Pop-up as a chef at home

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Out of the frying pan: Alison serves the main dish to a living room of guests at their monthly underground supper club

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Secret and operating at the edges of legality, pop-up restaurants are one of the hottest foodie trends in the recession. There are intimate eateries in people's homes and at secret locations across the city — Come Dine With Me meets Location, Location, Location. I know because I run the Savoy Truffle Supperclub in south-east London each month from my flat. So, how do you go about setting one up yourself?

Getting started
I've been a professional chef for a year and one day I plan to open my own restaurant, but the recession has put those plans on hold, so a pop-up seemed the perfect way to learn the business — with fewer risks. You don't have to be a chef to start a pop-up — the majority are run by budding foodies turning out dishes that many restaurants would be jealous of.

Venue
Pop-up venues range from loft apartments and disused shops to the banks of the Thames and even boats, but most are run from homes. Think carefully about how many ­diners you can seat — most of us overestimate how many tables and chairs we can squeeze in (I certainly did). Allow at least a metre of space around each table to allow for sitting and serving space.

Show me the money
Once you know how many guests you can get in you need to work out how much to charge. Professional restaurants work to a 3:3:3 rule: a third of what you charge should go on food, a third on staff and overheads, leaving a third in profit.
It's tough but you need to be ready to ask friends to cough up at the end of the night — we charge £37 a head. A bigger problem is people cancelling at the last minute. We buy produce in the week before our events, so when a table of four pulled out the day before our last one we'd already spent money on the food. A list of stand-by guests who you can contact at the last minute is a life-saver. Or consider payment in advance.

Network!
Tell your friends, set up a Facebook page, put flyers in local cafés — whatever you can to get the word out. When I did my first event I asked all my friends to come; for the second one I asked friends to bring their friends, and so on. Before I knew it I had a mailing list of fans on Facebook and I no longer needed to keep nagging people to come — they were pestering me for a table.

What to cook
If you're going to serve up supper for 20 or 30 people on time, you'll need to think carefully about your menu. Don't go for three courses that need to be heated on a stove unless you've got a range with at least six burners and lots of pans. And don't try for different dishes that require a range of temperatures in the same oven.
On the other hand, you can't ask people to part with their cash for a meal they could make themselves. If you serve spag bol, the chances are you won't get too many repeat bookings. The same goes for ingredients. I source all my food as seasonally and professionally as possible, from local farms and artisan cheese-makers to ethically caught fish. As for booze, we're not licensed, but guests bring whatever they want. We've had really positive comments about the quality of our produce — our salad of strawberries, mozzarella and prosciutto was a huge success. The main suffered when I over-stretched on the complexity of the dish (pan-roasted sea bass with crab and scallops) which meant that diners waited too long between their starter and main course. Fortunately, one guest jumped on the piano and entertained everyone playing everything from The Beatles to Radiohead.

Have fun
Remember that you should enjoy the evening, too. At our last event the dining room was buzzing, we met some fantastic people and all our plates came back clean, which is the best compliment. Our guests interacted in a way you don't get in restaurants. And although we ran late with that main course, I think most guests forgave us. One even commented that you don't get to enjoy a long, relaxed meal in restaurants any more because they're always trying to rush you through and out the door. The only downside of the evening? Having to wash up 120 glasses, 90 plates and 60 cups before we could go to bed!

www.savoytrufflesupperclub.com

 

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