Unlocking Library Coolness: Calling All Foodies!

Welcome back to Unlocking Library Coolness, where we discuss all the neat things you can do through your local public library system

You can take a tour of the archives if you want to see what Sarah has discovered previously!

This month: Food!

I’m taking over for Sarah this time because I recently started attending a pretty awesome club at my local library. If there’s one thing I love more than reading, it’s eating, and I was so pumped to see that my library (Somerville Public Library) was starting a Supper Club.

Seriously, it pays to subscribe to your library’s newsletter because I probably wouldn’t have heard about this otherwise.

Smitten Kitchen Every Day
A | BN | K
Each month, the library patrons would vote on a cookbook of a certain theme (cooking techniques, cultural influences, etc.) culminating in a giant potluck where attendees would make a dish from the selected cookbook. You would then RSVP via email or in person and let them know what recipe you’d be making. January’s selection was Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

For the first meeting, I signed up around two weeks out from the first meeting date and four out of my five picks were already spoken for. When it was time for the actual Supper Club, I trudged through the chilly New England weather with a salad in my tote bag. The event was hosted at a local brewery and there were 40+ people in attendance. Shoutout to SPL for knocking this one out of the park.

Soframiz
A | BN | K | AB
It was so much fun. I met some great people, ate some amazing food, and had a lovely time overall. Because of the overwhelmingly positive reception, the library now has to cap RSVPs, which I suppose is a good problem to have. I’m really excited for February’s meeting where we’ll be cooking and bringing dishes from Soframiz. I claimed the almond and rose cake.

If you love cooking and sharing food with people, I highly recommend seeing if your library system has a similar cookbook or supper club. Upon Googling, I found several public libraries that do this!

What do you think? Would you love to attend a Cookbook Club? Does your local library system have something similar?

Comments are Closed

  1. Hnl says:

    This is really genius! I’d definitely join one of these. It’s like a book club for foodies!

  2. Karen D says:

    I run a cookbook discussion group at the library I work at:-) We have monthly themed cookbooks and everyone brings in a dish of their choosing from the books. It’s so much fun. And delicious! Another branch in my library district hosts a book discussion at a pub. Thank you so much for promoting libraries. People are always amazed at the stuff we offer that they didn’t know about. It’s not easy to market (nor is there much money for it).

  3. Amanda says:

    @Karen D: Boston has a lot of breweries popping up and nearly every one has a “books and brews” discussion group sponsored by their local library branch. I haven’t attended one yet, because I’m pretty picky about my book clubs, haha.

  4. DonnaMarie says:

    And here I thought the GBPL was perfection. Looks like I need to send my librarians a suggestion, because I would love this.

  5. Critterbee says:

    We have a cookbook club at our library, and it is really popular. It is a great idea for libraries and communities to interact, and for people to meet and bond with others.

  6. LauraL says:

    A nearby rural library is holding a Sweets & Stacks fundraiser, serving coffee and dessert at the library. That sounded like fun, but I know I would really enjoy a cookbook club at my local.

  7. Susanna Erdos says:

    In Los Angeles, we have the Culinary Historians of Southern California (www.chsocal.org). We support the Los Angeles Public Library by buying cookbooks and historic menus. We have free lectures every month at the Central Library. Our paid members (only $30 a year) meet for ethnic lunches and dinners and we have a themed pot luck party every fall. There are about 2 dozen Culinary Historian groups in the USA. Just google to find any in your area. California has three now: San Diego area, Southern California, and Northern California.

  8. Linda says:

    I work at the Robbins Library in nearby Arlington and we also have a cookbook club. We meet every other month right at the library. We also cap our reservations, but I’ve been letting extra people sign up because there are always cancellations. It’s been a lot of fun and super delicious! Winchester also has one, and some libraries a bit farther away like Concord. They’re popping up everywhere!

  9. Karen White says:

    So jealous! I wish we could move back to Boston…

  10. Dena says:

    I co-run a Cookbook Club at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Each month we pick a new cookbook and it’s a big potluck of dishes cooked from that particular book. We get over 30 people each month and have had to do it in two sessions to fit as many people is as we can.

    If anyone who works in a library and runs this kind of program wants to contact me, we’re working on putting together a presentation for ALA on how to run cookbook programs!

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top