An ever-evolving menu is an ode to Kuv’s passion for food from various cultures and cuisines
Kuv was born in Bahrain and raised in London. He has worked in various different fields and practiced as an architect for years. He’s a creative guy – he acts and sings, and cooks, of course, a skill he loves to share with his supper club guests. But he makes it a rule not to ask where they come from, or what they do. “There’s so much more to a person than that,” he says.
“In our normal lives, we talk enough about those things.” The point being that there are other modes of interpersonal exchange – and eating together is the best way he’s found. “As an architect, you create things that take a long time to get to brick and mortar. As an actor, you take a script and project it. As a singer, you feel and hope people feel with you. But none of that is tangible. Food is a way to connect people quickly.”
Kuv’s was the first of Dubai’s modern supper clubs, though it’s been through a few iterations. “Initially, the location would change, and if anyone wanted to host I would go and cook there. Then new friends or club members might say ‘I’m new to Dubai, could you manage in my kitchen?’ And some kitchens just had two pots, but I managed.”
In those early days, he was reluctant to call himself a chef, or even to wear a chef’s jacket until he started to get validation from others who bear that title – one chef even gave him his first jacket, which he now wears with pride. His only real training came by way of his mother, “a gifted cook” who taught him that food is about instinct, about working first with sight, and smell.
“Taste is activated through the eyes and nose,” he says. These days, he sticks to his own kitchen, relies on an invaluable Sri Lankan assistant named Amila, and keeps both the location and the five-course menu secret until the last minute, to allow for unadulterated first impressions as his guests sit down to eat in his garden. The cuisine itself changes by the month (Persian, Indian, Moroccan etc.), and he doesn’t like to repeat ingredients between menus, or even between courses. “I love to see how people take in food differently,” says Kuv.
“Some really take their time and dissect each course.” Ideally, he says, they’ll get to the “base notes” of the food – “what’s underneath” – in the same way, that his loose house rules create a cosy environment where people aren’t being judged on their clothes, or jobs, or backgrounds. Over dinner, they can tell their stories in their own ways, and Kuv thinks this is part of the appeal of supper clubs in general, and especially in Dubai. “It has caught on as a trend, as things tend to do in this city, but in a very positive way, because it gives people a comfortable platform to showcase their homes and their cultures.”
Follow @kuvsecretsuppers to book your spot.
