Saturday, November 3 – 6:00pm

To celebrate their love of French cuisine and people, Fiona and Anthony threw a bonus Cookbook Club event. For those who wanted a challenge, they could cook something from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon. For the less courageous, there was the more accessible option of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I will admit I ran in the opposite direction from the Thomas Keller challenge, but I give lots of props to those who dove in to one of his recipes. (more…)

Saturday, October 27 – 7:00pm

In October, we used Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain. The cookbook was a compilation of his personal favorites for home-cooking, written of course in the bold and irreverent style he came to be known for. Side note: I’m so sad about his recent passing, and hope that we did justice to his recipes and his fearless love for food. (more…)

Sunday, September 16 – 6:00pm

Our cookbook for September was Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that it’s a book about cooking rather than what we’d traditionally call a cookbook, as there aren’t even any recipes until you get to the second half of the book. The first half teaches you how to cook by mastering four essential elements – Salt to enhance flavor, Fat to deliver flavor and generate texture, Acid to balance flavor, and Heat which determines texture. It is the first cookbook (in over 2 years of Cookbook Club!) that I have actually read from beginning to end, rather than just perusing recipe titles. (more…)

Saturday, August 18 – 6:00pm

One of the main reasons I joined Cookbook Club was to expand my cooking horizons, so I was very excited when we chose Sean Sherman’s The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen as our cookbook for August. Sherman shares recipes that use indigenous American fruits and vegetables, wild and foraged ingredients, game, and fish – no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar, and domestic pork and beef. While we thought we might have some difficulties finding ingredients, the Cookbook Club was up for the challenge! (more…)

Saturday, August 11 – 6:00pm

I can’t believe it’s been over 2 years since the start of Cookbook Club! We’ve grown from barely getting a handful of people at each event, to having events twice a month with as many people as our hosts can accommodate. We’ve done 26 cookbooks and 2 blogs. So to celebrate how far we’ve come, how much great food we’ve eaten, and how many good friends we’ve made, we did a 2nd anniversary party where people could choose a recipe from any of the cookbooks we’ve used so far. (more…)

Saturday, July 28 – 2:00pm

I’m very excited that members of the Cookbook Club are having such a good time that they’re organizing bonus events beyond our regular monthly cookbook event! Anthony organized an all-dessert event using the BraveTart cookbook by Stella Parks. The cookbook is a celebration of classic American desserts, from brownies and cherry pie to recreations of childhood favorites like Oreos and Nutter Butters. (more…)

Sunday, July 15 – 6:00pm

For our July cookbook, we used Eat Mexico by Lesley Tellez. Tellez runs a food tour company in Mexico City, and in her cookbook she highlights classic dishes from the city’s street stands, markets, and casual restaurants. It was a lot of fun to branch out and cook a cuisine that our Cookbook Club hadn’t done yet. (more…)

Saturday, June 9 – 11:30am

In June, we partnered with the LA Bread Bakers to do a super fun outdoor pizza event using their awesome wood-fired oven! We used The Elements of Pizza cookbook by Ken Forkish for dough and sauce recipes as well as topping combinations, but also got creative with all kinds of other combos of our own invention. (more…)

Saturday, May 19 – 6:00pm

Our May cookbook was What’s For Dinner? by Curtis Stone. The idea behind this cookbook is to offer easy-to-make recipes for a busy life. It is broken down into the different days of the week – Motivating Mondays, Time-Saving Tuesdays, One-Pot Wednesdays, Thrifty Thursdays, Five-Ingredient Fridays, Dinner Party Saturdays, Family Supper Sundays. (more…)

Saturday, April 28 – 6:00pm

For April’s cookbook, we used Gjelina: Cooking from Venice, California by Travis Lett. We’d done several cookbooks by local chefs recently and wanted to branch out, but there was such a strong demand for this cookbook that we kept it in the lineup. Gjelina is a very popular local restaurant known for its rustic cooking of fresh California ingredients. I’d had great food at the restaurant and was excited to see if we could recreate the experience at our own dinner party! (more…)