Starting a Supper Club

A Fun Way for Food Loving Friends to Get Together

If you love to cook, eat, and try different cuisines, a supper club may be the perfect activity for you. Supper clubs have become a popular way for individuals to combine their love of food and cooking, with socializing among like-minded friends.

Finding Members

You may already know all the people you need to start a club. You and your close group of friends may decide to start a club together. You'll need to think about how many people should be in your club, and that may be based on how many can be comfortably accommodated both in the kitchen and dining areas of members' homes. Membership might be all couples; singles; men; women; or mixed gender and marital status.

If no one in your circle of friends shares your interest in forming a supper club, there are many other places you could look for members. You could:

• Write a note in your church newsletter.
• Post a note in your local specialty food shop.
• Advertise in your cafeteria at work.
• Approach friends at your gym.

First Meeting

Once you have a group of interested participants, you'll need to meet to discuss some of the details about your club. You might want to hold this first meeting in a coffee shop or restaurant. Here are some of the topics that will need to be decided by the group:

• How often will your group get together? Some clubs meet weekly, others cook monthly, and others are limited to just a few times each year. Establishing a firm schedule from the beginning will help to avoid future calendar conflicts.
• Will you only host suppers together or are you open to meals for different times of the day? Brunches, afternoon barbecues, and cocktail parties can be as much fun as supper.
• Will the group cook the entire meal together (which will necessitate a much longer gathering), or will each person bring their own already prepared dish to the meal?
• How will your group communicate? Will one member send emails to the group as you plan each dinner? Some groups will hold a planning meeting in a restaurant before each cooking get together. Or perhaps someone can set up a website for the group where members can exchange thoughts.
• What will be the focus of your supper club? A club could choose to highlight a different cuisine at each dinner; make one ingredient the focal point for each menu; or focus more on learning technique and less on the menu. For example, one gathering could center on baking and the next month members might cook the entire meal outside on the grill. Here are some possible themes for your club:
• Cuisines from around-the-world
• Gourmet ingredients and menus
• Vegetarian cuisine
• Food and wine pairings
• Family friendly food with full family participation
• Special diet cooking such as low-fat, no-carb, etc
• How will the menus be chosen? This can be done by the group as a whole, choosing the theme and all of the recipes together, or assigning a course to each member who selects the specific recipe. Otherwise, the menu could be designed by the host of each upcoming meal, who gives a copy of the recipes to each participant.
• How will expenses be handled? In some groups, everyone brings their receipts to the dinner so that the bills can be divided equally among participants. However, in case one person has a tendency to choose dishes that require expensive ingredients, the group may want to set a limit on shared expenditures. Another approach is to have each participant pay for the cost of her own dish.

The Host's Responsibility

Of course the host has the responsibility of preparing her home, the kitchen and dining areas for the group. Some groups feel that's enough work for the host, and she can take the night off from cooking. On the other hand, a club may feel that it's easiest for the host to start the main dish in her home, where the meal is to be enjoyed. You may decide that the host is always responsible for beverages. If not, supplying beverages could be assigned to the person least interested in cooking (yes, some people join supper clubs for the food and camaraderie, not the cooking). If neither of those two approaches is chosen, each guest can be responsible for bringing his or her own drinks.

Final Details

Will the gatherings be formal or casual?

Who will do the clean-up? Will the group clean together after each meal, or will each host be responsible for cleaning up after the group?

Variations on a Supper Club

Some groups put a spin on the traditional supper club by combining the meal with a book group meeting. The group chooses a book to discuss and plans a menu around a theme in the book.

There are groups that create a cooking club for more practical reasons. A group of individuals get together for a few hours each week to prepare meals that will be brought home to feed their families for the following week. Although the meal isn't enjoyed together, everyday cooking becomes much more fun when done as a group activity.

Finally, some groups will dedicate one of their suppers to cooking for a worthy cause. They will get together to prepare a meal for a soup kitchen, or another group in need such as a local Ronald McDonald House.