Cookbooks clubs are popping up everywhere

With the growth of cookbook sales continuing unabated, it would be logical to assume that cookbook clubs would be gaining in popularity as well. Judging from posts in my news feeds and a bit of Google searching, the assumption appears to be well founded. You may remember that in September, Jenny wrote about online cookbook clubs, where she highlighted a couple of available groups.

More clubs seem to be popping up everywhere, whether online or in person, sponsored by a business or by a local library. A quick internet search found more than dozen cookbook clubs hosted at libraries across the US from New Jersey to Ohio to Oregon. (Members outside the US, please weigh in on whether you have noticed these clubs as well.) Some of the clubs focus on one book at a time, some have a theme, and in others you check out any of the library’s cookbooks and make a dish to bring to the event, which is usually held monthly.

Food and kitchen equipment stores can also host cookbook clubs. London’s Borough Market is one example. Joining its cookbook club is free, but each event costs £6. Events are led by food writer Angela Clutton, who cooks a dish from a particular book for members to share, while providing “background and insight into the book and its writer”. Upcoming books are How to Eat by Nigella Lawson, No Place Like Home by Rowley Leigh, and Moro: The Cookbook by Samantha Clark and Samuel Clark.

You can also look to meeting websites like Meetup where I found an in-person cookbook club near me that just started late last year. Or, you could start your own club. Hannah Agran of Midwest Living Magazine provides some tips on how to get started.

If an in-person club isn’t in the cards, there are even more online cookbook clubs available than there were last year. For example, the website Tasting Table has just announced a new virtual cooking club that uses Facebook as the meeting place. Tasting Table is choosing a different cookbook each month and will highlight both new titles as well as established classics. And don’t forget about the “Cooking along with” section of the EYB Member Forum. A recent addition there is Cooking Together with Marcella Hazan.