A cookbook club is exactly what it sounds like: a group of people, meeting to discuss and eat selected recipes from one cookbook each month. However, it is more than this! Cookbook clubs bring the community back to cooking, something you grew up with or didn’t know you needed in your life.
Instead of sweating over making four courses for friends before they arrive or missing out on catching up with them while finishing dinner, you’ll find yourself having more fun than you expected while learning tricks by watching your friends make a recipe.
Today I want to get into the details of HOW to set up your cookbook club for success.
Just as you may like some of your friends but never go with them, you may want to approach your cookbook club in a different way than bringing your closest friends together for another get-together. That doesn’t mean your behavior won’t work for you—it’s just something to keep in mind.
How to Start a Cookbook Club in 3 Easy Steps
1. Select a layout.
Build your own cookbook club in one of two ways:
1. A potluck-style gathering, where you all make your own food at home in advance and bring it to the host’s house.
OR
2. Evenings where you cook large batches of a few recipes together and you all share in the spoils by bringing home a few meals each to freeze and enjoy in the future.
2. Choose members who you think will vibrate well together. I recommend no more than six.
Think about which friends you have that would be a good fit for the type of cookbook club you want to throw. Which of my friends likes to cook? Who has adventures? Who is always up for a challenge? I recommend finding a mix of nerdy and nerdy friends who share similar values but have different interests. Cookbook clubs are a great way to introduce people from different friend groups.
My friends Liz, Hillary, and Dahlia came up with our cookbook group and each invited someone they thought would enjoy getting to know each other. It 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 is one of my favorite aspects of the cookbook club.
Creating moments to spend quality time with someone you know is rare as an adult and is one of my favorite aspects of the cookbook club.
3. Set some rules and boundaries.
Yes, I know rules are not fun. But boundaries are important in all aspects of life, especially when fun is involved! You want to keep the club just that—FUN. So make sure you have an honest conversation about planning things like: How often will we meet? How will we choose a cookbook? What dietary restrictions do we work with? Where can we receive?
Our rules look like this:
- We rotate hosts every month.
- The host selects a book and creates a menu. He then sends a text menu with pictures of the recipes. We usually don’t buy a book until we’ve finished it, which is a good way to check if the book is something you can see yourself using in the future. (Here are a few of my favorite cookbooks to get you started!)
- Recipe selection is first come, first served. Usually, the host calls dibs on what they’re going to create (usually a complicated and difficult-to-transport dish).
- We help clean up! Although all the dishes are usually completely washed, we clear the table and pack the leftovers into our Tupperware containers.
- We set a future date before we leave. It’s hard to sync our schedules and it’s so easy to do it manually.
Leave your egos at the door.
Cookbook Club is about learning and trying new things—not being the perfect cook in your group of friends! Mistakes, inevitably, will happen. Most of the time, you cook the recipe from scratch. There will be ingredients you know nothing about. You will forget to add sugar. You will burn your nuts while roasting them. Hopefully, you don’t need to use your fire extinguisher. Remember to find fun and lessons in your failures—it’s all part of the experience.
Cookbook Club is about learning and trying new things—not being the perfect cook in your group of friends!
Finally, think about what you want to gain from this experience.
Do you want to learn basic skills? Or do you want to try more advanced dishes? Do you cook with different regional and cultural food styles? Or do you want to make life easier by sharing the work needed to support your family? Whatever you want to achieve from your cookbook club, you’ll gain a deeper connection and appreciation from the work of putting together a meal, sitting down with a good group, and enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. He is currently learning to play tennis and is constantly testing the limits of his creative muscles. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
