The man behind London’s exclusive NC Supperclub brand - Mr Nesan Thirunesan

Mr Nesan Thirunesan

My roots come from a family tree of both Sri Lankan Malaysian Jaffna Tamil and South Indian Chettiar heritage. My father migrated over to the UK in 1969 to do his Agricultural Engineering from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and my mother's family moved over to the UK in 1964. He was a Sri Lankan Tamil political leader and spent most of his time between India and Sri Lanka.

I was born in the UK and have had the privilege of living and studying in India for 8 years in both Chennai and Kodaikanal. I returned to the UK in the mid 90's to pursue my higher education. Supper Clubs, food biz, charity work, empowerment of home chefs are all very close to my heart. I have a foundation and NGO based organisations that I work with run a number of projects in the North and East parts of Sri Lanka and I actively campaign for a basic living wage for Ceylon Tea Estate workers and represent their welfare via a trade union body, which I helped establish.

Since 2016 and 2017, I have been involved in filmmaking as a producer with a small Bangalore based production house called "Nesan Creations" and running one of London's top and exclusive supper clubs, namely NC Supper Clubs.

Q. Tell us about your brand NC supper clubs? When did you set this up and why?

NC Supper Clubs was born out of my film production company' name "Nesan Creations" which my late father created in 1988 when he produced a one-off drama starring the late Tamil comedian actor Vivek and others. Fast forward to 2016, I revived the Nesan Creations brand and produced an multi-award winning Tamil short film "Sinam" written and directed by Anandmurthy starring Kollywood actress Sai Dhanshika supported by Bollywood actress Bidita Bag which is a heart wrenching story about a young girl forced into prostitution as a result of the actions of her father which is now being screened on Disney Hotstar.

Now being both a foodie and passionate cook, I often watched this popular food programme in the UK called "Saturday Kitchen" and would see amazing chefs from India like Cyrus Todiwala ex Taj, Atul Kochchar and Vivek Singh ex Oberoi, however I barely saw any female Indian chefs or home cooks on this programme to the likes of Madhu Jaffrey. This was also a time, when the concept of "supper clubs" was springing up everywhere and trending across London and other cities/towns across the UK.

My immediate goal was to try and identify a good female Indian chef I could collaborate and work with and organise a supper club amazing supper club experience with. Being a great networker, I had no challenges bringing in the crowd of course. I wanted to create not just a supper club but the supper club that everyone would want to be part of by creating a unique dining experience that people would talk about months and if not years later. I ended up speaking to chef Anjula Dev, who wrote a cookbook called "Spice For Life" and we did our first supper club in Teddington, London in the summer of June 2017 which was a huge success followed by a number of others including a themed Halloween and Christmas one.

NC Supper Clubs was thus born with a vision of working with celebrity chefs, up and coming chefs, cookbook authors and amazing home cooks giving them a platform to showcase their amazing food to our supper club patrons. Within 8 months of launch, we were nominated for "Foodism 100" as one of the best pop-up supper clubs in London.

Q. What are the Supperclubs that you have hosted thus far and what others are in the pipeline?

We have hosted the finest of Modern Indian, South Indian, Italian, Burmese, Modern British, Modern European, Pan-Asian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, French and Latino food super clubs for foodies or those who want a dining experience on another level. Our menus are exclusive and "one of a kind" which in other words means it's unlikely to be found on the average restaurant menu and that's the beauty about our pop-ups as these menus are for 1 night only!

Over the years since launch, I have had the privilege of working with some amazing celebrity chefs favoured by Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities. Some have included Italian chefs Carmelo Carnevale and Enzo Oliveri, including two-time Michelin star chef Rohit Ghai and UK BBQ and Canapés champion chef Abdul Yaseen who used to be part of the Cinnamon Collection brand alongside chef Vivek Singh.

I have also worked with other amazing Indian chefs such as Kerala's favourite celebrity chef Suresh Pillai who inspired me to participate in the #CookForKerala initiative, chef Booby Geetha formerly of Asia's top 50 Asha's (Dubai), chef Sajeev Nair of Michelin star restaurant Trishna London, Sandeep Sreedharan of Mahe Goa, chef Kanthi Thamma of Easy Tiger, Brighton, chef Jai Shaikh formerly of Yum Sa (Putney) , chef Priya Deshingkar, chefs Tonoya Chaudhuri, chef Som Dasgupta, chef Rishim Sachdeva formerly of Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mumbai, Wincie Wong and the wonderful chef Swarna Gupta who has done French supper clubs with me. I have also worked with former Master chef contestant Daniel Britton and Sri Lankan chef Jessica Heath author of "Ceylove" who featured on Master Chef USA who has also collaborated with me.

We have some amazing supper clubs in the pipeline including an Italian one with chef Carmelo Carnevale and with chef Nikhil Mahale and chef Arup Dasgupta and many more to come…

Q. You have also done food related charity work abroad- please share with our readers about that?

Grass-root charitable initiatives is close to my heart. Since 2007, I have supported a number of initiatives in both South India and Sri Lanka. Throughout the Covid- 19 pandemic through NC Supper Clubs we have supported over 600 families in Sri Lanka including hundreds of tea estate workers who earn less than a living wage and their families.

Our initiatives have helped support hundreds of school children as to me education is fundamental whether it be for purchasing school books, stationary, uniforms etc to financing tuition centres in the run up to A Level and O Level exams and local libraries. We have also distributed rice, lentils, wheat flour and other basic essentials to ensure families can support themselves for up to two weeks during stringent lockdown measures when they have no access to either paid work or funds to purchase basic necessities.

Q. What keeps you inspired in hosting Supper Clubs and what in your view ensures the success of Supper Clubs?

For me personally seeing the reaction on people's faces when they are thoroughly enjoying good food means everything to me… It's the best feeling ever! Through my supper clubs people have met, networked and great lasting friendships have blossomed.

My supper club experiences are for professionals, business entrepreneurs and people from all walks of life, ages, backgrounds and global cultures… NC Supper Clubs is a place to meet, enjoy a fantastic food experience with friends or family, network and make good connections.

The success of a supper club is all about the host, the food and the experience you deliver.

Nesan signs off by saying "NC Supper Clubs event is all about the experience and creating a cherished memory, which is why we are considered one of the best in London and a "cut above the rest". All our food is cooked from the heart and with lots of passion, which is reflected in the feedback we get from our foodie patrons."

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