Profile - Edible Experiences

Edible Experiences is one of the most active companies in London supper clubs and pop-ups.  They sell tickets for lots of events, and organise events of their own, for example the Sunday Feasts season.  I wanted to find out more, and luckily founder Wen Lin Soh was willing to answer some questions:

Amir and Wen:

My co-founder and husband Amir and I at an instant ramen making workshop in Osaka, while we were backpacking around the world. The idea for Edible Experiences first sparked on this journey.

Photo credit: Christopher Jeeves

 How did Edible Experiences start?  What was the inspiration, and how long did it take you to get the site & service up & running?

The idea for Edible Experiences first came when my husband Amir and I were backpacking around the world for a year for our honeymoon (2009 / 2010). We were looking for cooking classes and supperclubs in various countries, but searching for them, comparing them, and making a booking was a really slow, tedious and frustrating process. There was no central place on the internet to find foodie activities, whether you were a local looking for a special day out, or a visitor looking to learn about a country's local cuisine. 

So we thought, why don't we come up with a solution ourselves -- build an online marketplace for foodie activities that works the way we want it to work?

We started designing and building the website soon after we got back to London at the end of 2010. Edible Experiences went live with London listings and reviews in August 2011. We started offering instant-confirmation bookings in April this year (2012).

Plusixfive 01:

I co-cheffed a trial supperclub dinner with Goz of Singaporean supperclub Plusixfive (Dec 2010). Chef Ben Greeno of Young Turks / Momofuku's Seiobo in Sydney was our first guest! Thankfully he liked the food! Plusixfive was Edible Experiences' first supperclub host client. 

Photo credit: Edible Experiences

How do supper club hosts and others work with you?

Foodie activity organisers can contact us to get a profile set up on our site. At this point we do some research on the host - e.g., do they regularly organise scheduled activities of an appropriate foodie nature. Once their profile is set up, hosts can put up event listings for free. 

Hosts have the option to sell tickets through Edible Experiences. Hosts get full control of whether they want to sell some or all of their tickets through us. They have control over their ticket inventory and are able to contact their guests using our self-service platform. 

We take a commission on seats sold through our site, so there's no upfront cost or risk to the host. We make money only when they make money.

Plusixfive 02:

Plusixfive is now a collective of at least 3 chefs. Here Shuhan Lee mingles with the crowd at the Supperclub Summit at the Goethe Institut in South Kensington. The Summit hosted 50 guests per night for some 16 nights this past August (2012). Edible Experiences was the exclusive ticketing partner for the Supperclub Summit

Photo credit: Edible Experiences

What have you learned, and how has Edible Expeiences evolved since it started?

When we started out (early 2011) we didn't think supperclubs and pop up dining events were going to be a big focus for us. At the time there weren't that many of them in London and it felt like many of them wanted to stay underground and secretive. 

But over the last year there's been a groundswell of new supperclubs with a very different approach. They want to be found, because they want to share their family's traditional recipes and style of hospitality with their guests. Dishes which would otherwise be difficult to find in restaurants.             

And while supperclubs are still a very new and foreign concept to many people, we keep meeting diners who are absolutely charmed after having tried their first supperclub. They are won over by the quality and generosity of the food, the warmth of the host, and the thrill of having met and socialised with a few new people at the dinner table over a meal. They're hooked and can't wait to try another one!

Increasingly, folks who traditionally only conduct cooking or baking classes are also starting to host supperclubs. It's a great way to showcase their dishes and culinary expertise, before a guest makes the (larger) financial commitment of signing up for a class.

So supperclubs and popups are keeping us at Edible Experiences much busier than we originally anticipated!

Sunday Feast preview:

I introduce the press to the supperclubs of Sunday Feasts, a 3 month series organised by Edible Experiences at the School of Wok in Covent Garden (Aug 2012). 

Photo credit: Fabio Forin

What are the future plans?  

We'd like to continue to grow in London. The foodie activity scene just keeps getting more exciting and diverse, and our mission is to be the go-to site for foodie activities.

Also, in response to interest from foodie activity hosts based outside London, we're currently getting ready to set up Edible Experiences in the rest of the UK, and also overseas. Watch this space!

Link 1 - Edible Experiences

Link 2 - Edible Experiences on Twitter

Interview - Adam Layton of Noshable

One of the things I find most enjoyable about running this site is that it gives me the opportunity to meet some really interesting, knowledgeable and passionate people.  Adam Layton of Noshable definitely falls into all of those categories.  I met him a couple of weeks ago at Burger Breakout, and then again at Maltby Street where he runs the Cornish Grill barbecue with Matt Chatfield.

Dan - How did you get into it - was it just through Matt, or had you been doing other stuff before?

