This week we’re proud to have a guest blog post from Uyen Luu, supper club owner extraordinaire. Here, Uyen writes about the movement of supper clubs and how her and her partner Simon Fernandez’s supper club, Fernandez & Leluu, has influenced them in the past year.

Supper clubs, the new trend for private dinners held in someone’s home, where you get to sit with other guests, just like at a friend’s dinner party, is blooming on all our street corners. You get to enjoy whatever the host is cooking up, you bring your own wine and you make a donation towards the cost of the meal. You hear about it through friends, through blogs and through secret things to do.

This time last year, we had no idea that this time this year, we would be having hundreds of people on a waiting list, wanting to have dinner in our flat! On top of that, we had no idea that we would make so many foodie friends and get invited to restaurant openings, launches, press events and parties – where we get to meet even more friends and spread the word about our supper club, Fernandez & Leluu.

I met Simon at the end of 2008 when Simon gate-crashed my dinner party. It was apt that we met in the kitchen where we now host a supper club, cooking up 8-course meals for 26 people over 2 or 3 nights every fortnight.

Having already had a surprising amount of guests in our home for dinner, including the legendary supper club maestro, Jim Haynes, we have made many good friends and connections where we would not have otherwise done. We have become part of a movement – engineered and pioneered by our own hands.

Supper clubs are held in beautiful to trendy council estate homes, to Michelin Star Chefs’ posh lofts. Every supper club boasts its own uniqueness and holds true character to the owner’s identity. Places are in high demand due to the trend – eating experiences has evolved and people are too used to eating out. Nowadays, people want to enjoy dinner and make friends in the process!

As we talk about movements, more and more supper clubs are opening, because, for those who love cooking and entertaining, what better way to master your skills, try out new things, make new friends and divert your life into other directions? Having a home restaurant, you do not need to go to chef school, you do not need to get a business premise – you just do it around a dinner table!

People always ask if we mind having all these people in our home. If we did, we wouldn’t be doing this. We believe that good food makes us all feel so well and invites us to open ourselves towards and accept others around us. Having a new group of people enjoying our food and making friends, turning the room into an electric atmosphere is always such a high. There are tons of roars, laughter and banter: and ideas, concepts and trends are shared while engaging with each other over great (hopefully!) food.

It feels really good. I think we must be addicted to this high. We love to see happy faces and we’ve made friends with so many happy faces this past year.

Check out Fernandez and Leluu’s blog for upcoming supper clubs, and don’t forget to browse the tasty menus…

Thanks to Guilherme Zauith for use of photos.

Tags: Fernandez and Leluu, Food, guest blog post, private dinners, supper clubs, underground restaurants