The first posting on the Cookie cooking club blog!
The blog is here for people to upload their ideas for our Cookie Cooking Club, to help develop the clubs form and provided a notice board for its activities.
Please be direct and make your ideas clear.
The club will only work if enough interested people get actively involved. Without this it has no future and becomes a lost opportunity.
So please let your friends, family and colleagues know about the club and get posting your ideas.
Well, Domenico, you’ve got it started.
I hope others will now start contributing some ideas to get the cooking club moving on.
In the words of Arnie – “I’ll be back!”
With very best wishes for now
John Richardson
I was there last Monday and was very interested in all I heard. Should we be using this blog as the place to tip in our ideas for how the club might operate and make suggestions for events / activities with a view to discussing blog entries when we meet up?
Put in you ideas and suggestion, links to thing you thing are interesting. Images et al.
Please pass the news and inf on to friends and colleagues.
Our next meeting is next Monday the 11th at 7.30 bring a dish a bottle or a friend. I’ll take you around Cookie and show what we have and how it works.
Ohh and we just received from Italy our latest supply of wine including our new house white Grechetto a vine which as the name suggests has been around from the time of the Greeks
A really nice guy making amazing french macaron from his house on Kilmarnock Road. He also does them for for mail order and can deliver them anywhere in the UK for the perfect gift.
I’ll be coming along again on Monday evening and I’ll make some Chicken Liver Pate. Just need your lovely bread and if anybody else has a nice chutney or relish, that would be good.
OK. I’m going to try to start the ball rolling with some suggestions on how the club might function.
The club operates on a not for profit basis but we will need to raise some revenue via a membership fee. My proposal would be to ask each person for three months worth at £20 per month so an initial fee of £60. This is based on an initial membership number of (say) 40 people. That would give an opening balance of £2,400.00 to be spread over the first three months events. That would give each event a £200 budget based on one event per week for 12 weeks.
We will need a bank account and at least two people to act as guardians with one person prepared to operate an accounts spread sheet.
Events could be free to members if the £200 is not exceeded for things like film nights or talks. Non members can attend for a small fee which goes in to the club kitty for future events. If a particular event exceeds the £200 budget then we pay a top up for the night of (say) £10 with non members paying (say) £20.
Goods should be bought through cookie where possible in order to get trade rates and cookie should receive payment to cover heating, lighting, use of equipment etc. Figures to be discussed with Domenico.
I think some ground rules should be established on purchasing ethics i.e food miles, seasonality, fairtrade, allotment swapping.
If an individual member wants to operate a private event then they will not be entitled to use the club kitty and will either have to pay for it themselves or recoup there loss via a ticket price.
OK that’s enough for the moment. I am not trying to lay down my own laws. I am just trying to kick start a dialogue and all items are up for debate at the next meeting.
A friend of mine is part of a collective that make short films. One film is about the politics and ethics of the Costa Rican pineapple industry. The other is a short film about a local Matanza in Spain which is the annual family pig kill and preparation of the years chorizo and hams. I could have Jan come along and host a screening and a Q&A.
My second suggestion would be holding a pig night. I have friends that keep rare breed pigs for the table. It is a long term project whereby the club commits to buying a piglet from the next litter and once it is dispatched we hold an evening to break down the carcass in to as many treats as we can. Either we do it all ourselves (it’s easy) or we invite a butcher in to do a demo.
Event number three could be a growers night. It’s only a month or two before planting needs to get under way. We could do a seed share given that you may only be using a fraction of what you get in a bought packet. We could also discuss who’s planting what in order to to maximise a harvest share and avoid double gluts of popular items.
I think Pig Night sounds great. I have several friends who would appreciate sporadic opportunities to obtain bits of pig. How much meat is on a pig anyway?
Thanks to all for the hospitality last night. Great food from everyone and good chat about the future of the club. I hope both the club and Cookies itself do well.
I think I would fall into the category of people who would willingly support the club with a nominal membership fee, but not actively attend regular meetings nor make regular use of it on a Monday night as a member. I wouldn’t be a subscription member in that sense, with a subscription designed to cover regular use of the facilities. However, I’d be really interested to attend, on a pay as you go basis, occasional ‘outreach’ events on the theme of food or drink.
