Great Eats: Start a Recipe Club
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Meet new friends, have fun, and grow your recipe collection!
Recipe clubs are like book clubs, they are primarily meant to bring people together.
It is easier to have people meet regularly when there is a theme or purpose.
When you meet with the intention of sharing tried and true-fabulous recipes, everyone has fun tasting new foods and connecting with others.
How do you start a recipe club?
In the wake of Covid, it seems that so much has been moved to an online space.
Yes, you absolutely can have a recipe club online.
In my opinion, it is not nearly as impactful or fun though.
You will not get to actually taste the new food or physically connect with others.
This article is meant to show you how to start a recipe club in person.
1. Reason
What is the purpose of your recipe club?
Will it be centered around a specific type of food?
Vegetarian, Keto, Healthy are food specific themes.
Or will it be focused around a way of prepare it the meal?
Examples of ways to prepare the meal are Meals in 30 Minutes or Less, Crock or Instant Pot Meals, or Meals Kids Love.
It helps to know what your focus is because your niche may attract many, but also clearly tell others that this is not meant for them.
2. Invite people
How will people know about and join your club?
First, come up with a title that “says it all” like Kid’s Love to Eat It Recipe Club.
Then send out to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, your children’s friends parents, etc.
You can send an e-vote, create a social media event and invite that way, or the tried and true, but very old fashioned, paper invite.
Know about how many your ideal number is for the group and whether or not other people can invite others.
I like 12 in the group because I do a recipe club using the rotation style and this means each person only hosts once a year.
12 is not such a big number that it is difficult to cook for though.
3. Format and location
When and where?
You can schedule this club a lot of different ways. Your perspective members will want to know when it meets, how often, the time and the location. I recommend meeting on the same “day” once a month. For example the third Wednesday of each month. Since you are eating together, you can have it meet at 6:00, this should give everyone time to get to the location after work. There are different ways of handling the locations. I like having everyone be responsible for hosting the club once a year, this way it is not a burden to just one person. You can have the person who organized the recipe club always have it at their house, but this is a lot of work. When you rotate hosts, the host is then also responsible for sending an email out about one week before the event (even though it is always on the third Wednesday of the month for example) because people forget. The host also reminds people what the theme is and gives directions to their house.
4. Share recipes
How will you share the recipes?
Rotation method: Have the host change monthly. The host then makes a meal and enough recipe cards so that everyone gets to take one home. Instead of recipe cards, you can also set up a google document where everyone shares their recipes and they can be copied by each person individually.
Potluck method: You can have the host change monthly or have a permanent host for this method. Each person brings a meal to share and the recipe cards, or input to the google document, to go with it.
Hybrid: I love hybrid. It seems that when you take a little of this and a little of that, it is always the best! In the rotation method it takes each person one full year to get 11 new recipes, but the commitment and work for each person is less. In the potluck method, each person gets 122 new recipes at the end of the year-I love this! However, every month they need to fix a meal for 12 and have it ready and be at a home by 6:00. This can be difficult if you have a family or work. I like using the rotation method, but also having everyone input a recipe with that theme into google or bring recipe cards. So, you only get to taste one new recipe, but you still get 122 new recipes after a year. You can also talk about all of the new recipes at the club that night.
5. Have fun
What brings you joy?
The entire reason you are meeting is to grow your recipe repertoire and to have a lot of fun with others.
Be sure to share what your kiddos liked and how you changed the recipes in your group.
Creating a recipe club creates a fun and enjoyable experience around something many consider a chore. You may be surprised at how many people are excited to receive your invite so that they can get great new ideas, connect with others, and turn a “must do” into a fun time.