What it really takes to turn your home into a restaurant for a night
It starts innocently enough. A few friends over for dinner; they compliment your duck roast or vindaloo, and someone half-jokes that you should charge for it. Secretly, you consider it…you love to cook, people love new food experiences. The fantasy of starting a supper club is tempting. The logistics — slightly less so. For your venture to be more than a one-hit wonder or worse, a financially ruinous prospect, there are a lot of fine print to keep in mind. And it helps to learn from those who’ve already tallied the spreadsheet, scrubbed the pans, set a beautiful table, and cooked scrumptious meals one weekend to the next. Here’s a six-point guide to all you need to know before starting your first supper club.
Nicole Juneja, who runs Delhi-based supper club Mood with her mother Kusuma, recounts the first dinner they hosted in 2018: “We wanted them to have a good spread, so we served rice, momos, thukpa, tingmo, and everything that we possibly could. It’s safe to say we went a bit overboard.” Mood’s menu draws from Kusuma’s hometown of Bara Mangwa near Darjeeling, with dishes drawing from a unique confluence of Tibetan, Bhutanese, and Nepali flavours that the mother-daughter duo are enthusiastic about sharing with diners in Delhi. These days, however, they’re more strategic with their portions and avoid excessive leftovers by pulling back on carb-heavy dishes, which tend to fill people up the most. “You can offer variety, but it’s usually a better idea to do that with veggies, pickles, and meat instead of rice and maida.” Over in Guwahati, Kashmiri Barkakati Nath, who hosts Assamese pop-ups from her home, shares another tip to make sure all the food is wiped clean. “Most people make the mistake of going too heavy on appetisers,” she says. “Guests enter hungry and can’t stop munching on the first course, so by the time the mains get to the table, they’re already stuffed.”
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