Cooking Clubs

This is a book by six women in New York who formed a Cooking Club and wrote about their adventures, including successes, failures and suggestions for others interested in a local cooking club.

“The Cooking Club Cookbook” by Katherine Fausset, Sharon Cohen Fredman, Rebecca Sample Gerstung, Cynthia Harris, Lucia Quartararo, and Lisa Singer, published by Villard Books.

Some of their suggestions in the Chapter – “recipe for a cooking club” are included after the jump –

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From The Cooking Club Cookbook —
“What do we cook? Think themes. Themes are fun. Themes get you excited to cook. … Plan menus and choose courses ahead of time over e-mail, by phone, or in person. … And though we don’t have an official course rotation policy, we try to take turns preparing different parts of the meal. For convenience, we’ll usually convene at the home of the member cooking the entrée, since carting a ten-pound turkey through the subway turnstile is no fun at all.”

Their cooking club is small with only six members. I’m a member of several different social groups, which are not cooking clubs themselves, but do have members bring different items to share with others at parties. While, some of these groups do not specify themes – “just bring something you like to share with others”, others do have themes. And themes for food items and meals are a lot of fun at these parties. There is a lot of creativity among your friends.

Here are just a few theme ideas –

Calendar Events – e.g. – New Year, Mardi Gras, Valentine Day, etc.
Ingredients– e.g. – salmon, pasta, chocolate, etc.
Finger Foods – e.g. – bruchetta, mini pizzas, quesadillas, dips, etc.
Regional or Ethnic – e.g.- creole, sushi, etc.
Cooking Type – e.g. – BBQ, grilling, baked, fish fry, shrimp boil, etc.
Competition – e.g. – BBQ cookoff, throughdowns, etc.
Type of Meal – e.g. – breakfast, brunch, large or simple dinner party, formal or intimate dinner, special event party, dock/tail gate party etc.

The possible themes are only limited by your imagination. Watch for posts on these and other themes ideas.