one piece at a time.

A table language in turned wood

The name says a lot. Menageri is the Danish word for a menagerie, a collection of animals, and the range is meant to sit on the same table as the wooden monkeys, bears and elephants the brand is known for. It does not copy them. There are no ears, no tails and no painted faces. What the serving pieces share with the animals is a way of working with wood: simple turned volumes, soft edges, no hardware on show and nothing applied to the surface that competes with the grain.

That is the useful idea behind the range. Instead of a set of identical objects, it is a family of shapes in two woods. Oak carries the bowls, the serving dish, the pepper mill and the oil and vinegar bottle. Smoked oak appears in the salt and pepper set, where one of the pair is darker than the other. Walnut is reserved for the corkscrew and the bottle opener, the two tools that live closest to the wine. Put any three of them together and they read as related, because the curves and the finish come from the same hand.

Turned wood also changes how a table feels. Porcelain and glass reflect light; oak absorbs it. A couple of Menageri pieces among white plates and clear glasses add warmth without adding colour, which is why they sit as easily beside Danish ceramics as they do on a bare wooden table.

Two bowls, two jobs

The heart of the range is a pair of bowls. The Menageri Bowl Ø14 cm oak is the small one: a size for nuts, olives, berries, a portion of crisps or a dipping sauce, and for the jobs nobody plans, such as holding keys or a few lemons on the counter. It is easy to hold in one hand and small enough to pass around the table.

The Menageri Serving bowl Ø24.5 cm oak is the main event. At Ø24.5 cm it takes a salad for four, a loaf of bread broken into pieces, or a heap of fruit in the middle of the table. It is the piece that anchors the middle of the table, with the smaller pieces arranged around it.

Used together, the two sizes do something neither does alone. The large bowl holds the dish; the small one holds what goes with it. A green salad in the Ø24.5 cm bowl with toasted seeds or shaved cheese in the Ø14 cm bowl beside it is the obvious example. So is a bowl of fruit with a small bowl of nuts, or bread with a small bowl of salted butter. Because both are turned in the same oak with the same profile, the pair looks deliberate even when the meal is not.

If you are starting from nothing, begin with the large bowl. It is the piece you will use most often and the one that sets the tone of the table. Add one or two of the small bowls later; two small bowls flanking one large one is a balanced arrangement for a table of four to six. The range also includes a Menageri serving dish at Ø24.5 cm in oak, which matches the large bowl in diameter but works as a flatter surface for cheese, cured meats or a whole cake.

Salt, pepper, oil and vinegar

The condiment pieces are where the range is most playful. The Menageri Salt and pepper set H6 cm oak/smoked oak pairs a light oak shaker with a smoked oak one. The two tones are the label: you know which is which without reading anything, and the contrast gives a very small object a clear presence on the table. At H6 cm they are low and compact, easy to leave out between meals.

For freshly ground pepper there is the Menageri Pepper mill H9.5 cm oak. At H9.5 cm it is short for a mill, which suits it to the table rather than the stove: it stands below the rim of most glasses and does not block the view across the table. It pairs naturally with the salt and pepper set, so you can keep ground pepper in the shaker for cooking and use the mill when serving.

The oil and vinegar bottle, at H15 cm in oak, is the tallest piece in the condiment group and gives a cluster of Menageri objects its high point. Grouped on a small tray or directly on the table, the bottle, the mill and the shakers make a stepped line of heights: H15, H9.5 and H6 cm. That gradient is why they look composed even when they are simply pushed together at the end of a meal.

Walnut for the bar

Two pieces break from oak. The Menageri corkscrew (H11) and opener (H4) are turned in walnut, a darker, browner wood with a finer, more even grain. The change of material marks a change of job: these are tools rather than vessels, and the deeper colour sits well beside wine bottles and darker glass. They are also the pieces most likely to live outside the dining room, in a drinks cabinet or on a bar cart, where walnut tends to match other furniture.

On the table, the walnut tools work as an accent. One dark piece among several oak ones gives the eye somewhere to stop, in the same way the smoked oak shaker does within the salt and pepper set.

Living with oak and walnut on the table

Menageri is made for daily handling, and the wood will show that use over time. A few simple habits keep it looking right:

• Wash the bowls by hand with mild soap and dry them straight away. Do not leave wood soaking in water or put it in the dishwasher.
• Let pieces dry standing on their side or upside down so air reaches every surface.
• If the surface starts to look dry or pale, a thin coat of food-safe oil, wiped off after a few minutes, brings back depth to the grain.
• Keep the small bowls for dry or lightly dressed food; oily sauces are better served from a dish you can wash more freely.

Oak darkens slightly and warms in tone with age and light. That is part of the appeal: after a few years the bowls on your table will look like they belong to it. Smoked oak and walnut start darker, so the contrast in the salt and pepper set and between oak and walnut pieces stays readable.

Building a Menageri table

The range works best collected over time rather than bought as a block. A sensible order for a household that cooks most days:

1. The Menageri Serving bowl Ø24.5 cm oak for salads, bread and fruit.
2. The salt and pepper set, which is on the table at every meal.
3. One or two of the Ø14 cm bowls for sides and snacks.
4. The pepper mill and the oil and vinegar bottle once the table needs height.

For anyone who already owns a Kay Bojesen animal or two, the range is a way of carrying the same material and feeling from the sideboard to the table, and our guide to choosing the Kay Bojesen elephant, hippo or zebra covers the figures that sit best beside it. To see Menageri alongside grinders, boards and storage from other Danish makers, browse the full Kitchen collection.