how to host a cookbook club

and what to cook from What to Cook!

One of the greatest unexpected joys of writing What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking the book has been seeing images from WTC-themed cookbook club dinners on Instagram. I’ve seen photos of kitchen counters filled with recipes from the book, and dinner tables surrounded by women who’ve come together to have FUN over that food.

When I reposted pics of cookbook club gatherings this summer, I got a lot of DMs like, “wait, what’s a cookbook club?!” and “omg, I want to do this!” So today we’re getting into it, with tips and ideas for hosting a cookbook club — plus, if you’re a paid subscriber, menu ideas and the opportunity to connect with other WTCers near you in the comments section!

I’m in a book club (we specialize in smut) as well as a salad club (we meet weekly-ish for lunch at each other’s houses) and I love both dearly. “Club” is a strong word though — we’re just a group of women who meet regularly to either chat about books or eat lunch together. We’re absolutely not exclusive, but calling the regular gathering a *club* makes it more official and thus less likely that we’ll skip due to busy schedules. Same goes for cookbook clubs.

A cookbook club = a group of people who get together to share food they all cooked from a certain cookbook. A meal is eaten. Fun is had.

Molly linked up with a few WTCers who recently hosted a What to Cook-themed cookbook club and found there to be a wide spread in both group size (anywhere from 6 to 20+!) and formality. Some hosts used it as an opportunity to get creative with a fun invitation, menu, and tablescape; others kept it beautifully simple with a group-text invite and laidback potluck. The formality is not important! The food and the company are!

Bess, who hosted a WTC-themed cookbook club in Greensboro last month, is an interior designer, so fancy = fun for her! For anyone wondering, we got the scoop on the decor: “Tablecloth, napkins, and silverware were sourced from Canary, my friend’s tableware rental company out of Raleigh. Easiest and best biz ever! Plates were mine (Ginori). Those bamboo chairs are the best to have on hand (linked here). It was pouring rain for 4 days leading up to the party and my yard was a swamp so we last minute moved the long table in to my kids playroom, hence the basketball goal lol!” —Bess / pic taken by attendees Ally + Morgan!

Everyone in the club can buy a copy of the cookbook being featured, or you can share a few books, or pass around pics of recipes — whatever works!

How fun is this invite Lou Arden in Raleigh sent to her group!?

It works best for there to be some sort of pre-planned menu, which the host can choose, or a Google doc where people can add the dish they plan to bring so you don’t wind up with five snickerdoodle cobblers for dinner.

We love this strategy from a Birmingham group: “I hosted cookbook club in September and we cooked from WTC (the book)! As the host, I made the main dish — bo ssam with all the toppings! Everyone else chose what they wanted to bring.” —Amy, Birmingham

It works well for the host to cook the entree as it’s typically the hardest to transport/most important to time right. Attendees can bring apps, sides, and dessert.

Here’s what Lou Arden’s group cooked:

And here’s how the Greensboro group divvied up the dishes.

The Greensboro girls’ dinner! Pic by Ally + Morgan

Gathering and eating is of course the main event of the night. But here are some activities to layer on top of that, if you’d like:

• Show and tell. The hosts we chatted with said that during dinner, everybody told the group what they cooked, how it went, what they loved about it, and any subs or swaps they used or would use next time.

• Sip cocktails/mocktails. Bess had a bartender serve up specialty cocktails for part of the night. FUN! I’ve been to an event where the husband was the bartender, which was a hit. Or you could just make a large batch of margs and let people serve themselves. Be sure to have some great NA options too — Ghia, Crunchy Hydration, or anything vetted by

  Sipland Sipstack
  are great options.

• Table talk. My girlfriends and I love “table talk,” AKA having little prompts that facilitate a conversation amongst the entire group so that you feel like you truly got to visit with everyone, versus just the two people sitting beside you, which can often happen at big group dinners. There are two ways to play:

  • 1) Pick one question, and everyone goes around and answers it. Anything from “what’s something you’re really proud of” to “what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve googled lately” to “what’s the most fun thing you’ve done lately?”

  • 2) Everyone write down a question on a slip of paper, put it in a bowl, and pass it around the table, answering one by one. My favorite was when we were playing this way and my friends Gabe and Ashley drew the questions “compliment the person sitting to your left” and then “compliment the person sitting to your right” back to back. It was so touching and they’re both incredible women so they had a lot to say!

• Love your leftovers. If you’re the host, stock up on to-go boxes or containers so you can send everyone home with any food you have left over.

And here are a few other tips to consider!

• Ask about dietary restrictions ahead of time so you can make swaps and subs as needed to ensure everyone has enough to eat. As you all know, we are big on swaps around here, so everyone should be able to easily meet any dietary restrictions!

• Pick a date for your next meet up when you’re all together. Everyone can put it in their calendars there so you don’t have to try to coordinate a date via text after the fact. Or, pick certain day — like the first Thursday of the month — and stick to it no matter who can and can’t come.

• Your club doesn’t have to only cook from cookbooks! Take it from Amy, who hosted a WTC-themed dinner last month:

“We don’t always do a cookbook, but sometimes a cooking blog or a more general theme. For example, in August our theme was the Olympics and each person signed up for a dish representing a different country. In October our theme is ‘something that scares you’ 😂. People have signed up to bring intimidating dishes like a whole chicken, homemade caramel, macarons, etc.” —Amy, Birmingham

Fun fact, I met a few members of Amy’s cookbook club while in Birmingham for the WTC book tour! Hi ladies! 

Not only do cookbook clubs let you explore new food and recipes, they give people a *reason* to gather, which can be especially helpful when you’re making new friends. We absolutely love — and can relate to! — this backstory shared by Lou Arden:

Lou Arden’s tablecloth is from Etsy!

“We've lived in Raleigh for about two years (family of 5!) and while I have a few friends, I would love more. I was on maternity leave and really questioned ‘are we (my husband and me) the only mid-30s couple in Raleigh who isn't maxed out on friends?’ I mean surely there are other people who wouldn't mind a friend or two more, but it seriously seemed impossible to make friends. I love, love hosting and see it as a way to express myself, make people feel special, and provide a comfortable environment for people to be themselves (and have some drinks!)... but I needed some kind of reason to get a group together.

Enter: cookbook club! My husband kept the kids and the ladies chatted... when I say chatted, I've never heard that much talking from a group of girls in my life — it was the best sound. Wine was flowing and I was able to bring together ladies who (mostly) never met before but all live similar lives. It started at 6:30 on a Friday and I imagined everybody would have some excuse to leave by 9… I blinked and it was 11:30 before anyone left. There were hangovers for the first time in what felt like years. Wow!” —Lou Arden in Raleigh

OK, now for what to cook! We’ve pulled together a big index of recipes from my book that would be ideal for a family-style cookbook club dinner, as well as some menu ideas working off that list. You can pick a theme for your meal — we’re sharing a few menus organized by season — but really, anything from this list would go well together. If you’ve hosted a dinner using WTC, tell us what you all cooked!