The last supper (but we hope to be back very soon!)

So that meant that our supper club last night, was not only our 10th supper club, but also the last in our lovely apartment. We've found a new place on the canal at Hackney so I am hoping to continue our suppers there - they will be much smaller, maybe 10 people, rather than 18, but that will mean I can challenge myself a bit more with the food, and maybe Y & I can sit down with our guests to eat.

I have to say I'm rather proud, looking back on the 10 suppers we've done. From the beginning couple of suppers in January when we weren't sure if anyone would even come, to our last 2 suppers in May which each sold out in under 2 hours - I think we've fed about 170 people and served up approximately 500 plates of food (not sure how many empty wine bottles we've fed into the recycling bin!).

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I've loved cooking for all our lovely guests and Y and I have particularly loved meeting so many foodie obsessed people - all our guests have been such interesting, wonderful people.

I will remember the great doodles people left all over the brown paper "table cloths"; the two girls whose birthday we hosted who turned up the following day with beautiful flowers; the thank you cards; checking my iphone to find people tweeting about the meal from the table; the emails from people saying they'd read about the suppers and wanted to come along; putting faces to names of other supper club hosts; the pressure of knowing people such as Ms Marmite Lover, Eat Like a Girl, The London Foodie, Rambling Restaurant, The Shed, Leluu & Fernandez and my own Mum were coming for dinner; the couple who did their research by reading the blog and turned up with a present of a record for our record player; the girl who brought me leeks straight from her garden; the people like Chocolate Ecstasy in London and Midnight Cowboy who put their trust in us and each brought along 10 friends for dinner; the Come Dine With Me fan who (embarrassingly) insisted on the whole room giving Y & I a round of applause after dinner; and really just all the people who decided they'd turn up at the house of someone they'd never met, eat their food and chat away with a bunch of strangers at the same time.

3 of our dearest friends helped us out immensely. My brother in law, Pete, was our helper for our first ever supper and boy did we need him! My sister, Sophia, was a god send for one of the suppers (if you turned your back on her for more than 10 minutes she'd clean up the entire kitchen), and our lovely friend Andy worked his butt off at 2 suppers (and was more than happy to chat away to our guests and munch on the leftovers!).

Y & I did 6 of the suppers, serving 18 people 3 courses, on our own. My passion is cooking so I love the days of prep leading up to the night - Thursday & Friday nights, cooking until 1am, cooking all day Saturday and then finally farewelling our guests at 2am before spending much of Sunday cleaning up and recovering. Y's passion is not cooking and she has given up numerous days and nights of her time so that I could have my little supper club. We are a team and I couldn't have done any of it without her - she welcomes everyone like a long lost friend; she always remembers all the names of the 18 guests; she explains all the courses and answers everyone's questions about the food; she keeps the records spinning until she switches to the play list she's planned for the night on her ipod; she helps plate up all the food and then delivers it all to our hungry diners; and I think she makes everyone feel that they're part of something special. Thanks My Love.

Anyway, our suppers aren't going away, instead, they're moving a little to the east, will be a little more intimate, and hopefully with some more delicious, interesting food.

Click here if you'd like to hear about future suppers.

And thanks for allowing me this rather self indulgent post!