How to start your own food club

DEAR ACCIDENTAL CHEF: I have a group of friends who want to start a foodie club. We want to make it like a dinner club, but not too formal. Also, since we are all on a tight budget, we were thinking of making it more potluck-style with everyone contributing a certain dish. We have a mix of really talented cooks and people who don't cook much but still want to participate. Any ideas on how to get this started and keep the whole gang happy? -- Not Organized Group

DEAR NOT ORGANIZED: Dinner clubs have been hugely popular for some time and have run the gamut of high-dollar sit-downs complete with Beluga sturgeon and mother-of-pearl caviar spoons to low-brow evenings of beer and hotdogs. Whatever your food-loving poison is, one fact remains: Starting a dinner club is a great way to get your gang together to share some good food and drink on a regular basis.

So, where to begin?

As someone who has planned and hosted more than her fair share of these entertaining evenings, I suggest beginning with your group's objective and going from there.

Is your crowd looking for a specific experience, such as an evening of fine wines savored with an array of carefully crafted nibbles? Or are you looking for an outdoor barbecue and goodies for the kids? Is your group made up of dedicated cooks who want to prepare the food themselves and share recipes, or would your bunch prefer to sit back and let a caterer do all the work? Defining the type of dinner club is your first step.

Once you've narrowed your focus, it's time to decide who to invite. Will this be for die-hard foodies only, novice home cooks with little cooking experience, or both? Also, note the number of people you wish to include. Sometimes more is merrier, but when you're working with multiple hosts (such as rotating the location of your gathering from house to house) it's important to accommodate everyone, and some people are not comfortable hosting a large affair.

A good rule of thumb for a dinner club is fewer than 15 people, because not everyone's home may be suitable for a large gathering. Also, be sure to invite people who you know will actively participate and who are truly interested in cooking and food. This will assure that you have a solid base of people who will contribute each time.

Set a reasonable budget. Framing an event around high-dollar ingredients or at a restaurant might not be financially suitable for everyone, so be sure to assess where your gang is coming from on this issue before setting a menu. This goes for beverages as well. Decide well in advance how this will be handled.

For example, I attended a dinner club at which each couple brought a dish and a bottle of wine, which ended up being a great idea. We had tons of food and plenty of beverages, and as a couple, we ended up spending very little.

Set a specific theme for your party. For example, Spanish tapas and wine. Have everyone bring their favorite tapa and bottle of wine, or have an evening of comfort foods (with plenty of mac and cheese and fried goodies). In warmer months, have a grilling party to do an all-appetizer affair. A super-fun idea is to frame your event around a cookbook. Have everyone choose a recipe from the book and make it.

And don't forget to open up the possibility for your dinner-club guests to bring prepared food. Not everyone is comfortable cooking certain cuisines, and many folks simply don't have the time. For those who do decide to cook, ask them to bring copies of their recipes to share.

Lastly, don't be afraid to change it up a bit. Once a year, hold your event in a restaurant or take a day trip to a local winery. If budgets permit, bring in a local chef to do a cooking demonstration or have a culinary expert or wine guru come in and talk to your group.

So once you narrow down the basics, the culinary sky's the limit.

Kendra Bailey Morris is a Richmond-based food writer, culinary instructor and author of "White Trash Gatherings: From-Scratch Cooking for Down-Home Entertaining" (Ten Speed Press). Send ideas, tips or culinary questions to info@theaccidentalchef.net or visit www.theaccidentalchef.net.