That might be a good way to balance the club members’ interest in cooking in a professional context, making use of Cookie’s equipment and learning from each other’s skills, with the desire for the cafe to make a contribution to the life of the wider community.
A well-publicised programme of events to which the wider community (non-members) were invited could also be a way of raising funds for the club. From amongst the ideas that have already been posted there are several starters for a programme like that, but more would come as the core members think up things they would like to do. Would also help subsidise more expensive demonstrations and the more costly items that might from time to time need to be bought.
By way of a summarising last nights meeting: I understood there to be a general willingness to implement a paying membership system but that this sytem was inclusive in nature and not in any way designed to limit access. The main reward for the members investment is a reduction on ticket cost for paying events. Non members will be welcome to all events given that a charge will be made.
No figure was agreed for membership but it seemed agreed that an initial commitment of three months payment would be required to raise enough float to get things off the ground.
It was also suggested that a mission statement / manifesto should be written for the club to aid clarity. This will also unify the message when it comes to promotion. The bulk of this manifesto ought to be driven by Cookie as the club ethos must not clash with the ethos our host.
No individuals were selected to be treasurer or secretary or accountant or whatever. i.e no committee has been appointed for any tasks yet.
The route forward?
A programme of suggested events should be submitted to this blog so they can be discussed and selected.
The selected programme should then undergo a process of promotion in order to raise profile and a booking system put in place so we can know what revenue will come in prior to purchasing in order to avoid liabilties.
Please submit your own comments if I have either forgotten something from last night or completely misinterpreted the discussions entirely. We need more input.
Next meeting? Monday 18th. To be confirmed by Domenico.
Thanks to all for a very interesting evening on Mon plus good food. I just thought I’d flag up this BBC programme which is indeed food for thought about global food production – what does it have to do with us and what we purchase/ eat? “Jimmy’s Global Harvest” BBC2.
Will give my thoughts on club very soon
Thank you Graeme for summarising, very helpful. I agree that purchasing ground rules & commonality with Cookie’s overall ethos are important. My thoughts are similar to Kaye’s; that membership, whether for 3, 6 or 12 months should be as low as possible and that events should be charged for individually depending on their expected cost, with members getting a discount. For those who feel that they both wish and are able to commit to a 12 month membership, a discount should be given on the monthly rate; this will reward commitment & be good for the clubs coffers especially in getting started. Charging for events will give a range of less expensive options, such as films, in-house-demos to more expensive ones where advance purchase of tickets could be encouraged to ensure sufficient numbers attend to cover all costs. I certainly won’t be able to make every Monday.
Costs of running the restaurant – HLP & staff must be covered. D needs to give a figure which would cover 3 hours of an evening for example; fixed & variable.
The club needs a mission statement to help focus on what we expect from the club. Is it just about cooking amazing food & using professional equipment, or is the focus on health, sustainability & education; not just good food, but food that is good for you.
The club requires a committee of at least 3, preferably 4 diligent souls who will commit themselves to the task for a year. I feel it should be chaired by Domenico; a treasurer & secretary should be other posts. On the basis that promotion of events is very, very important perhaps there should be an “events sub committee” to direct & organise, although promotion is also the responsibility of club members.
The club should have a constitution – the duties of office-bearers, AGM meeting date – which needn’t be the usual “dry” occasion – after all we’re all foodies!! How will ordinary members contribute their views on a regular basis? Via the blog?
Once mission & committee are settled the next important step would be to “brain-storm” all the event ideas & sort them out into any definite arrangements already made, major/ expensive events, mid range & low cost events. We already have some very good ideas. Then decide what can actually be timetabled according to season & the number of nights available – will events always be on a Monday night? What about bank/local holidays, summer holidays? The programme does not need to have every week filled, but enough to get started with and a few further ahead which need advance planning & give us something to work on!
How do events including children come into this (if at all, or appropriate)?
