From IIT to London dining table: How an Indian couple built a supper club around pani puri and more

The couple also organises festival-themed dinners during the busier months between August and November. (Image: the.bouzi.club/Instagram)

An Indian-origin designer woman in London has drawn attention online for running a home-led supper club that uses traditional Indian food to create social connections among city residents. Ankita Khante, an IIT Guwahati postgraduate and former product designer at Samsung Research, hosts a monthly ticketed dining experience called The Bouzi Club with her husband, Aman Krishna.

Khante, who was born and raised in Nagpur, Maharashtra, completed her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, before pursuing a Master’s in Design at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2024 following her marriage to Krishna.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Khante said she decided to pause her corporate career after relocating. “I took a short break to settle into London and understand the UK job market. Before moving, I worked as a Product Designer at Samsung Research (Bangalore) and lived in Bangalore for about three years. Hosting has always been something I loved doing for friends, so the idea naturally grew from there,” she said.

Her husband, Aman Krishna, was born in Obra in Uttar Pradesh and has lived in Varanasi and Allahabad, with his family originally from Allahabad, now Prayagraj. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from IIT Dhanbad and later pursued a Master’s in Computer Science at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad. Krishna had earlier moved to the United States for work before joining Khante in London.

The couple runs The Bouzi Club as a small, home-based venture, hosting around 10 to 12 guests each month. Guests are served a seven-course Indian-fusion menu, with tickets priced at GBP 50 per person, approximately Rs 5,000. According to Khante, the concept was shaped by the social dynamics of London.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by d'bouzi club | Supperclub | London (@the.bouzi.club)

“The supper club began as a community idea. In London, so many people are new and don’t have a circle yet, and food is the easiest way to bring people together. We started with a few friends to test the format, and then it became a ticketed supper club,” she said.

Khante explained that early dinners revealed how difficult it could be for strangers to engage with one another. “A few events in, we realised the first 10 minutes matter a lot, so we introduced pani puri as an icebreaker. It instantly gets people talking because everyone has their own ‘pani puri expectations’ and it’s interactive. Now it’s our signature start and we do it at almost every supper,” she added.

Running a food venture in a new country came with multiple challenges. Khante said neither she nor her husband had prior experience in business or hospitality. “We don’t come from business backgrounds, so everything was self-learned: pricing, ticketing, planning, operations. Understanding the local palate: finding the right spice level and flavour balance for London guests. Navigating a new country’s rules, sourcing, and logistics,” she said, adding that operations have stabilised after months of experimentation.

The couple also organises festival-themed dinners during the busier months between August and November. While they do not disclose financial details publicly, Khante said the venture has grown steadily through repeat guests and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Khante addressed the attention around the description of “IITians selling pani puri”, stating that she does not view the journey as a departure from her education. “We are genuinely proud of our education and the institutions we come from, and we don’t see this journey as ‘falling from’ anything,” she said. “If anything, that training gave us the confidence to take risks, learn fast, and build something from scratch in a world that was completely new to us.”

She added that entering hospitality without prior industry experience has been a learning process. “We’re not from the service industry, so stepping into hospitality has been a humbling learning curve, and we’ve grown to really respect the craft of hosting and serving,” she said, clarifying that the work was not intended to diminish any profession or institution.

A supper club typically operates as a private, ticketed dining event hosted in a non-commercial setting such as a home or pop-up venue, where guests — often unfamiliar with one another — share a multi-course meal.

In addition to hosting in London, Khante is set to organise a limited supper club event in Nagpur on February 12 at Three Beans, Byramji Town, with seating capped at 15 guests, Hindustan Times reported.