Our Third Birthday Dinner: A Supper Club (and Fundraiser) with Austin-Based Chef Deepa Shridhar
FOR FUTURE FRONT’S THIRD BIRTHDAY, WE HOSTed AN INTIMATE SUPPER CLUB WITH ONE OF OUR FAVORITE CHEFS, DEEPA SHRIDHAR.
For three nights this July, we transformed The Future Front Texas House into a communal dining experience by serving a multi-course South Indian-Texan menu from chef Deepa Shridhar.
Paired with the menu from Austin’s neighborhood grocery Thom’s Market, a delicious cocktail menu from Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Topo Chico, ingredients included everything from fermented figs to sesame quail and jaggery. Each dish was hand-selected as an artistic expression through food.
(All proceeds from ticket sales each evening supporting participating tallent, as well as The Future Front House’s free space program for local creatives.)
MEET THE DINNER’S INAUGURAL HOSTS.
Deepa Shridhar (she/her) is a chef, writer, podcaster and TV & Digital personality residing in Austin. Shridhar has been cooking professionally for twelve years, worked at some of the best restaurants in Texas, including her own award winning food trailer, Puli-Ra, and supper club, specializing in South Indian Texan cuisine, her own brand of Third Culture Cuisine.
Currently, Shridhar collaborates on supper clubs and pop ups with like minded businesses across the country that include award winning restaurants and food businesses alike. She’s been featured in many national publications and multiples appearances on the Food Network including Chopped, as a runner up.
Chef Deepa has a substack under the moniker: Sicc Palette. Sicc Palette is a digital platform that houses her podcast, newsletter and a variety of video content that focuses on personal narratives, the definitions of fine dining, immigrant, third culture cuisine and recipes flavored by her South Indian Texan perspective.
Photo by Nitya Jain
Jane Hervey (she/her) is a creative director, recording artist and (accidental) nonprofit founder, living and working in Austin, Texas. Originally from the South Texas border, she currently runs Future Front, a 501c3 culture space she started in 2015, as well as her own creative house, group work.
Over the last decade, she has collaborated with a range of people & places on culture-driven brand strategies, curated experiences and storytelling campaigns—whether she’s working with independent creatives & organizations or brands like The LINE Hotel, Bumble or Red Bull. She’s been a guest speaker for organizations like SXSW, Austin FC, Blake St. Bentonville, We All Grow! Los Angeles, The University of Texas, The Texas Downtown Association and Women Who Code. She’s also lent her time toward grassroots community design and equity initiatives, as well as civic task forces led by the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the City of Austin, the Austin Community Foundation and more.
As an artist, Jane is a singer, songwriter and producer, pulling influences from the likes of Björk and Frank Ocean. The daughter of a zoologist, her work builds worlds around the high-brow, low-brow aesthetics of rodeo queen girlhood and the dreamy tropical, jewel tones of the Texas coast. Since putting out her first four-track lo-fi EP “Sour Grapefruit” in 2019, she has played South by Southwest (SXSW), opened for the likes of OSHUN, Nomi Ruiz, Bunny Michael and composed for an internationally recognized cross-border sound album.
Her work has been profiled in Texas Monthly and ADWEEK, as well as recognized in the City of Austin’s Women’s Hall of Fame. You can learn more at janeclairehervey.com.