If members are encouraged to participate in collective buying what products are available? Wine? Olive oil? A short list would be helpful.
Nothing needs to be written in stone or inflexible, but some framework is necessary. Would it be a good idea to timetable in a few informal club meetings to only discuss club business & organisation, where we can review our income, cost covering, promotion etc?
My own areas of interest could be in British food, vegetarian food & nutrition, vegetable growing (I’d like to help folk “grow their own” in pots etc – anywhere & anyhow!), Hopefully once the growing season’s underway I’ll have lots of salad leaves – the ones you buy & pay a high price for & the ones you never get unless you grow your own, “home-composting” – everyone should/ can do it!!! I’ll so my bit towards event brainstorming separately.
Brainstorm event ideas
Inaugural Event to launch the club
Themed cook-in-night – theme could be a dish style, ingredient/s, national cuisine. 3 people cook on site, some bring along a dish, some provide ingredients
Vegetarian /vegan food & nutrition
Films about food production – both good & bad
Professional demos esp butchery, fish, dealing with poultry & game
Home composting – promotion, Q&A, quiz (prob as part of an evening)
Speakers
Book / publications night
What do do with……..? bring an unusual ingredient, or something you’ve bought & don’t know what to do with (admit it we’ve all done it!!!!)
What to do with…….? Season gluts/ cheap seasonal produce available eg turnip/ swede, cabbage, rhubarb, courgettes……….
Home preserves – easy to unusual
Bread making
Tastings – anything & everything!
Scottish Cheeses
Traditional Baking
Brilliant stuff Jan. We need more people posting this kind of input.
I am in agreement with everything you have said. It just needs a big push to get the “juggernaut” moving. Once it’s got momentum I have every confidence in it.
Tonights meeting should really have this level of focus in order to get things moving.
Some other event/club ideas
Frugal fayre/ thrify cooking
Foods we remember/ heritage recipes
Making the best of the carcass & offal
Mushrooms
Cheese in recipes – is Wensleydale the British “Feta”
Grow your own – why bother?
2 thoughts regarding club; nominate a”gaffer” for each event/ club night so that responsibility for setting up/ clearing away etc doesn’t always fall to the same people, esp office bearers. Need written “how to use” manual for kitchen equipment
Aluminium foil takes much, much more energy to produce than to recycle http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/metals.htm.
I will take your clean aluminium foil to Can-do-recycling, in Rutherglen. By clean I mean washed of most of the debris, not pristine clean; sheet foil, dishes, lids – use the “scrunch test”. Start collecting today!
Wednesday the 24th Feb arrival of Claudio’s farm in Scotland.
Claudio’s kitchen staff will run Cookie over the weekend of the 26th Feb. This is a gang of the most amazing country cooks who have never set foot out of Italy. The ladies will take over Cookie and bring to Glasgow a no nonsense Italian cooking which is all about the core values we have at Cookie. The finest of dining without pretensions.
Claudio has organised a van to be driven by himself and his farm hands who will bring up from his farm the whole range of ingredients used during this weekend, from ducks, lamb veg wine and olive oil.
They will carry out demonstration cooking lessons on the Friday and Saturday.
Pasta making and Meat preparation on Friday. Sauces and Cakes making on Saturday.
The will serve on Saturday and Sunday traditional meals of their Umbrian farmhouse kitchen.
Colin Woods and Calum MacPhail two young Scottish film makers will be putting together a series of shorts about Cookie and our activity. The footage in the end will become a Documentary which will be posted on Al Gores Channel http://www.current.com
All good stuff again.
My only question is how do we now start to make the hard decisions? There’s no point in have ten more wooly get togethers with no progress.
Who will be the committee members?
What is the first event?
When is the first event?
How do we promote the first event?
I don’t think the subject for the first event is critical. I just think it ought to have broad appeal in the hope that we get good numbers and the logistics are not too tricky.
We are going to be carrying out some essential changes this weekend and Monday at Cookie so I think the next meeting should be on Monday the 1st Feb. For this meeting we need to do our homework and have an agenda drawn up.
I think the committee is forming in a way through the people blogging.
