{"id":2584,"date":"2020-01-01T09:33:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T09:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:08:11","slug":"culinary-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2020\/01\/01\/culinary-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A passion for cooking, entertaining and experimenting with new flavours led Mr Ashish Poddar, a marketing and strategic planning professional, to start a business so he could do just that. The result? A private home dining experience company named Chef\u2019d CLUB, in which Mr Poddar isn\u2019t just the founder, but also its chef and orchestrator. \u201cIt\u2019s about engaging the guests, both through the food as well as by adding an element of surprise and delight,\u201d he says.<\/p>

Friends and family weren\u2019t especially surprised when Mr Poddar, who holds an Executive MBA from NUS, took the plunge. \u201cAlthough not formally trained, I\u2019ve spent some 22 years cooking and hosting lavish dinners for my nearest and dearest,\u201d explains Mr Poddar. \u201cTheir consistent positive feedback coupled with frequent urging that I consider a business in F&B, motivated me to host my first tasting session for six guests.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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We can all appreciate slow, home-cooked food, and so leveraging on \u2014 and refining \u2014 that concept has a huge mass appeal. I personally enjoy interacting with the diners, and answering the questions they might have about their specially-prepared three-hour dinner. <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Mr Ashish Poddar<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Founder and Head chef of Chef\u2019d CLUB<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Smoked chicken biryani.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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And with that, Chef\u2019d CLUB was born in March 2019. The concept is simple: Mr Poddar creates and conceptualises the menu \u2014 usually a five-course meal of progressive Asian cuisine \u2014 tries it out and publicises it on the company\u2019s Facebook page at least a month and a half in advance. Keen diners reserve a spot. Up to 10 guests per sitting are able to enjoy this intimate home dining experience, which is hosted up to four times a month. \u201cTo date, our menu has not been repeated,\u201d says Mr Poddar, who now works with a core team of five, which assists him with cooking, plating and other operational tasks. As team leader of this growing enterprise, Mr Poddar found his EMBA course useful in many aspects. \u201cHaving culinary skills is key. But knowing how to plan and execute an effective marketing strategy helps me stand out,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is crucial if I hope to sustain the business.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Grilled prawns with special Chef\u2019d white sauce.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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From time to time, Chef\u2019d CLUB holds free tasting events and the team also accepts requests for cooking workshops or private dinner gatherings among family or colleagues, which Mr Poddar considers as opportunities to attempt even more dishes. \u201cAs Singapore\u2019s food culture continues to mature, my own experiments with Asian and Indian flavours have also grown,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd though the buzzword here is authenticity, creativity has never been far behind.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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To reserve a seat at Chef\u2019d CLUB, go to facebook.com\/pg\/chefedclub<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Main Photo by Mark Lee. Food photos by teddiefoodvoyage.<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the founder of private home dining company Chef\u2019d CLUB Mr Ashish Poddar (Business \u201917) good food and good conversation go hand in hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3597,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/3597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}