Learn how to host your own supper club event, how to make your evening a success and answers to our most frequently asked questions. Let’s make a difference, one supper club at a time!
This is where is all began – a six-course menu for a dozen or so people.
This is really a team effort. You need to have at least two and possibly four people cooking and at least two and possibly four on “front of house”. It will take you all day plus time before to prepare and plan.
Who does what? The cooking team works out the ingredients required, the cooking plan for the day and does all the cooking of course.
The front of house team prepares and decorates the room, the table, greets the guests and serves the food.
Everyone does the washing up! Although if you are clever you can get the guests involved too.
Ingredients cost around £15/€20/$20 per person and each guest pays a contribution which you will decide – we normally charge £45/€55/$55 but you decide what feels right. At the end of the meal we put a hat on the table to encourage more giving because most guests will ask to donate more.
Typically we will raise £50/€60/$60 per guest for the evening (after ingredient costs) so if we cook for 12 people we can generate £600/€700/$700 for the charity – not bad for a fun day and evening!
You should find everything you need on the site from shopping list to how to chop up the onion – but if you have questions just let us know.
You can’t prepare a six-course meal every month, but you can invite a couple of neighbours or friends around for a Friday night.
Instead of ordering in, you follow the web site instructions and all cook together. The money you save less the cost of ingredients is donated to charity. It is “free money” for the charity because you would have spent the money anyway only now you eat more healthily and have more fun.
This format is a very simple, quick to prepare two-course meal. It is also cheap yet delicious.
You just need a couple of guests and off you go!
Start by deciding the size of your cooking team. Whether it's with 2, 4, or 8 friends, the first step is to gather a group of individuals passionate about cooking and giving back. This team will be the core of your supper club, responsible for planning and executing the dinner.
Together with your team, choose a charity that resonates with all of you. It could be a cause local to your community or a well-known national or international organization. The charity you select will benefit from the proceeds of your supper club, adding purpose to your culinary efforts.
As a team, decide on a six-course meal that you will prepare for your guests. This step involves selecting recipes that cater to a variety of tastes and dietary requirements, ensuring a memorable dining experience. Guidance and tips will be provided if you're inexperienced in the kitchen, ensuring every dish is both doable and delicious.
Transform your home into an inviting dining space. This might involve rearranging furniture to create a large communal dining area or setting up several smaller spaces throughout your home. The goal is to make everyone feel comfortable and included, enhancing the supper club experience.
Extend invitations to friends, family, and perhaps even acquaintances interested in a unique dining experience and supporting a good cause. Decide how much to charge for the meal, taking into consideration the cost of ingredients and the desired donation amount to your charity.
On the day of the event, cook the meal, serve your guests, and enjoy the evening. Afterwards, calculate the event's earnings, subtract the costs, and donate the profits to your chosen charity. If you're feeling generous, increase the donation by also covering the cost of the ingredients.
There are no hard and fast rules for running the evening – but here are a few ideas which we have found work well.
Send out the menu in advance to the guests to make sure everyone can/will eat what you are preparing.
Ask guests to tell you if they prefer the vegetarian option – so you have the right number of portions.
Normally we will offer a vegetarian dish in place of a meat/fish but you will want to know how many vegetarians you have.
If we know we will have guests with intolerances (to food not people) , then we will ensure we cater for them. For example, we will provide a gluten-free option or create the whole dish gluten-free if anyone has a wheat intolerance.
Normally we have the kitchen team (Richard and Paul plus anyone foolish enough to volunteer) and a front-of-house team (anyone not in the room, and therefore volunteered, when decisions were made). The kitchen team cooks – the front-of-house team greets guests, serves, clears and manages the evening. If you have a friendly set of guests then you may co-opt them to do some serving also.
It is not unknown for the party to continue in the kitchen when all the guests join in with the washing up!
The front-of-house team has a bonus in that they eat with the guests – sometimes, if we have not found enough volunteers, they are the guests! Most people are keen to help.
