How to Create Your Own Cookbook Club
Cookbook clubs are a great way to form community, make lasting friendships, try out new cooking techniques, and sample new flavors you might not have tried on your own.
What exactly is a cookbook club? It’s a group of people who gather together to cook through a chosen cookbook together. Usually, but not always, cookbook clubs choose one cookbook for all the members to cook from that month. Sometimes people will work on “practice dishes” in their own homes before bringing a finished, ready-to-reheat dish to the host’s home.
It can be potluck style, with everyone cooking at their homes separately and bringing the food to share at a meal. Or, the cookbook club group gathers in one person’s kitchen and cooks the recipes all together. (That’s the type I prefer, and today’s open kitchen styles make this kind of meeting easier than in the past). It’s a great way to taste a whole bunch of different dishes at the same time.
Some cookbook clubs might cook the same type of recipe (say, eggplant parmigiana for example) out of several different cookbooks, and come together to compare the results. Or a club might pick a theme for each month, say Thai food, and let cookbook club members bring dishes from whatever Thai cookbook they own.
Your cooking club might focus on a certain ingredient every month, like beets or sunchokes, and each member brings the vegetable prepared a different way. Your club might be seasonal – Pie Club during autumn, Cookie Club during Christmas and Hanukkah?
There’s a cookbook called “Soup Club” (via Amazon; affiliate link) that resulted from a soup cookbook club in Seattle. I love the idea of gathering in autumn to share soup recipes and maybe do a giant cookalong where everyone takes home giant containers of different soups afterwards.
A cookbook club can be in person, or hosted virtually online. Meetings can be monthly, weekly (more common for online groups), or semi-annually.
Cookalongs are becoming more common online. People might join a cookalong to work their way through all the recipes in the new Jamie Oliver book, or compare Christmas cookie recipes during the holidays.
Sometimes a cookbook club doesn’t even involve cooking! Cookbook collectors gather at a coffee shop, or in someone’s living room, to browse through and take cell phone pictures of recipes from a big pile of cookbooks everyone brought to share.
You might choose to cook recipes from a favorite food blogger’s blog, if they don’t yet have their own cookbook!
There are going to be some challenges to hosting a successful cooking club, of course. Do you have vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free people who are hesitant to come in case they can’t eat some of the foods, or don’t want to cook some of them? Do your members have houses big enough to host, time to host, time to cook, time to shop for ingredients? Are some of your friends more likely to come sit and drink wine and not participate? Do you have membesrs who can’t or won’t be around pets, and hosts who can’t or won’t put the pets in another room? Do you have scheduling conflicts, or do you have the ability to pick a day of the month for cookbook club and firmly stick with it? Lots of things to think about when creating your cookbook club.
There’s even a cute novel based around a cookbook club. It’s called “Cookbook Club” and you can shop for it on Amazon (affiliate link).
Cookbook Club Articles and Resources:
All About Cookbook Club, by Megan Stokes
Book Riot: How to Start a Cookbook Club
A Cookbook Book Club, from The Real Book Club Queen
Cookbook Club 101, from Wit & Delight
Good Idea: Start a Food Lit or Cookbook Book Club, from The Kitchn
How and Why to Start a Cookbook Club, from A Couple Cooks
How and Why to Start a Cookbook Club, from Simple Bites
How to Create a Virtual Cooking Club, from Just Like Home
How to Run a Successful Cookbook Club, from Viet World Kitchen
How to Start a Cookbook Club, by Beyond the Bookends
How to Start a Cookbook Club, by Everyday Reading
How to Start Your Own Cookbook Club, from Libby Life
Seattle Cookbook Club on Meetup
Starting a Plant-Based Cookbook Club, by Beantown Kitchen
Start Your Own Cookbook Club, by With Love, Melissa
10 Tips For Starting Your Own Cookbook Club, from Food52
Today’s the Day to Start a Cookbook Club, from Food.com
We’re Starting a Cookbook Club, and So Can You (Bon Appetit)
Why Cookbook Clubs Should Be the New Way We Entertain, from Serious Eats
Examples of Online Cooking Clubs, Cookalongs and Bakealongs:
The Cookbook Club Show is a podcast and a virtual cooking club. They do such a great job! Follow them on Instagram.
The Culinarian Book Shop Club meets virtually monthly
Eat Your Books Cookbook Club Facebook Group
52 Weeks of Cooking on Reddit: “Each week, we give you an ingredient, technique, cuisine, or inspiration. Each week, you cook a dish in that theme and share the results.”
Food52’s Baking Club Facebook Group
Jamie Oliver’s Cookbook Club Facebook Group and website
Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club uses the hashtag #rainydaybitescookbookclub on Instagram
Are you a member (or a hostess) of a cookbook club? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
-Carrie
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