Supper clubs are sprouting up across Britain (and the world) and it seems that I was rather late to the party. I went to my very first supper club last night and it was totally divine.
What is a supper club? I hear you ask, well its a bit like ‘Come Dine With Me’ except there’s no score cards involved, snooping around the house or a £1000 in prize money….so maybe it isn’t like ‘Come Dine With Me’ at all.
A Supper club is basically a cross between a dinner party and a restaurant for a very select number of people. Its a simple concept that has been taken up by top chefs and foodies alike allowing you to show off your culinary skills to paying guests whether it be once a month or even just a couple of times a year .
Maybe I should try setting up my own supper club?….although maybe it would be more like a ‘pudding club’ if I ran it.
Dinner At The Manor, a secret supper club in Leeds, is in its fifth year now (so is my blog, so cheers to being five!) and has proven to be extremely popular. Indeed if you want to go to one of their supper clubs you better act quickly as places get filled up very very quickly. Many of the guests last night (all first-timers to the Manor) had tried to go to an event before but the places were sold out so quickly that they missed out. My mother and I included.
Dan and Susie (our chefs for the evening) normally base their evenings around a theme or a particular cookbook. I love this idea as many of the cookbooks I own get put on the shelf to gather dust and I will only ever use one or two recipes from them .
The theme for last night was ‘Italian small plates’ featuring many culinary delights from around Tuscany and Florence. It was inspired by Susie’s recent trip to that area of Italy and as we had also been there not that long ago….well it was fate wasn’t it! You could go and read about our trip here if you wanted to.
Past themes have included a Byzantine Feast and Leeds Indie Food to list only the most recent.
One of the things I loved about this secret supper club is that they only told you the location and menu a week before so anticipation was high!
Upon arrival at the manor we were greeted with a Compon Spritz cocktail and I was very much impressed that a non-alcoholic version was also available most probably for the ones who were driving but I liked how well thought out the sentiment was.
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| Polpette with mozerlla and tomato pictured with my non-alcoholic Compon Spritz |
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| Chicken liver and balsamic onion crostini |
The food was absolutely divine and I particularly enjoyed the succulent pork belly and my absolute favourite the apricot, lemon and almond frangipane tart with vanilla risotto semi-freddo.
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| Sprouting broccoli with pancetta and hot olive sauce |
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| Prosciutto and butternut squash with ricotta |
The small dishes which came to nine courses in total included many flavour combinations which I would not have necessarily thought of putting together such as the prosciutto, butternut squash and ricotta yet I would recommend that you try it because its truly delicious.
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| Chilli crab risotto with samphire |
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| Pork belly, radicchio and hazelnuts |
The chilli crab risotto with samphire went down particularly well with the other guests although as I am not a fan of chilli it was a bit too spicy for me. Nevertheless I loved the creamy texture of the risotto juxtaposed with the crunchiness of the samphire.
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| White peach sorbet |
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| Apricot, lemon and almond frangipane tart with vanilla risotto semi-freddo and apricot |
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| Amaretto chocolate truffle and tea (or coffee) |
A final word on supper clubs: heaven for food lovers!
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