WANDER INTO SOMETHING NEW

Step 1: Find a friend to do it with.


Antara and Sanhita didn’t set out to start a supper club—it came as an idea to use up a crate of Alphonso mangoes from Sanhita’s parents’ farm. Both Konkan, both hosts at heart, they would often trade recipes from their slightly different corners of the region. When the idea of hosting strangers for dinner came up, Antara said yes before Sanhita had even finished the sentence. Ten days later, Santara (a name stitched from theirs) was real.

Step 2: Choose your hook.

Restaurant Konkani and Malvani food often follows a familiar script, leaving little room for the dishes they grew up eating at home. They decided to create a meal around family recipes that rarely appear on restaurant menus. Their debut menu celebrated mangoes, using two or three varieties across courses and sourced largely from neighbourhood vendors, with the farm Alphonsos taking centre stage.

Step 3: Plan, plan, plan.

Neither comes from a hospitality background. Both have day jobs. So planning happened in the in-between hours i.e. after work, on calls, errands handed over to Antara’s partner. Prep 
took two days: make-ahead items like the aam-panna went into the fridge; everything else was choreographed around one humble three-burner stove.

Step 4: Don’t fight about it.

They’d never built something together before, and protecting the friendship mattered more than getting every detail right. So they checked in often, making space for disagreement before it could curdle into tension.


Step 5: Cook, and enjoy it.

No elaborate sourcing trips, no chasing rare ingredients. Just cooking food they knew, the way they knew it.

Step 6: Set the mood, and have a backup plan.

Six guests, capped by their space, half familiar faces and half strangers. Worried about awkward silences, they kept party games on standby. They never needed them though. Between Antara’s cat wandering through, the guests warming up to each other and the two of them narrating the story behind every dish, conversation took care of itself. Guests asked about unfamiliar ingredients; stories led to more stories.


Rinse and repeat.

Santara is now aiming for monthly editions, each one focusing on seasonal produce. What began as a spontaneous decision to try something new is becoming a rhythm, bolstered by the joyous first edition.