The best way to bond with someone is to share a meal with them. That’s why the best memories we have are often associated with food. Kozhikode, Kerala’s food capital, has now opened its doors to its very first supper club, warmly named AT HOME, and it is quietly rewriting what dining can feel like. It is not a restaurant, it’s not catering, and it’s definitely not food you can order from Swiggy or Zomato. It is something far more personal; something that feels like being invited to your friend’s or family’s home for dinner, where the food on your plate has been cooked with love and guarantees a taste that fills both your stomach and soul.
This little pocket of culinary vision belongs to Aiina and Hisha, two best friends who met years ago at Manipal’s Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration while studying Culinary Arts. Roommates then, they spent evenings cooking together in their hostel kitchen and experimenting with food, and most importantly, having fun as they learned side by side. “One day we thought, why can’t we share this with people?” Aiina remembers fondly. They wanted to serve good food in a proper fine dining setting to share the same joy they felt in creating it. That single thought grew into what is now their supper club.
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What makes AT HOME Supper Club special is not just the food they curate. It is the ambience and vibe that accompany your plate. With its small group and designated theme, it establishes an intimacy between people and their food. A restaurant, to them, felt too commercial and removed from the heart of sharing home-cooked food. But here, at the supper club, everything stays close. In a private space at home, guests, who are sometimes strangers, watch them cook, chat with them, and receive each plate directly from their hands. It truly feels like kitchen-to-table dining, completely personal and unfiltered.
Every event at the AT HOME Supper Club begins with Aiina and Hisha greeting the guests at the door with wide smiles, conversation and the promise of a never-tried-before culinary experience. No matter how busy the kitchen gets, Aiina and Hisha pause to greet each guest warmly. Food and conversation are given equal importance. Every dish arrives with its story of the inspiration behind it, the memories it carries, the reason certain pairings were chosen, the thought behind the recipe and how it was prepared. Guests are encouraged to keep their phones away and interact with the group. Between courses, there is always time to talk, to feel, and to sink into the evening carefully curated by them with decorations and special playlists.
So far, they have hosted five AT HOME Supper Club events. They are planning to host more, focusing on the weekends, Fridays to Sundays. The menu changes each week, which means the price does too, depending on the ingredients. “The last menu was 999 per head,” Aiina says. Each sitting is limited to just eight seats, which are always booked on a first-come basis. Guests are treated to a five-course meal served in smaller portions, reminiscent of the fine dining experiences we’ve seen in western films and series.
Bookings open on Instagram, along with the week’s menu, and they close the moment all eight seats are filled. They also create custom private dining experiences for small groups, which include six to eight people. It becomes an evening designed just for them with a menu built around that gathering.
Every small touch is intentional. Each table is decorated with themed cloths with menus wrapped beautifully, customised name cards, and vases filled with flowers. Some nights follow a theme. It could be an American-inspired plate one night or Pan-Asian flavours the next. The décor, on the other hand, is never an afterthought but an extension of the food itself.
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Challenges have been part of the journey, too. “The hardest thing was opening our homes to strangers,” Hisha admits. “To make everyone feel comfortable, we created a private dining room with its own entrance. Then there’s the unpredictability of the weather. Once, a rainstorm forced us to move a planned outdoor event inside at the very last minute. And of course, catering to different dietary preferences is another test, but it’s something both of us have embraced with grace. Each menu is tested thoroughly before an event. Once the menu is decided, everything else follows. The theme, the playlist, even the flow of time, they all build around what is being served.”
What keeps them motivated is the energy the guests bring. After every AT HOME Supper Club, they receive heartfelt messages. One guest in particular, who travelled from another district, described the experience as so joyful that she felt like doing a happy dance after every bite. “The glow in people’s eyes is what keeps us going because we do a happy dance in the kitchen after serving each course,” both Hisha and Aiina cheerfully say. “Every dish is close to our hearts. Sharing that love and receiving it back makes it all worth it.”
For Aiina and Hisha, the AT HOME Supper Club was never about expansion or numbers. It has and always will be about the personal touch that accompanies their food. It is about creating small circles of memory around food, giving people more than a plate, and offering them a story, a pause, and a connection to remember by.
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