Kate Chastain’s Thanksgiving Tips For Looking Like You Have Your Life Figured Out

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Nov. 26, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET

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Kate Chastain

“God, I was so proud of this,” Kate Chastain said as she examined a photo of a 2012 Thanksgiving tablescape, the same one included below. The Below Deck chief stew was admiring her work, a gorgeously decorated table aboard a yacht that also received rave reviews from one of the guests aboard, none other than former host of The View, Star Jones. So what’s the story behind it, exactly? When we met up with Kate to get her tips for dos and don’ts when it comes to setting the Thanksgiving table, she walked us through this particularly memorable celebration and even offered up more of the gems that make her so exceptionally good at her job (and prove that she’s not just a chief stew on TV!).

“The truth is, this is when I was a second stew on the most expensive, highest award-winning charter yacht on the planet,” Kate relayed, in a tone that simply provided context and wasn’t at all meant to be a brag (for the record: my tone would be drenched with bragging). “It’s called Lady Joy and it’s owned by a very famous woman named Miss Rich, which I loved. She got a lot of her wealth from being a lyricist so we always had very high-profile celebrity guests on board.” Miss Rich didn’t mess around when it came to table decor, as Kate was sure to mention that she had “very strict table settings,” and this cruise from Ft. Lauderdale around the Bahamas during the November holiday was no exception.

“Miss Rich had one of those three-ring binders, the largest one you could get, with laminated sleeves in them full of table decorations. There’s like 400 pages and she was so specific that she would say to us, ‘I’m gonna want the butterfly table on page 372,’ and it would take two stewardesses over an hour just to set the table. And if you got a little creative because you’re like, I think this would fit here, she was nice about it but while you’re refilling her rose she would be like, ‘Hey, um, the table looks beautiful. I see you got a little creative,’ which meant, ‘I like what I like, don’t try and change stuff.’”

So while Kate was the second stew during this charter, that’s only because the chief stew spent most of her time in the wheelhouse doing accounts. Her chief stew also hailed from Germany so she was unaware of the American holiday, and gasp! Miss Rich did not have a tablescape for the holiday in her massive binder. So Kate, with the help of the two stews underneath her, “Was ready to do it up.”

Kate Chastain's Thanksgiving table decorations
Kate Chastain

While this particular yacht had “so many sets of plates” (including a Hermes set, of course), she set them around the cornucopia centerpiece and offered, “Looking at this now I maybe would’ve changed out the rattan plate. That’s a double placemat situation because I really wanted to go for it. It’s like in the 80s, wearing two pairs of socks. [With] the rattan, I was trying to bring in the basket of the cornucopia but what I’m most proud of are the squash turkeys.”

Yes please, let’s get to the construction of those adorable place setting pets! Kate used butternut squash to create these and cut them on the bias so that they stand up on the plates. “Those are cloves that go in for the eyes which make them look like cross-eyed cuties. Then it’s just [the corner] of a paper bag as the beak. It adds to the organicness of it. I don’t like when I see cake decorating videos or garnishes on plates, if it’s not edible or organic I think it’s cheating. I like to keep it cloves and squash and the paper bag is a little bit cheating but it’s okay. And it’s really funny because all the squashes are different shapes, they really have their own personalities when we had them all lined up.” Can you already hear your family’s excited squeals when they discover these super cute squashies on their plates this year?

To create the full turkey look, Kate explains she doubled up again on the napkins behind them, with a simple fan style. “In any table setting, there’s one that’s used as a napkin and then there’s one we call the fluff. It can be organza, something that wouldn’t necessarily remove food from your mouth but it really adds a lot of visual interest.”

Oh, you want visual interest? Look no further than the eye-catching middle of this table — created with a trick you can totally use at home. Kate called this “One of my favorite tricks for table setting, and this is what we did for every table, Miss Rich trained us well.” The stews would retrieve all the decorations they would need for the table, including Tupperware containers of plastic beads. And then the fun begins. “You empty [the Tupperware] out and then you flip it upside down. It gives you levels and then you put the runners over it and then you can display things at different heights. You can use cereal boxes, I use whatever I find lying around that’s square.” And then the best part? You clean up the table decor, store them back in the Tupperware and put them away. Voila! No extra purchases necessary.

Kate said she does a version of this for her family, though admitted: “My mom’s house doesn’t have the same [elements as] Miss Rich, but I can make it work.” She’s been known to cover the boxes with clothes, scarves, really “any piece of fabric and that already looks dramatic.” For more drama, Kate rummages around in the kitchen to complete her table look. “I like mixing floral, fruit from the kitchen, anything you have lying around. We once had a white party on the boat and we had nothing white so I spray painted some pineapples white.” She’ll also head outside for some more finishing touches, picking up “pinecones from our front yard, you put some little flowers in the nooks and crannies, it looks gorgeous.” The thesis of Kate’s decorations? “Anything with a hole is a vase.”

