We are delighted to bring before you a weeklong experience in culinary delight. India is a melting pot of cultures and along with it a myriad of cuisines. In a country as vast as India each state offers a cuisine which is distinct from the other, yet the base and the spices remain similar. One can never tire of the tantalising flavours of the various cuisines of the Indian Sub-Continent.
Join us at The Nehru Centre, where each day of the week, we will introduce a new chef specialising in a regional cuisine. There will be a conversation about food followed by a tasting menu.
Sohini is a chef, supper club host, food innovator and social media presence who strives to push the boundaries of what we consider Bengali food to be. Born in Kolkata, to a food-obsessed family, she moved to the United Kingdom aged 9 and gained culinary inspiration from her travels to various climes, as well as the cultural melting pot of London’s food scene.
After starting out her working life as a health economist, she quickly grew to realise her true passion lay with feeding her colleagues home-made meals and in so doing, sharing her culture with them. She soon traded spreadsheets for supper clubs, launching Smoke and Lime in 2018.
The Smoke and Lime supper club is jointly run by her and her husband, Rijul. They feed 10 people at a time in their South London flat and have taken the supper club with them to Australia and India. Sohini says the aim of these events it’s not just to showcase Bengali produce, flavours, and techniques, but also to provide an insight into “how Bengalis like to eat”. Rather than create “fusion” food, Sohini finds parallels in flavour and food ethos from around the globe and finds a home for it in Bengal. Her ability to innovate and create novel recipes sets her apart from other chefs in her space.
Alongside her supper clubs, Sohini has worked in the food industry in London for over 5 years with the likes of Asma Khan and Helen Graham, working across Soho and Mayfair establishments in operations management.