About us
Hilo's highly anticipated Curry Club is the end-result of a dream by owner Samania Akmal, to merge many years of diverse expertise in the world of food and pastries into a special, once-per-month culinary experience designed to delight and transport
Like many chefs in the Punjabi tradition, Samania learned the basics of her craft from cooking alongside family and experienced first-hand how to bring the philosophy of food as home to the public while working in her father's Pakistani and Indian restaurant. Those lessons and concepts remain the substrate of her cooking philosophy, upon which she continues to cultivate a worldly, colorful, playful oeuvre of recipes steeped in curiosity and experimentation.
Formally trained as a pastry chef in her native Frankfurt, Germany, Samania owned and operated a bakery there before immigrating to the Big Island two decades ago. On the island she got her start in the farmer's markets, where her samosas became a quick hit, and led to the opening of her first restaurant. From there follows over eighteen years of cooking both in restaurants of her own and working as a chef in some of the island's best kitchens, during which she also sold a flavorful selection of lassi (a South-Asian, yogurt-based drink) to grocery stores.
Throughout all of this, Samania has held onto her dream of offering a more experimental, vivacious, communal dining experience, where friends and neighbors--by reservation only--will gather each month to enjoy a unique blend of her take on traditional Indian street food, tapas-style pupus (appetizers), and desserts from around the world, all presented with eye-popping, Instagram-worthy plating arrangements.
The Curry Club is that dream come true, and we welcome you to enjoy it with us, as family.