Savour culinary stories, connect over food at NCR chefs’ homes

Have you run out of restaurants on your go-to list? Try home tables – where chefs and their families serve home-cooked food, share flavourful stories and provide an intimate yet community-driven experience at their abode. At NCR’s supper clubs and home tables, gastronomes bond over food and leave as friends, say chefs.

Quest for wholesome regional food experiences on the rise
Stories are served along with food, say chefs.“We’ve seen a rise in supper clubs at people’s homes in Mumbai and Bengaluru. In Delhi, there isn’t currently a huge market for it yet but it is growing. Dining at someone’s home is much more intimate and communal. The food can become a starting point for people to get to know each other. Some chefs’ tables are largely focused on particular cuisines. I’ve come across Sichuan, Bengali, Korean and Thai cuisines,” says chef Kartikeya.

"Food pop-ups at home have a different charm – there’s the comfort of being at home and also the luxury of being served scrumptious food. From the ceremonial Himachali dhaam and gucchi to siddu, plum chutney and patrode, the Himachali thali gives you a taste of regional dishes from Dhauladhar, Pir Panjal, Solan, Kullu and more. During these tables, khoob kisse aur kahaniyan share hoti hain, baatien hoti hain. Mujhe logon se bahut kuch seekhne ko milta hai, nayi recipes bhi!,," says Chef Nitika Kuthiala, who does a monthly pop-up of Himachali food, called Neuandar, meaning an invitation to a feast in Himachali, at her Noida home.


Home chefs serve dishes they have grown up eating
Kamalika and Som, who experienced the supper club culture in Mumbai, started an adda-inspired home table at their Gurgaon residence last year. “We have had more great experiences dining at home tables than restaurants. I started something similar in my Gurgaon home so that foodies and travellers can bond at the adda. Ordering-in from home chefs is a prevalent concept in NCR, but we want people to join the adda and eat with us. Guests usually arrive at 1 pm and leave by 5 or 6 pm. The home table menus include Bengali dishes that we have grown up eating or family recipes that have been added to our collection over the years. The guests share their stories about food and travel, memories from their childhood and more,” they say.

‘Welcome to eat and relish’ reads chef Surabhi Bhandari’s social media invite for a “Marwadi jeeman” at her Gurgaon home. “Jeeman is a Marwadi term, meaning eating a meal together. The idea was to let people experience Marwadi culinary culture, where a six-course meal begins with one sweet and ends with another. In our monthly pop-up, we host 15 people, with my entire family involved in hosting the guests. From papad ki sabji in summers to bhutta ki sabji, dal-baati in monsoon, the menu is curated keeping the season in mind,” she tells us.

‘Home tables offer a gateway to different cultures’
“Opening your homes to strangers can be daunting but we realised it is a gateway to different cultures. The concept is growing, with more home chefs bringing their regional cuisines to the fore,” says chef Surabhi.
Sneha Lata Saikia, who started her ‘Table For Six Luncheon’ in 2019, says, "Over the years I have realised that Delhiites love to explore regional cuisines. I invite people to my home to enjoy Assamese food. Some even like to savour fermented foods from the North-East. A gathering of six people allows one to deep-dive into stories about each dish being served, including sharing why Assamese eat on bell metal (kahn) plates, the process of eating starting the meal with bitter and finishing off with tangy flavours, followed by a tea, like a hibiscus tea or butterfly pea flower tea. More than my guests, I enjoy the exchange of food stories that take place on the table. Supper tables help people to understand different communities and their cultures.”
Anita Tikoo takes her guests on a culinary ride in her Listener’s Table at her Delhi’s Swasthya Vihar home’s terrace. From Madras to Malacca, with dishes like Kerala’s acchapam, Bengal’s koraishutir kochuri and grass jelly pudding from Taiwan, the home table menu curated by Anita and chef Kartikeya, was inspired by Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. Another such home table included reading one of Ismat Chugtai’s story, followed by a dinner inspired by that story. “These experiences are more than just eating food. For my home tables, I collaborate with home chefs, artists and storytellers and then come up with a menu inspired by the theme. At times, it takes more than three months to curate a menu, test it and then send out a word about the luncheon.”

Regional cuisines offered at NCR’s supper clubs and home tables
Charges for the culinary experience range from Rs 1,500 to Rs3,000 per person