How to start your own Cooking Club

Firstly, just do it! The idea is to get together a group of like minded people who share the love of food and cooking. It isn’t about how good you can cook but how interested you are in learning to cook and share your interest with others. We have all become so much more confident over the years and really enjoyed each other’s personal cooking style.

I have listed below a few things that we have found worked for our cooking club, but you may have different lifestyles and interests so change things to suit your needs.
• 6 people is a good number, as it covers each course with a spare for those months that someone can’t make it. We started with 7 which worked fine too.
• If you don’t know of 5 other people who are interested just find 1 and that person may know of someone else and so on. It’s amazing how many people become interested once you get the word out there.
• Choose one day a month that you are going to meet (we meet the 1st Thursday of the month) that way you will always have it in your diary and it is easier to plan for.
• The person on Mains for the month also chooses the theme. This can be anything from a type of cuisine to specific ingredients.
• Make up a roster so that each month you know what you will be on and no one misses out on a course.

Here’s an example of our roster, click on it to enlarge.

We have only recently made the host also do mains, previously they were separate. But we thought this may have been limiting what people choose as mains when having to transport it.


The person who is on Drinks is to choose a cocktail or something interesting that goes with the theme. Starting with a cocktail makes a really nice way to begin the evening. Especially since we have all left a home of babies or children so we look forward to a chance to unwind!

As a group we also try and do food related outings. This may be to a Food and Wine show or a Cooking Class. It is so nice to do these types of things with people you know are also interested in food.

If you have anything to add with tips from your own Cooking Club then please feel free to make a post. Just remember to enjoy it, and like I said before, ‘just do it’!