| Perhaps it’s the popularity of the Food Network, with its seductive hosts, risqué techniques and luscious ingredients, or a rekindling of the do-it-yourself movement and a desire to get in touch with our communities and understand what goes into our food. Either way, cooking is cool again and one way the kitchen’s popularity is being explored is through gourmet clubs.
While these exist in several different forms – some very casual, others with membership fees and fancy jackets – at the centre of them all is a desire to learn about and enjoy food in a social environment. This doesn’t sound too foreign to anybody who enjoys going out for a meal or having friends and family over for dinner, but many are striving to make more formal commitments when it comes to cookery’s learning curve.
"The knowledge of wine and food is much more available than it used to be," says Rosemary Crawford, president of the Calgary chapter of the International Wine & Food Society (IW&FS). "Even compared to 10 years ago, when ‘French paradox’ (the concept of eating whatever you want, drinking wine and still being healthy) was the buzz word at the time."
Founded in the U.K. in 1933, the IW&FS is established in North and South America, and the local group holds approximately six events a year at a variety of venues for dinners and wine tastings. The experience is enhanced by having the chef and sommelier discuss the featured food and wine pairings.
What’s interesting is that, while food’s popularity is peaking in Calgary, the IW&FS’s membership has declined. This is largely because the demand for these groups is so high that many more are starting up, or have started in the last few years.
"A lot of people in Calgary are starved to learn about food," says John Gradek, president of Les Marmitons, which is one of those groups.
A gastronomic and social club of gentlemen who are interested in food, wine and the culinary arts, Les Marmitons started in Europe at the turn of the century, when a group of chefs began meeting together outside the workplace to share techniques and refine their skills. The concept found its way to Canada in the late 1960s with a group of European chefs and took off from there.
"The organization evolved from being chef-oriented/chef-based to one that was basically people who wanted to learn about food," he says. "These people were not chefs, they were engineers, doctors, lawyers – people with very little professional culinary backgrounds. They were the original foodies of the ’70s."
After being involved with the Montreal club for several years, Gradek’s job required him to be transferred to Calgary and, with help from a few fellow gourmands, he started up the local chapter in 1997. Membership has been on the rise ever since, and now consists of more than 100 men who learn how to prep, cook and plate fabulous five-course meals, all to a budget, under the guidance of one of Alberta’s top chefs.
"The one concept that has come to mind more often than anything else is that people eat with their eyes," says Gradek. "Eating food, selecting food, enjoying food is more of a visual concept. The taste buds are in there as well, but it’s how you present it."
Alison Khubyar agrees. "It’s a good time to bring out all the silverware and china that your parents made you register for when you got married," she says.
Khubyar is a member of a second-generation dinner club that was started by her parents 28 years ago. The children of the people in the original group got together with their spouses about a year ago and started Les Bons Vivants – a dinner club that meets approximately every three months. The membership requirements are simple: each couple brings a bottle of wine and prepares a course – cocktail, appetizer, starter or dessert – with the hosts being responsible for the entree.
"You come to dazzle," says Khubyar’s husband, Kyle. "And it’s all from scratch. So if you’re making a chocolate pound cake, you have to start it from the base and build. And that’s the fun… and the failure."
An evening that flows with wine, food and friends sounds remarkably achievable when you get involved in one of these dinner or gourmet clubs. With our hectic schedules, most of us probably are not connecting with our social circles as often as we should, and to embark on new epicurean territory at the same time is a tremendous bonus.
After all, as Alison Khubyar points out, "If you don’t know what to say, you just shove another tasty morsel in your mouth." |
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