Restaurants in stranger's houses

[Heyjoni]

OK, "restaurant" is maybe a bit of an exaggeration (!) but I need to know if anyone else remembers a trend a few years ago of going to someone's house and them cooking for you? Like an amateur chef in their own house? With other strangers there?

All pre-Covid obviously.

DP thinks I'm imagining it! I never actually did it but I remember it being a bit of a thing. It must be true, the Guardian was all over it!

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Did anyone do it?

To add to my earlier post up thread OP. The Vietnamese place I went to had apparently be purchased almost solely for the supper club nights! The downstairs was a kitchen/diner/lounge with about 6 tables squished in with maybe 4-6 seats each one. No other furniture at all and clearly a money making scheme.

The others I went to were smaller, clearly someones home/garden and more about food/conversation etc.

I recall websites dedicated to them- area by area, food theme, suggested price etc.

Ah supper clubs - I went to a really arty one once. My friend had a spare ticket and knew the hosts. It was a sophisticated evening that turned into a total piss up and a house party

there's an article about it here:
https://www.marionkane.com/foodies/ms-marmite-lover-is-londons-most-influential-foodie/

She now charges £50, which is pretty reasonable for London (bring your own wine though).

Yes I went to one once and dragged the DH too. In London. Possibly in Hackney or Walthamstow - that sort of area. It was food from Georgia and Russia - the cook was from that background. The good parts were: the food was nice and the chef introduced each course with a little spiel about it. Other things I remember: there were more women than men. You were obliged to chat to a group of strangers for about 3 hours, which was OK but quite hard work. I never went to another one! I think social media and pop-ups have usurped houses now

Great link @LionAndEmperor13
Fifty quid though! 😮

I went to one. It was good. £20 for a five course meal in someone’s house. I sat next to random people and chatted. Maybe around 10 people there.

I went to one in Warwickshire - someone I know hosted them on his narrowboat. 4 of us went, and there were 4 other people there, and it was a brilliant evening! The host was a great cook - we had an amazing meal (esp given it was cooked in a tiny narrowboat kitchen for 9 of us), the conversation was interesting, and we met some new people. IIRC he didn't charge much - maybe between £20-£30 for a 3 course meal.

This place is going strong in Coventry - restaurant prices, but cooked in his home. Apparently very good though... https://www.earlsdonsupperclub.co.uk/

I remember watching this too and it feels like years and years ago. Amusing to watch though. I'd hate to go to something like that, especially if the house was slightly grubby.

But 5 to 7 courses apparently - also London prices!
Looks like she has a lovely house & garden. I'd definitely go if I still lived there!

Yeh, thinking about it that's pretty good even at London prices. I was initially shocked because where I live I'd have to extract maximum a tenner out of people's wallets with a pair of pliers 😆

I'd also go if I lived there, not least because I'm massively nosey about other people's houses and gardens

Yeah, I went to a Halloween themed one once. There were about 25 randoms there. I think it was £25 and we brought our own wine. I was expecting quite a fancy dinner but if I remember correctly it was stew in a mini pumpkin and Halloween themed cupcakes. The venue was someone big studio/converted warehouse in Shoreditch. Was sat next to the most boring man I’ve ever met in my life who spent an hour telling me about the electrics in his plumbed in static caravan.

I wasn’t impressed, I was in the pub by 10.

I went to quite a few of these around 2010-2012, they were run by people with a passion for food and all of them have gone onto develop careers in the industry, writing cook books and on television etc. It was a fun way of meeting with like-minded individuals and sharing food/drinks. The food was usually sharing platters and you would bring a bottle of wine which most people would also share. Some of those I attended in the early days are still running so must still be a demand for them

that sounds awful!!
I think it'd be quite different though if you were actually in someone's home, with them personally hosting. It still depends on the other guests though, I think you were really unlucky.
I always imagined it would be a group of 8-10 quirky, interesting people with completely different backgrounds, all mingling nicely together!

There was one near me, he apparently stopped because it wasn't cost effective, in about 2022, I guess after the costs of everything soared post the invasion of Ukraine.

Why bother replying?

I am sure the TV chef Clodagh McKenna was doing a supper club just before Christmas so maybe still a thing to some extent

A good friend did supper clubs when she was trying to make the break from chef-ing in restaurant kitchens to running her own show - it was a great way to get her food and her name out there without all the business strategy and overheads of opening her own restaurant, and really made her: she’s now an incredibly successful professional chef for high profile dinner parties and events etc.

There was one not too far from me that had a similar set up. The did it because they couldn't get planning permission for a restaurant.

We did it the other way around!
A Chef came to my parents house and cooked as a lovely meal there - it was something my mum got from her church auction so I'm not sure if it's really a thing or just an idea this guy had!

I remember a trend for pop up restaurants in private homes. It was a money making venture for home cooks.

Why bother asking me this

Oh it was in someone’s house sorry- the big warehouse conversion. The host was a glamorous French lady and when I said I didn’t speak ithe language she hastily swapped my place card and put it down the end of the table- I do have a French sounding name- and all night I wished I was down that end as there was a lot of laughter and talk of interesting things and I was stuck next to a static caravan fanatic who didn’t ask me a single question about myself, and on my other side a nice enough woman but with nothing to say to anyone except the friend she’d arrived with. I think I drank the entire bottle of wine I’d brought to myself. I definitely think I was unlucky! Not sure what possessed me to do it in the first place really though 🤣

She was involved in the Olympics Worldscape I referred to up thread.

I thought it was funny @Differentstarts! Not a clue was pretty much what my DP said!
But now I have evidence that I didn't dream it

Was it in Hackney? 🤔