How to organise a Supper Club & Cooking Class for 12 people and stay calm
Two Kitchens is a new Supper Club & Cooking class in Brussels and it’s actually me organising it. Not only me, because this is a common project with Sophia, a hobby chef and food blogger like me, who is very talented and extremely nice as well. The supper club is about cooking for and together with people, who are interested into food and cooking and want to share their passion with others and learn something at the same time. The dishes are inspired by seasonal and regional vegetables and simply put, things Sophia and I like to cook.
But let me start from the beginning. Sophia and I were following each other on Instagram, taking inspiration from each other’s work. One day, I received a message from her asking to meet for coffee and just talk food. A few days later, we met at Living Room (more here) enjoying the warm July weather, an iced latte and a piece of cake. Yes, one piece to share, that’s were foodie friendships start. We talked about the Brussels food scene and how we both want to start a Supper Club: dinners (or other occasions), where we cook for people and teach them some food tricks and recipes.
And so it happened, quicker and more efficient than expected. We met a couple of times in September and October, brainstormed ingredients and recipes, wine and decoration and within the blink of an eye it was beginning of November. We designed menus and invites, published the event and organised a test dinner for our closest friends to brutally rate our cooking performance.
Three weeks of recipe testing and tweaking later we were finally happy with our menu. Our philosophy is to use mostly seasonal, local and regional ingredients for our dinners, ingredients that are often being forgotten or seen as boring, but have huge potential to be one of the most delicious things you’ve ever eaten.
26th November was the day. At 1pm we were quite relaxed, trying food, laughing while being quite nervous to talk in front of 12 to us unknown people, who found our event via Facebook and Instagram, and what’s more, cook a four-course dinner for everyone while staying cool and maybe being funny as well. At 5pm we got a bit stressed and started rushing and when the first guest arrived we were still assembling the little recipe books which we prepared for our guests to take home after the event, but it was fine, we stayed calm.
We greeted everyone with a glass of Cremant from La Trinquette and the evening began. Together with a very motivated bunch we prepared butter with preserved lemon and sumac (a dried berry with a sourish taste) paired with some slices of homemade sourdough bread, baked by us. Followed by a grain salad with cilantro, basil, parsley, mint, roasted almonds, golden raisins and a dressing from fresh orange juice and olive oil as well as homemade Labne with Ras-el-Hanout oven-roasted carrots and Zhoug, a Greek and also Middle Eastern spice vinaigrette. Everyone sat down and we started serving the actual dinner.
On our autumn inspired menu:
- Honey & orange roasted beetroot feta dip, chili-thyme-cinnamon butternut squash & chickpea dip, sumac-preserved lemon butter, homemade sourdough bread
- Herby grain salad (as described above), Ras-el-Hanout roasted carrots
- Maple and Bourbon roasted short ribs (or the veggie option: Japanese marinated Hokkaido pumpkin with melted maple-Piment d’Espelette butter), celeriac potato mash, kohlrabi apple salad with black sesame seeds, cilantro and black lime
- Whole orange cake with cardamom cream
We decided to go for French wines from La Trinquette only and to serve some coffee from Belga & Co along with dessert.
People seemed very content and it was an amazing experience. It felt great to having managed such a challenge; it was great to see that so many people are interested in what you have to say about food but also to exchange views and ideas together with people with different nationalities and eating customs. We’re definitely going to host more of these events. For now, the next cookery class we’re offering is a Christmas Cookie Class (check here) which will happen on 11th and 19th December. There are still a few free spots and we would be delighted to meet new people, so feel free to drop us an email and to register for this Christmas inspired experience.
