Midsummer's supper club

The guests brought perfume

This was a fragrance themed event. I divided the menu into the main fragrance families:

Green, Fougere, vegetal, fresh:

I made BBQ artichokes, picked from the garden and grown from seed. First I parboiled them, then barbecued whole. I dressed them with a Dijon mustard dressing and herbs. These tasted so fresh.

Asparagus, tossed in truffle oil, on the bbq with fresh garden pea pods, split.

Dolmades, stuffed with pine nuts, preserved lemon and herbs from the garden including lemon verbena leaves, wrapped in garden vine leaves, and simmered with white wine and Greek olive oil.

Citrus:

To enhance citrus flavours, I bbqued salmon steaks on soaked cedar sheets, dressed with mixed citrus zest (orange, lime, lemon) and bergamot glaze

For the vegans I did the same with smoked tofu steaks.

I also made vegan smoked ‘salmon’ using yuzu juice, soy sauce I brought back from Shodoshima island in Japan.

Spice:

I halved mini aubergines lengthways, brushed with paprika seed oil that I brought back from last year’s trip to Hungary. I sprinkled them with home ground garam masala spice. I served them with a tahini, yoghurt, caper sauce.

I also made labneh, a Middle Eastern fresh cheese from strained yoghurt, drizzled with pine syrup. (Actually I was supposed to serve these with the next course but forgot my own menu for a minute, the pine syrup was part of the woody flavours).

Wood:

Chargrilled mini peppers, brushed with rosemary oil. As I forgot the labneh, I added feta.

Mushrooms a la Grecque with fresh juniper berries.

Floral:

I made a rose and sour cherry ice cream, (cherries from my tree), while my sister in law made lavender shortbread hearts and orange flower water meringue kisses.

Children are welcome to garden events, they ran around happily in a warm garden at night. I remember being allowed to stay up at night on summer nights by my parents, it was magical.

I lit a bonfire, appropriate for St Johns Eve which starts on the 23rd of June and always involves a fire. This is celebrated around Europe.

It was a great evening but I spent all the ticket money on ingredients and didn’t get paid a penny for my time, location, laundry, cleaning up. I love hosting but the truth is I make no money from supper clubs, in fact I lose money. I only do if I sell enough tickets which is becoming harder. People say ‘I’ll come to your next one’ but I’m not sure there will be a next one. I don’t think I’m charging a lot - £45 for a whole evening and you can bring your own drink. (Although I do give an initial cocktail and sometimes an aperitif). I suppose that I’m rather forgotten as the creator of supper clubs and that starrier, more connected, wealthier people are doing them. Definitely since the lockdown, it’s been more difficult as it is for most hospitality. I used to make money when I did sponsored supper clubs, but it’s never easy to make money from food.

Use it or lose it is what I’m saying.

Edit:

One thing I forgot to mention is I asked everyone to bring their favourite fragrance which we passed around. This was interesting – to see what taste people have in smells. My brother (Tom Ford’s Ombré Leather) and sister in law (Jo Malone, this one I think) brought quite sweet vanilla-ry smells. They were too dessert-like for my taste but we laughed at the description of the aftershave ‘sand on rock, skin on skin’. It was like perfume soft porn written by AI.

Another guest brought a perfume by Issy Miyake, Eau d’issa which everyone liked. It had saline, oceanic vibes with floral (ylang ylang )and vanilla notes.

One guest brought an eau de cologne by Diptyque, and another bought a cheap aftershave for £8.99 from Super Drug of which we approved, surprisingly. It was vaguely reminiscent of Paco Rabanne Pour Homme aftershave. This was the smell I lost my virginity to, in the form of Tony the rockabilly with a stiff shiny hairsprayed quiff ‘don’t touch me barnet’. I’ll always have a soft spot for it.