How to go Clubbing!
Love to cook, eat and socialize? Do you have friends who also like the same? A gourmet club may be the right thing for you.
I’ve always been part of a family that enjoys cooking and exploring new food. Everything had to be tried at least once and variety was prized. When I was a kid, my parents started a gourmet club with several other couples. Couples rotated hosting, established a theme for the dinner and every attending couple made various dishes to compliment the theme. As this was in the 70’s, each couple typed up several copies of their recipe and provided them. My parents had their binder of gourmet club recipes for years after the club stopped.
Last year, I started my own gourmet club. Here are the principles:
* Four couples
* The club meets once a quarter
* The host couple picks the theme and is responsible for the main dish, side dishes, drinks and any entertainment. Other couples rotate through appetizers, soup/salad and dessert.
* Expensive or fancy is not the goal; just good food and conversation.
* Recipes must be provided to all
Theme choice can be an interesting one. The obvious choices are cuisines of the world (Italian, Mexican, etc…), but should also be creative in their own right. Some ideas can be:
Fresh from the farm
Made with chocolate
Food on a stick
Comfort food
Made for under $20
The most important part of the club is to have fun!
Have you been in a gourmet club? Tell me about it.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Reblogged this on Leo's Burger and commented:
Such a cool idea (?). Would definitely need a babysitter to enjoy this kind of thing, but I think it could make for some fun (laid back) dinner parties. I like the idea of sharing recipes (and maybe leftovers?) as well as the experience of trying new food with friends. Hmm…Maybe I’ll just have to start my own Gourmet Club? Let me know if you have experience with this sort of thing. I’d like to hear about some of your success stories, or epic fails.
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Great idea. We’ve just moved cross country to NE Ohio and are looking forward to exploring the variety of foods and the West Side Market 🙂
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Welcome to NE Ohio! There is a surprising amount of great restaurants and foodie culture. The WSM is a must (Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat only).
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This gourmet club idea is fantasitc! I had never heard of this before and can’t believe I never thought of it. My wife and I are definitely going to have to get one going.
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Your formula is very similar to ours in terms of rotating salad and dessert courses with the other two couples, and the hosts carrying the “burden” of that quarter’s gathering (with everyone bringing beverages to share!) — and we have made that formula work for 20 years now! We celebrated the start of our 20th year with a fantastic trip to Italy — link to my post if you’re interested: http://travelgardeneat.com/2012/09/09/20-years-of-food-and-friendship/
I look forward to future posts on your gourmet club gatherings! ~ Kat B.
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P.S. We made it about 15 years before we fell off the wagon with exchanging written recipes — we have a 3-ring binder I prepared with all those recipes, and more importantly, all the great memories that went with them!
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