A cookbook club is exactly what it sounds like: a group of people who gather each month to discuss and eat selected recipes from a cookbook. And yet, it is much more than that! Cookbook clubs bring community back to cooking, which is something you may have grown up with or didn’t know you needed in your life.
Instead of sweating it out preparing four courses for friends before they arrive or missing out on meeting them while they finish dinner, you’ll find that you’re having more fun than you anticipated learning the tricks by watching your friends prepare recipes.
Today I want to go into the details of how to set up your cookbook club for success.
Just like you love some of your friends but never travel with them, you may want to approach your cookbook club in a different way rather than bringing your close friends together for yet another gathering. This doesn’t mean that this approach won’t work for you—just something to keep in mind.
How to Start a Cookbook Club in 3 Simple Steps
1. Choose a structure.
Structure your cookbook club in one of two ways:
1. A potluck-style gathering, where you all prepare your food at home in advance and bring it to the host’s house.
Or
2. An evening where you cook a big batch of a few dishes together and you all share in the spoils by bringing home a few servings of each to enjoy in the future.
2. Select members you think will get along well together. I recommend no more than six.
Think about which friends you have who would fit in well with the type of cookbook club you want to have. Which of my friends likes cooking? Who is courageous? Who is always up for a challenge? I recommend finding a mix of introverted and extroverted friends who share similar values ​​but have a wide variety of interests. Cookbook clubs are a great way to introduce people to different groups of friends.
My friends Liz, Hillary, and Dahlia were the ones who came along to our cookbook club and they each invited one person they thought they would enjoy getting to know each other. This worked great because the group was small enough that we all had a chance to connect with each other while setting the table or finishing the meal. Creating moments to spend quality time with someone you know is rare as an adult and it’s one of the aspects of Cookbook Club that I love most.
Creating moments to spend quality time with someone you know is rare as an adult and it’s one of the aspects of Cookbook Club that I love most.
3. Set some rules and boundaries.
Yes, I know rules aren’t fun. But boundaries are important in all areas of life, especially when entertainment is involved! You just want to keep the club fun. So make sure you have honest conversations about logical things like: How many times will we meet? How do we select cookbooks? What dietary restrictions are we dealing with? Where do we host?
Our rules look like this:
- We change hosts every month.
- The host selects the book and creates the menu. She then sends the menu via text along with images of the dishes. We don’t usually buy a book until we’ve fully cooked it, which is a great way to test if the book is something you can see yourself using in the future. (Here are some of my favorite cookbooks to get you started!)
- Recipes are selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Typically, the hosts provide information about what they will be making (often more complex and difficult to transport dishes).
- We help clean up! While all the dishes usually don’t get completely washed, we clear the table and pack leftovers into our Tupperware containers.
- We decide on a date before we go next time. It’s hard to align our schedules and it’s much easier to do it individually.
Leaving your ego is the door.
Cookbook Club is about learning and trying new things—not about becoming the best cook in your group of friends! Mistakes are, inevitably, going to happen. Most of the time, you are cooking a dish from scratch for the first time. There will be ingredients you know nothing about. You will forget to add sugar. You will burn your nuts while roasting them. Hopefully, you won’t have to use your fire extinguisher. Remember to find joy and lessons in your failures—it’s all part of the experience.
Cookbook Club is about learning and trying new things—not about becoming the best cook in your group of friends!
Finally, consider what you want to get out of this experience.
Are you looking to learn basic skills? Or do you want to try more advanced dishes? Are you cooking cuisine from different regions and cultural styles? Or do you want to make life easier by sharing the work it takes to support your family? Whatever you want to get out of your cookbook club, you’ll get a deeper connection and appreciation for the art of preparing food, sitting down with good company, and enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning to play tennis and is always testing the limits of her creative muscles. Follow him on Instagram @witanddelight_.