Adam - Matt Chatfield is the reason I'm involved in the food industry at all. I didn't even have a food blog before I met him. In summer 2011 I'd just returned back to Clapham after three years living north of the river. Instinctively I visited my old local pub, The Manor Arms, where Matt had just started a pop-up BBQ in the beer garden. The food was fantastic - all Cornish fare - and I was soon visiting every weekend. Covers were low when the sport wasn't on so I used my PR and social media background to reach out to food bloggers and help fill the place out. When the autumn came Matt was offered to take the Cornish Grill to Redhook in Farringdon and that's when I decided I wanted to get in on the action. 

How far in advance do you plan events?
It varies hugely. My first solo pop-up for Independence Day this year had a long gestation period. I'd been watching lots of Man v. Food and I'd find myself recreating these monstrous meals at home. I really fell for the French Dip sandwich. I studied the joints that were serving them in Downtown LA (Cole's and Philippe's fiercely contest the birthplace of the first 'dipped' roast beef sandwich). At this point I was sharing recipes for outlandish American diner dishes with my friend Ben Walton (of Ben's Canteen) and it was him who said we should put something on together. Having helped Matt run the Cornish Grill for the last year, I felt I had the confidence to go it alone and it thankfully was a tremendous success. We sold 102 tickets and the atmosphere was incredible - we had a jukebox cranking out classic American rock, Kool-Aid 'house party' style cocktails and most importantly a packed house of smiling (and messy) faces. Sometimes however the events have a very quick turnaround, like the next Noshable event at Ben’s Canteen, which we’ve only given ourselves three weeks to develop. I’d say the average lead time is six weeks.

What do you think the most interesting trends are at the moment - e.g. street food people moving into restaurants, fusions, or whatever?
I think pop-ups still have a lot of mileage. The most exciting ones for me are around London Fields. Burnt Enz is a BBQ co-run by Australian chef Dave Pynt and he's doing some phenomenal cooking - aged Cornish Dexter steak tartare, suckling pig of course juicy burnt ends. Just over the road is the London Fields Brewery, which is also putting on excellent pop-up BBQs (the home-smoked pulled pork buns are real winners).
 Pop-up cocktail bars have been a lot of fun this summer. The Parlourette (run by the guys behind The Parlour in Canary Wharf) inside London Fields Brewery serves very clever beer cocktails, while Little Bird’s Maltby Street gin bar every Saturday serves some of the most delicate and experimental (in an old-school sense, no molecular mixology here) drinks this city has to offer.

What do you think are the biggest areas that have yet to be exploited?
Haha, I’m afraid I’m going to have to keep those under my hat! Perhaps food trucks in the ‘true’ sense. Food served in vehicles that actually move, and you have to find them wherever they pitch up via Twitter or a GPS app. Like in the States. I guess there are some legal issues. One trend, that I like to think Matt and I are at the forefront of, is to bring restaurant chefs and street food traders together for one-off flavour-clashes. Last month we put Lucky Chip together with Jeffrey Roxas-Green of Redhook and it was a spectacular event. I’ll remember the steak and oyster pasties forever. I’d really like to work with Green Goat in the future – they’re doing amazing things with Cornish fish.  

Where do you see your involvement in 5 years time or so?
I’ve been working in financial PR for the last five years. I’d really like to get into restaurant PR – so if anyone who’s reading this can give me a break then do get in touch! In five years time I’d like to think the Noshable brand will be well known among London foodies not just for the food but for the parties it puts on. It would be terrific to have a residency somewhere.

Adam's next venture is the American Road Trip at Ben's Canteen in Battersea; 3 courses taking in New York, Nashville and San Francisco, and available, as the Blues Brothers would say, for one night only.  Get involved!

Read Adam's blog here:  Noshable

Profile - Food Art Talk Cafe in Soho

Food Art Talk is a new pop-up cafe at the Regent Street end of Beak Street.  It used to be a Thai restaurant, but Vivek Kumar has managed to lease it for 6 weeks (initially - maybe longer) to run as a cafe.  Vivek is a keen foodie, who works as a lawyer but is currently on sabbatical, and is running the cafe with his friend Milla Mackley.

They have good plans for the cafe:  Normal cafe food and coffee during the day, and a series of supper clubs during the evenings, run by new and established hosts.  He's also keen to host events, for example a book launch is already planned, and he's trying to get book groups to hold meetings there, using the big communal table.

I stopped by on the first day and was impressed with the food (delicious Victoria sponge cake) and also with the friendliness of Viv and Milla.  Make sure you go and eat there!

Food Art Talk is at 17 Beak Street, W1F 9RW

Link 1 - Food Art Talk on Facebook

Link 2 - Twitter

Profile - Rooftop Film Club

Gerry Cottle Jr runs the Rooftop Film Club, which operates pop-up cinemas around London.  While lots of pubs now seem to be offering film nights as a way of using the projection equipment when there is no football, Gerry focuses on a very high quality product – it’s all about putting on people’s favourite films on a big screen in a great space.


