How to start your own cookbook club
You commiserate, strengthen friendships and eat tasty meals
If you like the idea of joining a book club, but would really rather not debate pacing and character development in the latest bestselling novel over garlicky spinach dip, there’s another option: a cookbook club.
In a cookbook club, you still get to see friends, while gathering to commune over and discuss a book. But the food is better.
And you don’t have to read that 350-pager (that no one ever gets through).
If you’re doing it right, you are reading the book, but it’s faster. And it’s still a joy, if the author has a story to tell, like my group’s first choice, the wonderful Taste of Persia by Naomi Duguid.
Participating in such a club also forces you to cook from the cookbooks you buy. How many have you bought and never gotten around to trying? See? And you get to have a dinner party at a table full to groaning, but you only made one dish (or two or more for the more ambitious).
You’ll try books you may not have considered picking up.
Along with the title above, my group of six friends has cooked:
Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller’s supposedly more approachable effort, but still highly chef-y; Vietnamese Home
Cooking, the second cookbook by Slanted Door chef/owner Charles Phan; and Smitten Kitchen Every Day by Deb Perelman. Dorie Greenspan’s justreleased Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook is next. (I’m making the carrot rillettes and maybe a savory tart. We’ll see.)
Books from this season I would nominate for future club dinners include: Carla Hall’s Soul Food by former The Chew co-host Carla Hall; the widely praised Season by Nik Sharma; my friend Chandra Ram’s upcoming The Complete Indian Instant Pot Cookbook (OK, not all of us have an Instant Pot, so that might get vetoed); and Zahav author Michael Solomonov’s latest Israeli Soul.
To get you started, here are some things we’ve learned along the way to cooking the books. How to communicate: If I have one more Google doc to manage, I’ll die (puke, scream, smash a crumpet). We use email. The string can get long, but we manage.
Keep it small: I laughed when I read advice to make cookbook groups 25 members. What an organizational nightmare. Limit your group to six to eight people: large enough to try a number of dishes in a book, small enough to manage the dinner party.
But, but: What if you picked a dessert book for one session? Those would be fun change-ofpace parties. (But maybe not this season’s Cheese Balls; too much, you’ll get sick.)
Challenge yourself: A 30-ish member of another cookbook club told me that her fellow cook-the-bookers all avoid harder dishes. I don’t get it. This is the time to attempt something tricky or a new technique. Knock down barriers: Make it easy to get together. Be reasonable about how often you’ll meet. Monthly sounds like a death knell. How about bimonthly? Or quarterly? Where to meet: We take turns hosting at one another’s condos and houses. No one cares if it’s a tight squeeze, or if we eat standing around the kitchen counter.
Choosing the book: Let the host choose. Assuming all of you have similar goals, no one is going to pick something wild like Rene Redzepi’s moss-dominant Noma. Also, the choice should be about discovery for every member. I would love to have our group cook from my friend Robin Mather’s The Feast Nearby, but I know that book already.
Getting the book: We all want to support cookbook authors, but buying several books a year might be too steep a price for some members. Plus, what if it turns out you don’t like the book? Share. Pick your dish then pass the book along. (This is another argument for leaving enough time between dinners.) Or pick up a copy at the library, or use ebooks.
Hosting: I’ve seen advice on picking the right plates, neutral colours to act as the canvas for the food. Are you kidding me? Just use your everyday dishes. Don’t sweat it. You want some flowers on the table? Yes, nice. But this is not the time to go all Martha Stewart. Except ... No paper plates: C’mon. These are your friends. You can wash a few dishes. Besides, if your group is large enough, you are hosting but once or twice a year.
Finally: Post about it. Take photos of your dishes, then post them on social media and tag the author. It’s a thrill when they respond!