Cooking Club

Ever since moving to New York, I had planned on starting a cooking club. After feeling a bit more settled, I decided to make a go of it and sent an email out to all my old friends and a handful of new ones that live in the New York vicinity.

The premise of the club sounded simple. Ideally, a group of 8-10 of us would meet once a month. A different host would be selected for every month and the cooking club would meet at that host’s apartment. The host is responsible for coming up with a theme, find recipes, and setting up and cleaning up after the event. Everyone else cooks and buys ingredients.

Responses trickled in slowly, but a few days before the first meeting, it seemed as though there would be a good group of 8-9 people. As host of the first cooking club meeting, I decided to go for a Latin American theme- Peruvian ceviche, Argentinian empanadas, Leche Asada, and mojitos.

As the day wore on, and battling exhaustion (my fault, I stayed out drinking with friends til 2:30 a.m.) and frustration at work, my excitement about the cooking club began to wear thin. Also, four people backed out at the last minute and there were two unexpected (but welcome) arrivals, and two unexpected (not so welcome) guests came. Of course I was panicking because there would be less food. On my way home I stopped to buy ingredients for mojitos and picked up some Mexican pastries, chips, and salsa.

Of course in the end it worked out. Somehow there was just enough food for everyone to eat. The empanadas were delicious and I plan to try some variations on it with different fillings. Everyone seemed to have a good time, but it felt much more like any other party rather than a cooking club. Guess I’ll have to re-think the design, maybe fewer people and closer friends?