The kitchen team often join the guests to eat as well and to introduce the food – but then rush off to get the next course ready.
We like to have a welcome drink prepared – this might be alcoholic or not. We always have a non-alcoholic option.
There is normally some time for standing and chatting before we serve – this is a good time for people to introduce themselves if they have not already met.
It is good to have at least one person designated as the drink server.
Tell guests to bring alcohol if they want to drink and if you are not providing it. You can’t sell alcohol – but you can serve it and perhaps guests might want to increase their donation at the end of the evening – obviously these two things are not connected.
If guests do not know each other (or even if they do) you might ask them to bring something to talk about – a sort of grown up “show and tell”. At times during the evening, each guest will talk about their selected item.
Ideas which have worked well for us include:
You may find that you do not have enough plates and so on in one house for a larger group. In this case you will probably simply pool your resources.
If you are short of glasses, you may find a friendly off-licence which will lend or hire glasses for the evening.
Generally, we have been able to find enough of everything although it has meant some rapid washing up is required!
Ideally collect the money before the evening – this ensures guest don’t cancel at the last minute.
You can use a charity online giving site – these are generally free to use. Other simple payment platforms will charge a fee to use which we want to avoid.
Alternatively, collect the cash as the guests arrive. When we do this, we have a hat at the front door which we thrust at every arriving guest. Generally, at the end of the evening we will give guests the opportunity to increase their charity donation via a hat near the door – most will put in more on the way out. Having a representation from the charity to talk about their work also helps a great deal – especially if the charity has a strong local aspect.
Depending upon the size of your house, room and table(s) you may have one large table or more smaller tables – sometimes in different rooms.
If you have people in different rooms, then it is good to have everyone start in the same room to meet – then you can move people around after each course to ensure that everyone has the chance to meet and talk.
Even with a single large table in the same room, we generally ask guests to move around the table throughout the evening.
The table(s) will of course be set before guests arrive.
Normally we put name plates on the table because this saves the difficulty of people being unsure where to sit . Later people move around.
You may have picked one or perhaps two charities to support. It is a good idea to get some simple information about the charity’s work and some leaflets for the table.
Even better if one of the guests is from the charity because this person can take a couple of minutes during the evening to explain the charity’s work.
We also leave a hat or something to collect money on one side because very often guests will ask to donate more to the charity at the end of the evening – don’t push it though!
It is also nice to get a group photograph which you can use on social media to promote your charity donation.
Do let us know which charity you supported and how much you raised along with a photo – we will try to promote you further.
You may choose just to let the evening run – or you might like to plan some activities.
Sometimes we ask guests to bring something to talk about which has meaning for them – an object, a picture or even some music. As the evening progresses, we invite each person to talk about the item they have brought.
In the early days of the Dedham Supper Club we wanted to get feedback on what we were cooking so we could do it better next time. We found asking people for an opinion was less useful because most people want to be polite.
So we introduced a scoring system. At the end of each course we ask each person to hold up a score card from 1-10 and then tell us how the dish could be improved. This idea works well and is always a popular aspect of the evening.
But it is important not to defend your low scores – just accept the feedback and make the change next time.
We have found that it is very common for guests to ask when the next date will be and to book before they leave. If you do plan another one it is a good idea to think about possible dates so you can book people in straight away.
Also you can invite guests to select their preferred charity for the next dinner. Almost every time someone will have a local good cause which you can support. Often this person will also ensure all the places at your table are taken in good time saving you the trouble of marketing.
Probably not – it will depend upon the laws of your country. In the UK you may not sell alcohol unless you are
licensed.
However, you can of course serve your private guests alcohol in your own house and they may choose to make
a donation to your charity – but you are not selling the alcohol.
Your guests can bring their own alcohol to your house to drink.
Not unless you are planning to run the Supper Club frequently.
You do of course need to adhere to normal food hygiene standards which are available for your locality on the
internet.
Browse our resources which include recipes, suggested menus, invitations, place cards and dish scoring cards. You can use these to help you run your very own supper club!
Still have questions? Click here