Each supper club menu is uniquely designed around a single culinary book, drawing inspiration and stimulating discussion from its recipes, philosophy, and approach to cooking. Dishes are reinterpreted through the lens of our kitchen garden and the exceptional local producers we work with. The result is a thoughtful, ever-changing menu that reflects both the chosen book and the moment in the growing year.
Guests dine together at a communal table, sharing conversation, curiosity and the pleasure of food made with care. Between courses, there is time to explore the house a little, get to know your foody compatriots, and enjoy the unhurried rhythm of the evening.
Meet your hosts, Claire and Tara: Claire is co-founder of the award winning, local regenerative Rull Orchard, with green fingers and passion for provenance and gastronomy. Tara has been collecting cookery books since she was a teenager and has an interest in historical cooking and dining. Both are members of the London Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier https://lesdameslondon.org/
With limited seats available, this exclusive supper club offers a rare opportunity to experience truly seasonal cooking in its most expressive form—guided by a single culinary voice, grounded in local produce, and enjoyed in a setting where history and landscape come together.
A celebration of cookbooks, provenance and the enduring joy of dining well.
A note about this week’s meeting from Tara
Cookery writer Elizabeth David’s early life included a spell working as an actress and then as a stage manager at the Regent’s Park open air theatre in London. Her social circle included my grandparents, they lived in adjacent flats and she was the witness at their wedding. While trapped by the outbreak of war on a small boat sailing around the Aegean she sent letters to my grandparents describing the food and cooking of the region. I came across these letters when I inherited my grandmother’s archive, across one she has written “this would make a marvellous book” , and so it did, Elizabeth David’s Book of Mediterranean Food hit post war London like an exotic firework when olive oil was still something bought in tiny bottles from a chemist shop.
In this month’s Novel Kitchen Claire and I will be talking about the life and work of this remarkable woman and her impact on the food and cooking of Britain. Bring your own editions of any of her books, share your favourite recipes and ideas sparked by Elizabeth David. Has her writing influenced your booking or that of your parents or grandparents?
We will be preparing simple and unfussy food from The Book of Mediteranean Food and Summer Cooking. The weather is due to be very hot so we can all imagine we are in the Med while we sit on a lawn in Devon! Dinner will be al fresco and include organic and local produce in true ED style.
Everyone welcome to this book and supper club, you might be a cook or a reader or a bit of both or neither!