I met him last week at The Round Chapel in Hackney, where he was finishing up a run of romantic films for Valentine’s Week, including Romeo + Juliet, Four Wedding & a Funeral, and Dirty Dancing.

The  Round Chapel is a great venue – very high, very round, and very atmospheric, with lighted crosses enclosing the 400 seats.  The screen was very big, and the sound was booming out as they did the soundchecks.  Last year he showed The Exorcist here for Halloween – it must have been terrifying!

Gerry’s always put on events, and started doing films when he got inspired by the rooftop space at the pub The Queen of Hoxton.  This led to other opportunities, like the Round Chapel and The Yard in Hackney; interesting venues where the films will become an experience.

Business is expanding.  There are plans to do something around the Olympics, and also to try to show new, independent short films before the main feature to give a leg up to up and coming film makers.

He’s just announced a new season of films, including Back To The Future, Reservoir Dogs and Requiem For A Dream at The Yard.  A couple of nights are sold out already – book your tickets here to avoid missing out!

Profile - The South West Supper Club

Jimmy Garcia is one of London’s most regular supper club organisers.  His South West Supper Club organises at least two events a month, and has evolved from events in his house to taking over bars and shops for the night.

I met him on Sunday to ask about how he got started, and what he’s planning in the future.

Jimmy is 24 and from Leeds.  He started off his culinary career at the Waterton Park Hotel in Wakefield, while he was still at school.  When he was at university he spent his summers working as a chef on yachts in the Mediterranean, where he learnt to cook in confined spaces – a great preparation for supper clubs - before heading to the city to work as a broker.

His first supper clubs were held at home in Balham; he designed an invite, and then put it through all the neighbours’ doors.  Enough responded for it to work and ‘we had some really good nights’.  After a few of these he expanded into a bar in Clapham, where he could work in a bigger space, and since then has moved on to private houses, a café in Tooting, and a wine shop in Balham.

The philosophy is to make a supper club like a club.  He has a loyal group of members, and finds that lots of people come back after they’ve been to one event.  He’s currently working a lot with the ‘wild & foraged’ theme – he’s clearly very excited about the possibilities of using natural ingredients like wild mustard – and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is one of his main inspirations.

He’s now given up his job in the city, and is devoting himself to food full-time, both in France, where he’s part of a team who run chalet holidays, and in London where he’ll be organising two supper clubs a month.

Jimmy’s now organising supper clubs in the French Alps as well as in London, and has lots of exciting projects lined up for the coming year.  Watch this space!

Jimmy clearly loves what he’s doing and is incredibly passionate about both food and organising supper clubs.  His next two happen in South West London next week – get a ticket if you can!

South West Supper Club on Facebook
South West Supper Club on Twitter

Profile - The Dead Dolls Club

The Dead Dolls Club runs regular pop-up events in London.  Founded by designers Adam Towner and Katy Gray Rosewarne, it started organising events like rooftop parties and Barbecues in 2010, but now for the winter it’s focussing on more warming food with their Stew House Pop-up Restaurant in Hackney.  The pop-ups are a sideline to their design work; as Tinker and Tailor they have designed a window display for Selfridges, and they are also now organising custom events for clients.

I went to their studio in Well Street at the weekend they talked me through how they work.  They’ve now done quite a few events, and so they’ve got to know the sort of events that are successful.  Their formula is to find and decorate a great space, get a lot of people in, to a dress code, get them to mingle, provide food, drink, and then music, and let everyone have a great time.  Prices are kept low so that you get as good a mix as possible.  Their friend Daryl, a chef at a top restaurant, does the food, and other friends DJ.  It works:  they get lots of re-bookings from people who have been to earlier events, who bring more friends along, and they also recruit serving staff through their Facebook page.  They also let other people in to the event after dinner has been served, to make it more like a secret bar.

Venues are found through asking around, and they get around the legal issues of selling alcohol by taking out a temporary event notice, which also means that pop-ups can only run for three consecutive days.  Demand seems to be growing though, and they’ve had to add extra days for the Stew House.  They say that currently the market is right for it; they told me about another pop-up they’ve got planned, which, if it comes off, you’ll probably read an awful lot about.

I really enjoyed my time with Adam and Katy.  The Studio is lots of fun (Scalextric on the ceiling, a cabinet doubling as a secret door) and they clearly have lots of fun organising their events.  To hear them talk they make it sound very easy, but it clearly isn’t!

There are still some tickets left for Stew House - due to a sell-out January at the Stew House they have now added two new dates – 3rd & 4th February – which you can book here.  If you miss out this time then look out for their future events.