Archive · 13 Aug 2026

Former Taj Chef's Pune Supper Club Rewrites Rules of Dining

Former Taj Chef's Pune Supper Club Rewrites Rules of Dining

In the city of Pune in India, there is a special kind of dinner party called a supper club.

A chef named Debashish Chakravarty, who used to cook at fancy Taj hotels, runs one right in his own home.

People who don't know each other come to his house and eat together, like one big family.

There is no menu, so the chef gets to choose everything that everyone eats.

The food is Bengali home cooking, with soft cheese curries, tender spicy mutton, and crispy fritters.

Dinner lasts about three hours, with lots of talking and laughing between the courses.

His wife, Kanti, helps serve drinks and keeps filling everyone's plates.

Guests say the meal feels personal and unhurried, unlike a normal restaurant visit.

Supper clubs became popular in America, Europe, and Cuba in the late 1990s and are now catching on in Indian cities.

The chef plans to set up tables outside once the rainy season ends.

Sources