Looking for an easier way to remember it? “Focus, filler, and feature,” Kate said, breaking it down. “The focus is the cornucopia, that’s the main theme. Filler, any fall leaves, if it’s spring, ivy leaves, if it’s a beach scene, shells. You need something flat to fill in the space. And then I like to add a little bling at the end, you need a mix.”

So if you’re making one last trip outside and braving the grocery store before your big Thanksgiving celebration, Kate recommends picking up “pumpkins, small little cutie ones: anything miniature is cute. I have two miniature pumpkins on my windowsill in my apartment now. If I have time I might paint some of them because it’s really elegant but organic.” For other filler ideas, Kate said, “I would probably look for garland, it can be artificial so you can reuse it.” She also suggested stopping by “the produce section and get colorful vegetables that are shiny but then you can eat them in a salad the next day.”

And if you really want your dinner to be lit (lol) Kate says, “I like a white candle, I don’t really like colored candles, it reminds me too much of advent being a Catholic school girl. On boats, we use the flameless candles which are great and all but I like a real candle. You can use the flameless ones for mixing in but you gotta have at least a few real ones to be elegant. Also when you get a new candle, always light the wick. Never in your home have a candle that has a white wick, that’s bad manners.”

There’s just one more item to add to your last-minute list, hosts and hostesses: a bouquet of flowers, which Kate suggests spreading around your home. “I’ll buy a bouquet for myself and some of it will end up in the bathroom, flowers should always be there in a little vase, as well as entryway flower and end table flowers, three places you gotta have them.”

The option for those not leaving their house again this week is simple: “Trim from your neighbor’s hard. I do that all the time. Sometimes it looks better because it’s from the environment, not trying too hard.”

Ultimately, for the table and each place setting, Kate says, “More is more. You are building a tower, a tower of elegance.” A tower that consists of: “Tablecloth, a runner, a charger for the placemat, a placemat, a charger for the plate, decorative plate for the actual plate. We’re talking seven items, just keep adding stuff.” She even credits napkin rings as “just another sign of elegance. The more shit you have on the table, the fancier you are.” You already know that applies to your glassware, as well (you know, the thing that holds all the wine you’re sure to consume). “You can have a glass that’s nice but then you have a coaster, and then you have a doily. And those are silver, nothing plastic. Nothing. Plastic. Nothing plastic ever.”

Instead, Kate recommends putting your energy toward a paper accessory instead. “Love place cards, handwritten if you have good handwriting, I do.” Okay, so maybe that’s the first brag of this conversation, but hey, I’d say she’s earned it! Her tip? “Maybe take a calligraphy class,” she laughed. “Morning of, watching YouTube videos,” she says, probably slightly joking, but ultimately, not really. “It makes people feel special and it’s also really helpful. If you have a big family, generally some people kind of hate each other, so you can be in control and make it a peaceful evening for everyone… or entertaining for just you.”

If you’re in the market for some edible tips, don’t worry, Kate’s got those too. She offers up, “freezing pieces of fruit in ice, that always looks impressive. Get a punch bowl, and you can theme out a sangria: fall sangria, summer sangria. Sangria is cheap wine mixed with whatever you have lying around. Then you throw some ice cubes in there that maybe you froze, the freezer does all the work, and it looks like you really just have your life figured out.” And it’s not just tasty, it’s also easy to serve — because you don’t have to do it! “[Your guests are] serving themselves so you don’t have to worry about what drink do you want, do you have a drink? You know where the punchbowl is, people!” She does have one tip for that serving vessel though, and one that she can’t emphasize enough. “I hope that that punchbowl is Stirling silver heirloom passed down, not plastic. No plastic anything. No plastic cups, no plastic cutlery, ever. Even when I get to-go food, no. I say, don’t even bother with the cutlery. I’m not even trying to save sea turtles.” She just truly despises plastic that much.

For an app, Kate said, “I think deviled eggs are classic, I love them, they’re also very simple. If you want to feel fancy you can put filler in a zip lock bag and cut the corner like a piping bag then you look really cool.” For the main course, she says, there should be two kinds of stuffing: “Classic, and the one that has crazy fruits and stuff, jazzy.” And finally for dessert, “I like to do a pumpkin pecan pie because I feel like pumpkin is too pumpkiny and pecan is too much candy, so they mesh together really well.”

Phew! What a delicious course of tips this has been. But before you settle your butt on the couch, Kate needs you to remember, “Don’t be a guest and not wash your own dish. The hostess of the event, she should be sitting down and you should be waiting on her hand and foot. Everybody else should be in there helping with the dishes. Do not let the host touch a dish.”

Below Deck airs Monday at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

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