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There are rose petals scattered up Paris Rosina’s front path on the evening of her early autumn supper club. Inside, candles have been lit in every room and a tray of mismatched glassware awaits guests on a velvet pillow. Such gestures are typical of the chef, who wants her diners to “feel romanced”. The event is part of an ongoing series she calls “Come To My House, I’ll Make You Fat”. Tonight’s dinner is being hosted for London’s sex workers, and her guests have come to do just that.
Two editions of Rosina’s supper club (tickets from £80) are typically hosted each month; one is reserved exclusively for sex workers, of whom there are estimated to be more than 100,000 in the UK. “I do it as an ally,” says Rosina, who by holding these events is helping to combat the stigma and shame surrounding sex work, and push the narrative that, for many people in the community, sex work can be a choice over which they have agency. The most refreshing thing about being a fly on the wall for the evening? Not once do you hear the question: “What do you do?”
“This space is just about having a nice time,” says Rosina. “It’s a closed safe space – you can talk, relax and meet up with people. It’s something nice to do.” Lower-income tickets (£40) are available, and all Rosina’s paid assistants are from the community.
“There’s so much emphasis on survival in our community, which is understandable because it’s not always an easy path in life,” says one guest, who has been a sex worker for four years and now works in advocacy. “But Paris’s supper club is a glittery space that allows for the more fantastical elements of our community to shine through.” Adds another: “As a sex worker, having a seat at the table can have many meanings. At Paris’s, we have a table of our own.”
Rosina started cooking professionally when she left school, working at London bakery Dusty Knuckle before launching her first pop-up event, “Let Me Fill You Up”, in 2021. Stuffed food remains a key element of her menus. “I like food inside of food, basically,” she says of her dumplings, cream-filled jellies and chicken wings. She launched her supper-club series in west London in 2023.
“I never liked school and resisted going from a young age,” says Rosina, who grew up in Essex before moving to London in 2010. Playing truant, she would “sneak home and watch cooking shows: Keith Floyd, Two Fat Ladies, Gary Rhodes with his spiky hair, Delia Smith, and, of course, Nigella”. Her misadventures proved to be an education. You are as likely to be served a cat-shaped panna cotta at a Rosina event as you are an oozing chicken Kyiv.
Tonight’s event begins upstairs in Rosina’s living room, with a silver platter of fried potato canapés served with a Wright’s Wines pét-nat and Showerings Cider for those who have opted for the drinks package (an additional £50). The conversation is energetic. “You can hear them from downstairs when it’s a sex workers’ night because they’re all talking,” says Rosina. “Nobody is shy.” The party continues downstairs where the kitchen is decked in a leopard print‑topped tablecloth: on the menu are piles of jalapeño and corn butter served with cornbreads shaped like madeleines.
The entertainment – sex-worker dinners usually come with a show – is provided by singer-songwriter MilkMaiden, who serenades the room with a fan favourite, “The Death of All Men”. Previously, guests have been given a burlesque show by Miss Angel Bella (she danced the caterpillar across the table on top of a spread of jelly). “She had on these thigh-high red boots, the light fitting was swinging around… It was just iconic,” Rosina says.
The joy of the “dinner” part also derives from the china used to serve it: Rosina uses mismatched crockery to plate up her saffron mussel risotto along with chintzy vintage jelly moulds, hexagonal coffee cups and a farm of animal-shaped milk jugs. “I’m giving cat lady but I don’t actually have any pets,” she says. Her Substack platform for recipes, Suet Mansion, includes notes on this beloved bric-à-brac, and will also feature an upcoming drop of her trademark striped apron. Rosina would like to expand her supper clubs to Paris and New York, but there are currently no plans to confine it to a permanent space. Instead, the chef is gunning for a “small-ish hotel – not in London – that will be filled with all my crockery, props and glassware”. It’ll be a place for dinner and a show, for anyone who wants to join her.
There are clean plates all round at the end of the evening, which reaches its climax with a malt panna cotta filled with salted caramel. Above all, Rosina’s events are about enjoying a good meal. “It’s always fun – nothing is ever scrimped on,” says one guest, who speaks fondly of a syrup-soaked suet pudding. “The beautiful thing about this food is the balance between comfort and decadence.”
