9 August, 2019
I haven’t been to a supper club for years!
I’ve been reading a blog called The Boy Who Ate the World for about ten years. I can’t even remember how I came across it. The blogger is Guan Chua. He was born in Kuala Lumpur and lives in London, in the Whitechapel area. Guan used to be a financial analyst but then trained as a Cordon Bleu chef. He loves to travel and write about his foodie treks but best of all he loves to cook the Malaysian-Nyonya cuisine of his childhood.
Guan was a contestant on Nigella Lawson’s ‘The Taste,’ where he fulfilled his dream of being mentored by Anthony Bourdain. He didn’t win but I enjoyed his time on the show a lot. I knew he ran a supper club – better still, it was in the Whitechapel area! – but Krish isn’t keen on Malaysian food and I wasn’t keen to go alone, and spend the money! Instead I would just read Guan’s Instagram and think about the food. Emails would come in announcing a new supper club but typically I’d be too late to get a place, they’re snapped up so quickly.
One day a couple of months ago an email came in as I was sitting doing something else so I emailed back immediately – any date in August, please! This time I made it. I was going!
The night of the supper club, just as I was about to leave, a ridiculously unexpected and fierce rain and wind storm sprung up. I had to wait for it to pass, then saw that the next bus would be quite a while. I jumped on the next bus that took me anywhere close and we trundled along oh so slowly in the rainy, slow moving traffic. I found a bus stop for another bus to complete my journey and had quite a long wait again. By the time I reached Aldgate East station, I had only a few seconds to get there.
But I got lost! Dinner was feeling far far away. A few calls to Guan and I finally made it to his apartment block and into his small flat in the new complex I’d walked by so many times. I was at least 20 mins late but Guan greeted me with a lovely gin and tonic. I felt quite ready for it. I’d not had time to buy any drink for the table, as planned.
There were ten of us sitting down in the dining space in the open plan living room/kitchen. I was probably 30 years older than the oldest of them. These twenty and thirty somethings were chatting back and forth about their travels around Asia, and the food they’d found there. I felt quite overwhelmed with it. How had they travelled so much? What was going on? Somehow the world was leaving me behind, so I listened politely and waited for food. Definitely worth the wait!
Finally, I was so impressed at how Guan worked so constantly and calmly. While conversation flowed, he kept working quietly, occasionally piping up with his own feelings about the various restaurants people were chatting about. He was organised and cleaned up thoroughly between each course so that the kitchen was tidy throughout and after everything was done.
I’m used to Alicia‘s more chaotic style with many of us in the kitchen barely keeping up with the plates, the food, the marching back and forth. Things felt calm and confident at Guan’s. He was an excellent host and obviously a very accomplished chef.
Guan thanked me for coming and said how great it was to meet someone who’d followed his blog for so many years. He said I need to come back to see him ‘before I leave in a year and a half.’ I’d like to go again and take a friend. Perhaps Susanne, who lives nearby and loves food – especially this kind. I’ll keep my eyes open for the next series or two of supper clubs – some time before next Summer.
Well done, Guan! And now I’m two degrees separated from my television boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain…