‘An IITian selling pani puri in London’: Why this NRI traded corporate life to run a supper club

In the competitive London food scene, an NRI has found a unique way to bridge the gap between strangers, with the help of the humble pani puri. Ankita Khante, an IIT Guwahati postgraduate and former Samsung designer, hosts a monthly ticketed supper club that turns traditional Indian hosting into a modern community experience. Khante told HT.com that she runs her “small food startup” along with her husband, Aman Krishna.Ankita Khante’s supper club, The Bouzi Club, hosts around 12 people a month. (Ankita Khante)Ankita Khante and her husband, Aman Krishna, host the supper club called ‘The Bouzi Club’ together. Khante, who was born and raised in Nagpur, Maharashtra, completed her Bachelor’s in Architecture from VNIT Nagpur and pursued a master’s in design at IIT Guwahati. She relocated to the UK in 2024 after marrying Aman Krishna.Talking about her husband, Khante told HT.com that Krishna was born in “Obra, Uttar Pradesh and has lived in Varanasi and Allahabad. His family is from Allahabad (Prayagraj).”She continued, “Aman did his bachelor’s from IIT Dhanbad (Bachelor’s in Computer Sci`ence) and his master’s from IIIT Hyderabad (Master’s in Computer Science).” He moved to the US a year before Khante.What did she do 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,” Khante told HT.com.How did she get the idea to start 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, adding, “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.”The NRI couple hosts about 10 to 12 guests a month and serves them a 7-course Indian-fusion menu as a part of The Bouzi Club. The tickets are priced at £50 (approx ₹6,000) per person.“We’re a small, home-run business at the moment, so we don’t disclose turnover publicly, but it’s been growing steadily through word of mouth and repeat guests. We also run a festival-themed series during peak festive months (Aug–Nov).”What hurdles did she face?Talking about the struggles she and her husband faced when starting the supper club, Khante told HT.com that they faced three major challenges.“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 logics. Over time, we built a reliable format and now the operations are much smoother.”How her IIT education helped her?She also discussed how her IIT education helped her navigate the business world. “Also, one small note on the ‘IITians selling pani puri’ framing: we’re genuinely proud of our education and the institutions we come from, and we don’t see this journey as ‘falling from’ anything. 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. 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. So we’re not trying to demean any institution.”What is a supper club?A supper club is a cross between a private dinner party and a restaurant. It is a “social dining” experience where people, often strangers, gather to eat a multi-course meal in a non-traditional space, like someone’s home or a temporary ‘pop-up’ location.