As someone who\u2019s been blessed with the ability to commune with my ancestors, I have never relied on recipes to cook. How much fish sauce for my n\u01b0\u1edbc ch\u1ea5m? Just keep pouring until grandma\u2019s ghost-whispers stop.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately I have no spiritual connection to Gareth Whitton, the pastry chef behind Melbourne\u2019s Tarts Anon and author of a two-page recipe for pea and feta tart, which advises to \u201cnever underestimate the value of a stick blender\u201d and repeatedly warns to not \u201coverwork\u201d the dough. When it comes to cooking, I\u2019m a veteran eye-baller; I don\u2019t even own a measuring cup. Shortcrust pastry requires precision I would never normally attempt nor achieve. But all this pastry pain and preparation is for Cookbook Club Naarm.<\/p>\n
The event is a monthly gathering in Melbourne that combines the best parts of supper clubs and book clubs. Everyone cooks from the same featured cookbook and everyone brings their edible homework to share. Attendee Nu Tran describes it as \u201cthe music festival [for] people in their 30s\u201d and, just like a music festival, tickets sell out within minutes. More than 100 people snapped up tickets to their two-year anniversary \u2013 the 18th event \u2013 in late August.<\/p>\n
Before the event, the organisers circulate a meticulous spreadsheet that coordinates attendees\u2019 chosen recipe from the featured cookbook, The Bakers\u2019 Book, an anthology of sweet and savoury baking recipes from Australian authors, edited by Ruby Goss. I procrastinated and was left with one of the hardest ones.<\/p>\n
Clockwise from top left: Cookbook Club Naarm co-founder Dominique Lonsdale, Guardian journalist and shortcrust pastry debutant Bertin Huynh, and attendees Nu Tran and Patchanida Chimkire. Photograph: Penny Stephens\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Friends and founders Joan Tran and Dominique Lonsdale held the first Cookbook Club Naarm in 2024, on the grass in Carlton Gardens. Joan had returned to Melbourne after a year living in Perth and was hoping to connect with friends old and new. While they made an Instagram page to let the world know about their little gathering, they were still shocked to see strangers arrive with plates of fresh bakes from What\u2019s For Dessert by Claire Saffitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking friends with strangers is cool,\u201d Joan says. Friendship is the first tenet of the club but she was also looking for an excuse to try more recipes.<\/p>\n
Lonsdale says: \u201cIt\u2019s grown into, like, a really supportive community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily my first time making shortcrust pastry turns out well. Thanks to nerves I arrive fashionably early at the venue in Richmond and watch as a my tart is joined by well over 100 cakes, pies and meringues that cover three tables. Each one is proudly presented by its creator, often with floral decorations \u2013 or in my case, a heap of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. My tart is eaten up by the crowd (probably because it was one of the few savoury options of the night).<\/p>\n
But there are two masterpieces that truly take the cake. Brodie Nalywajko has made Rosemary Andrews\u2019s eight-layer chocolate cake decorated with gold leaf, while Ingrid Yu has brought Alice Bennett\u2019s classic chocolate cake, reimagined as a three-tiered sculptural showstopper with elaborate buttercream in the same colours of the book cover.<\/p>\n
\u2018When people bring something to the table, they can have something to talk about and feel proud of.\u2019 Photograph: Penny Stephens\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always such a happy and warm experience,\u201d says Yu, who aspires to one day be a professional baker. She is a regular now at the club and says it\u2019s the community that brings her back every time. \u201cI have made a lot of friends through the cookbook club \u2026 I don\u2019t think I would made them otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, there\u2019s Nu, who, along with her friends Marina Nguyen and Tiffany Dang, are first-timers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t all go to run clubs. This is our version. We\u2019re getting diabetes at our community events, whereas they\u2019re just getting fitter,\u201d Nu jokes.<\/p>\n
Goss is here too, and says it\u2019s rare to see every dish from a cookbook in one place. She is floored to see the tables heaving with with recipes she\u2019d worked hard to collate from bakers and chefs across the country.<\/p>\n
It is a sentiment that\u2019s shared by Joseph Abboud, whose cookbook, Rumi, was featured in June.<\/p>\n
He remembers being brought to tears seeing the entirety of his tome brought to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone cooks [just] three recipes out of your book, it\u2019s a success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later at the second birthday celebration of Cookbook Club Naarm. Photograph: Penny Stephens\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
As a newly minted Melburnian myself, I can count the number of friends I have in the city on one hand. Despite that, it isn\u2019t difficult striking up conversations with other solo attendees over the shared experience of toiling in the kitchen to create something delicious.<\/p>\n
Cookbook Club might not be for everyone. On top of the $15 ticket, there\u2019s the cost of ingredients and the time and effort in the assigned homework. But, Joan says, \u201cwhen people bring something to the table, they can have something to talk about and feel proud of\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As someone who\u2019s been blessed with the ability to commune with my ancestors, I have never relied on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-611285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}