How Dubai chef quit corporate life to build a thriving supper club inspired by her Vietnamese-Chinese roots

Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring. 

After an evening with Madame Vo, this particular Bram Stoker quote comes to mind.

Lisa Vo, the mind behind the popular Dubai supper club, has built her entire concept around a simple idea: There's no such thing as a lonely meal. It's a philosophy that underpins everything from birthday celebrations and engagement parties to monthly singles nights hosted around her table.

 Enjoy a little dumpling preparation activity with others, before sitting down for a meticulously prepared seven course meal that is so well-plated that you might spend a few minutes admiring the presentation before the food.

By the end of the night, you've enjoyed good food, shared stories with strangers who no longer feel like strangers, and left behind a host who seems to delight in every connection made around her table.

Madame Vo, as she calls herself, embodies the old saying: Do what you love. There is always a smile, a laugh waiting around the corner of a sentence. And just like the guests she welcomes into her home twice a week, she too has a story of how she found her way to this table.

It all began in Germany, where she was born and raised. “My roots are Vietnamese and Chinese, and for Asian immigrants back in the 90s, being a restauranteur, owning a restaurant, was the easiest path to entrepreneurship and owning your business,” she says. 

And so, her parents owned an Asian restaurant in Southern Germany. “And so, I will say, growing up at a restaurant in the kitchen—you know the child at the back of the restaurant doing homework? That was me. I was that child,” she says.

It wasn’t just the joy of food in a restaurant that caught her attention: It was the joy of hosting, a passion that just growing exponentially through the years. She would watch YouTube videos, do her own research, and experiment.

The years of sustained effort is evident in the exquisite scallop ceviche that she prepares, while sharing her story. Madame Vo almost has you convinced that it’s easy and effortless to make. 

 “This is one of the most popular dishes on our menu,” she says, offering two plates with contagious excitement. 

It’s soft, creamy, and finishes in an instant. It’s clear why it’s the favourite. 

Yet, long before Haus of Vo and this home had become a reality, the idea of a supper club had already taken root in her mind.  Before settling in Dubai, there was another stop on her journey. "I've lived in Hong Kong before moving to Dubai and supper clubs is actually a very common concept back home but not so much in Dubai," she says.

Dubai entered the picture in 2014, after she was offered a role with a government agency. The move wasn't a difficult decision "I actually had visited UAE on holiday and I really enjoyed it," she recalls. "I was 20 at that time and I thought absolutely why not?”

And so, she packed up a suitcase and moved to Dubai. Like many expatriates, she assumed the stay would be temporary. "Truthfully speaking, I started thinking I was going to be here for a year or two, you know, like all the expats."

Life had other plans, of course.

“For 12 years, a house, a dog and a husband later, this is my forever home,” she says. 

However, her professional life was quite different from the one she leads today. She was in a corporate career, her ‘past life’ as she tells people. "I specialised in geopolitics and government communication. So a very different world to the supper club.”

Yet, cooking remained her creative outlet and she never let that go. “It was my outlet to creativity, connecting with myself and with my friends, the people I enjoy spending time with,” adds Madame Vo. 

Nevertheless, when an unexpected catalyst arrived in the form of a global pandemic, those two worlds, her love of hosting and her life in Dubai — would finally come together.

Ironically, COVID, turned this dream into a reality. It was a catalyst, and it was what propelled her to launch the supper club, “I tell everyone this supper club was born during the loneliest time of the world,” she says.

During the days of lockdown, she was hit with a moment of realisation. “Humans, and as a community really need two things to thrive and survive. One is food naturally, as everyone’s got to eat, but also human connection.”

And as soon as the government allowed groups larger than four to gather,  she opened the doors to her supper club. “My mission since then, has been to bring people together over good food,” Madame Vo explains.

Even the name reflects the different cultures that shaped her. Haus is a nod to her German upbringing, while Vo honours her Vietnamese heritage. “House is spelled in German, because the experience takes place in my home, and Vo is my Vietnamese family name.”

She just makes one promise to her guests: They come as strangers, and leave as friends. There’s no such thing as a lonely meal.  The first dinners were held in her one-bedroom apartment in DIFC, with just six people around the table. 

Four years later, the scale is dramatically different. "When I first started, it was a table of six. Now, fast forward four years later, I've done more than 300 tables now.”

Yet, for a while, Haus of Vo remained a side hustle that she ran alongside her corporate career. In 2024, she took the leap and it became a fully-fledged job. "So it went from a passion project to a little side hustle that I did on the weekends to, you know, doing this full time now three, four times a week."

The numbers are impressive, hundreds of tables and thousands of guests but for Vo, the biggest reward has been the relationships formed along the way. And everything, has a story—a story that can always be shared at tables, of course.  "I got married two years ago. And it was a very small intimate wedding under 100 people here in Dubai. But more than 10 of the guests were actually from my supper club.”

How does a typical night begin at Madame Vo’s?

It begins with dumplings. “When the guests arrive, we like to begin the night with a duck masterclass and dumpling wrapping. It’s such a great way to help break the ice,” she says.

Throughout the dumpling interactive activity, Madame Vo breaks down instructions clearly: From taking the thin flour, to the gentle coatings, fillings and closing it all together.

Who needs to be perfect, when you can just have a good time? “It’s a fun way to enjoy a dish that we’ve all made together afterwards,” adds Madame Vo. 

It’s the only dish that you have to make, she quickly assures. “The other seven courses are by myself and my team.” Each dish is placed on the table, with a little anecdote, perhaps something to do with her own childhood, or a signature dish that has evolved into a favourite over the years. There are quite a few of those, including a stuffed shell crab. “It really is a labour of love,” she says, smiling. “It actually takes me and my kitchen staff an hour to cook, and slowly remove the meat out of the shell, prepared in some home-made spices. But now it’s my signature dish, because whenever I take the dish off the menu, people complain.”

And more than the food, it’s the air of conversation that she treasures. As she emphasises, she really wants to create an environment where people talk. “You know, these ice-breaker questions that encourage conversations,” she says, adding that she wants to move beyond the standard ‘where are you from’ and ‘how long have you been here’.

She wants people to get to know each other on a personal basis, and so she even encourages seat swaps during a singles night, too. By the end of the evening, everyone should have had the chance to speak to everyone else.

After all, at Haus of Vo, the meal is merely the starting point. The real magic happens in the conversations that follow.