March Supper Club - Japanese Home Cooking by Sonoko Sakai

The Dinner ...

My central belief is that good food is a cure-all, but good food shared with others can be all-together magic. As with many things (art, theater, music) it is the sharing of an experience that elevates it from mundane to exceptional. This, at its heart, is the objective of Supper Club.

The dinner is held at our private home and is intended to be a place of shared experiences, be they between strangers or old friends. Dependent on weather the long table is either set in the garden under the cafe lights, or by the fire in our mid-century modern home. We serve on my husband's grandmother's antique china and take great joy in curating flowers and music inspired by the cookbook being sampled.

Each cookbook sampled is selected for the story associated with it. These stories could be the exploration of a culture or place, a celebration of an iconic chef or restaurant, or a foray into a specific cooking style.

Our goal is to not only explore the story associated with the cookbook, but also comprehensively sample its recipes, all while delivering a cohesive progressive menu. Guests are encouraged to BYOB to accompany their meal. We strive to include at least one recipe from each section of the book, as well as equally representing key ingredient categories (starch, veg, fish, meat, sweet).

We prioritize sourcing our ingredients from some amazing local vendors, including (but not limited to) Fire Ant Fram, Abundant Seafood, Teds Butcher Block, Cuda Co, Spade & Clover, Moonrise Bagle, Out of the Weeds, Super Mushroom Bros, Tidewater Farm & Baguette Magic.

When possible, attendee requests (e.g., allergies/preferences) are incorporated into the final menu selections. The Agenda of this event includes a sample of the dishes that may be served.

The Cook ...

My childhood was spent cooking out of our family's garden in Seattle, WA (from the age of six my brothers and I were each responsible for one family dinner per week). I worked my way through collage freelancing for catering companies and as a part-time prep cook for a local natural foods market where I not only learned the ins and outs of a professional kitchen, but also gained a real appreciation for the difference of home-made versus processed pre-packed food. I also quickly learned that while I love to cook, the hours and stress associated with the restaurent scene was never going to be condusive for raising a family or pursuing my other interests.

I started Supper Club in 2022 at the urging of friends who were (I think) tired of hearing me bemoan the impossibility of testing a cookbook. Making a sufficient amount of dishes is not only costly, but a small family of 4 can never consume that much food without spoiling. I had (and still have) a serious cookbook addiction and the first year we sampled 11 cookbooks already in my collection. It was an amazing experience meeting food enthusiasts (as well as tourists) in Charleston, and growing my skill and confidence at curating and producing a tasting dinner experience for our guests. By 2023 I was mixing in some new release cookbooks in with my existing collection thanks to the incredible curation of our local bookstore Itinerant Literate Books.

The Cookbook ...

"Sonoko Sakai's passion for the Japanese kitchen is matched only by her generousity as a teacher, and I am so glad to have this book to learn from for the rest of my life." -Francis Lam

"Sonoko Sakai's generous book walks us through the nuance and heritage of Japanese cooking in a comprehensive, useful and soulful way. Japanese Home Cooking makes it so we can achieve amazng results with ease - even when making homemade soba noodles. This book is a must-read for any cook looking to tap into the depth of the Japanese culinary tradition." - Travis Lett

Host or Publisher Terra Mullis