the dine well supper club

we're doing it

The first thing I always notice about the end of summer is when the light changes. The morning sun is a bit more muted, more golden than blazing yellow. The days get shorter, sure, but they also seem a bit more…. bronze, more understated. September is a really amazing time in New York- the weather is still summery but without the oppressive humidity, the nights are still warm before the crisp chill of fall really sets in. I would argue it’s the perfect time for outdoor dining.

Or to maybe, like, attend a supper club on a rooftop.

if there aren’t mason jars with candles in them, is it even a supper club?

---

Next Sunday with the help of my dear friend and fabulous pastry chef Dario Love, I’m launching our new supper club concept, the dine well supper club. It’s designed to be a roving popup that takes place in a new venue in a new part of the city each time, and each time with a fresh menu featuring stuff I’ve been super excited about recently, within what has become sort of my stylistic framework: global culinary themes that showcase the best of the best of what’s in season. For the inaugural club, we’re doing a Cambodian-inspired course, a Persian-inspired course, and a Mesoamerican-inspired course. You can bet there will be corn.

Do you ever feel like the “next thing” in life just sort of unfolds naturally in its own time? This supper club has been verrry slowly in the making for maybe six to eight months, with each logistical detail sort of revealing itself as it was necessary. My partner in the project. The venue. The support staff. The menu, which was so easy to write- I’ve been super into in each of those three cuisines as of late, to the point of extreme Wikipedia rabbit-hole obsession.

But some of the real inspiration behind this project came from a bit of a more sensitive place: from a sense of feeling somewhat “excluded” from events of this format. Being a freelance private chef is incredibly rewarding in a lot of ways- it requires that you be flexible, adaptable, constantly up for learning new things and improving your craft. But conversely it also can also start to feel a bit stifling as you find yourself confined to making the food that clients want, instead of the food YOU want. You can begin to feel less like a true creative and more like a hired gun. And the longer you’re in the private chef world, you start to see the stratification in the industry in clearer and starker relief.

I don’t get hired to do a lot of plated dinners. I don’t have a lot of “content” or photos of plated food, because I don’t get to do it a lot…. leading to a feedback loop in which I don’t get hired to do them because I haven’t been doing them, etc. etc. ad infinitum. I get hired to do a lot of family style meals which are fantastic and super fun in their own right, especially because of the lovely spirit of sharing behind them. But it’s tough for me not to notice that a lot of my male colleagues get hired for the high end, artistic, tweezer-plated jobs while my fellow female colleagues and I get a lot of the “family gatherings with kids” jobs. It’s not 100% divided across gender lines of course - #notallmalechefs etc.- but it’s awfully hard not to be aware of a clear imbalance.

A few years back I can recall discussing this with a friend of mine who used to work in the industry. We were talking about a (white male) friend of his who I followed on Instagram, and who was having some success doing a lot of “experiences” featuring exclusively the pretty plated course-type food I’m talking about. I mentioned how that more artistic style was something I’d really like to do more of, to which my friend replied, “You don’t really do that though.”

Well. I didn’t do it because no one was asking me to do it or paying me to do it. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it or didn’t want to. I didn’t get much practice, in the same way that you can’t get a barista job without 2-3 years of barista experience (but how do you get the experience…..), and since I didn’t enter the industry in the traditional brigade route where you spend years of your life on the line just to be able to style a plate. Nope, instead I’d been immediately pigeonholed not just by my private clients and agency coordinators, but seemingly by my own friends. Once you’re in a particular mold- especially in a position where, you know, you have to make money and pay rent and bills and stuff so you take the work that’s there- it’s really hard to break out, as it turns out.

---

But now! I’ve found myself in a (very privileged!) position where I have steady income but a lot more free time. I now have the resources to host my very own “experiences”… whether someone has explicitly hired me to do so or not. So, with the help of my sweet supportive friends, I’m doing it.

The dine well supper club may feature fancy looking food, but it aims to be a delightfully down-to-earth affair. Laughter. New friends and neighbors. Merriment. Me, telling you excitedly about each course in my characteristic food nerd/aggressively cheerful/pleasantly winding ADHD manner. Unfamiliar ingredients, novel flavors, the pleasure of trying something new- and recognizing the elements it shares with the beloved and familiar. Above all, we’re having fun, and we’re reveling in the joys of communal dining.

Biggest of shout-outs to those who have thus far made this possible: my sweet friend John who offered up his roof to us before we even knew what we were doing (and is trusting that it will not collapse), my amazing butcher friend Abou who not only is providing the proteins but who helped seed the idea in the first place (and who will be a future collaborator!), all my wonderful friends who bought tickets and/or who are showing up to film, take photos, and be bodies in the space as we do this “first pass”, and obviously my co-conspirator Dario who insisted I believe that maybe, just maybe, I could actually pull this thing off <3

Believe it or not (I can’t), there are only a few spots left!! Grab your ticket if you’re in the area and come dine well with us :)