Candlelight on clay. Dinner is served on ceramics crafted just metres from where you’re sitting. Around you, shelves of hand-thrown bowls and luminous glazes fill one of Bali’s most celebrated ceramic studios. Begin with an aperitivo and a private tour of the Gaya workshop before taking your place at a beautifully set table among the ceramics themselves. More than two decades ago, Marcello Massoni and Michela Fabbri left Italy for Bali to found Gaya, where every plate, bowl and cup is still thrown, glazed and fired by hand. For one evening, their celebrated showroom becomes an intimate dining room. During dinner, they share the story of Gaya and the journey that brought them from Italy to Bali. A specially created four-course feast by the Indus culinary team celebrates the enduring relationship between food, fire and clay. Slow-roasted dishes, clay-baked flavours and elegant desserts are paired with carefully selected wines, each course served on Gaya’s own handcrafted ceramics.
At the table are Raoul de Jong, award-winning Dutch writer whose adventurous writing traces ancestry, belonging and the journeys that connect us; Dominic Amerena, whose debut novel I Want Everything, winner of the 2026 Mud Literary Prize, explores authorship and the lies we tell to get the story we want; Louie Buana, Indonesian historian and cultural researcher focused on heritage, customary law and the preservation of Indonesia’s rich cultural traditions; Idanna Pucci, writer and cultural historian whose lifelong relationship with Bali has inspired decades of writing on the island’s art and heritage; Terence Ward, acclaimed author, filmmaker and master storyteller exploring the meeting of cultures across the Middle East and Central Asia; and Geia Laconi, author of The Tiger Man’s Daughter, a beautifully observed memoir of family, identity and the enduring ties between Indonesia and Italy.
Limited seats. For one night only, Gaya’s celebrated showroom becomes a dining room unlike any other.
More information: https://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/programs/candlelight-on-clay