I will get down and put that mission statement together with Mel and we will put it up on the blog by mid week.
Could everyone reading this blog make an effort to attend on Monday the 1st Feb and post their nomination for the positions of secretary and treasurer
Domenico, can you confirm time for meeting on Feb 1st please, I’ll be there. However whilst I’m very supportive of the cooking club & Cookie, I can’t commit to a committee post – too many other commitments, but AM very pleased to help with individual events & elsewhere as much as poss.
First Event; Good Friday & Easter holiday w/e is April 2nd – is that or shortly before too late for a launch event? We need time to get organised. Thinking about what Cookie & the cooking club stands for, a few key words came to mind: quality, local, sustainable good food, “no nonsense”/ not pretentious, prepared by hand/ ourselves, heritage/ traditional. As a club, the club “members”, should be central to an event – not just leave it to Cookie/ Domenico & Mel.
Could we include suppliers/ produce such as Clyde Organic Dairy, The Whole Shebag, West Beers, allotment produce (???) So I just started thinking along the lines of simple buffet style food, convial chat, wine & a couple of short speeches focusing on the club ethos & planned programme. I take it we’re aiming to attract the max number of people – space could be an issue; some folk may not stay for long, but we still want them to get the message. Simple, but wholesome….? too simple? Just some thoughts.
We do need to get a draft programme together before this tho.
Time for next week. I thought earlier at around 6 so we finish up early and people don’t have that gap between work and starting. Let me know if you think this is ok?
I think the date is too far off and the first event should piggy back off our Umbrian friends arriving. They will be making pasta on Friday and Saturday sauces and cakes so I think we have a cooking club event in itself with these two sessions. This might even have media coverage so it would be good if members can be around to show support of the club idea.
I agree that the thing should take a simple format and start out by an evening just cooking together. Lets start with a offer to cook a meal, say someone does a starter, someone the main and a pudding by a third? We can all chip in for the cost and lend a hand on the night. I think this would get the chat going and allow people to bring their kids if they want. (maybe I’m a sound bit hippy but I am used to these kinds of evenings with friends)
I think it is important to use and communicate with suppliers. They might sponsor some events and they can certainly tell us about their business and promote their produce. It would be good to see the Collective the Southside Food share connect to our club and the club use this as a source. the Wholeshebag.
I would love to hear peoples idea on supply and suppliers and I think the club could be a great medium for this. As is the idea for barter from gardeners and Allotment holders.
I think we should draw up a calendar which pin point seasonal food and celebrates it arrival with events specifically focused around its season.
eg we make apple juice and press if for people on the street when it is in season.
We have a strawberry fest
We pot jam as a collective or attempt to make wine or cure meat?
So lets let me know what you think of an earlier time slot.
So if Graeme is up for it I’ll second him for whatever post he would like and we need someone else to stand too and we will have the committee. Any suggestions or anyone else want to propose themselves?
I am happy to be nominated for a role on the committee and if selected I’ll do my bit. My only snag at the moment is that the dates for the Italian launch weekend clash with me being away on my honeymoon. But any club format will have to survive with absenteeism so lets fire on regardless.
We will need a bank account with minimum two signatories. I think this ought to be the Co-op bank as the only bank with anything even resembling ethics.
One short term reservation I have at the moment is the lack of other names on the blog. Myself, Jan and Domenico are making a sterling effort but where is every one else? If Jan cannot commit to a committee post and Domenico remains the neutral overseer then that only leaves myself and we need more input. It can’t be the Graeme Johnston club.
Where is everyone else who were at the first two meetings? Perhaps some people are not blog literate. Do we need to seek a more umbilical method of communication? My suggestion would be a message direct to individuals email addresses but that requires consent to do so and the collection of addresses at the next meeting.
I am prepared to do a bit of prep work on an agenda for the meeting on the Feb 1st and will post it with enough time to gather contributions.
Please go to the following link to download a document we can use as an agenda for Monday nights meeting. I will print out a handful of copies in the hope we can use it to push things on a bit.
I’ll come to the meeting on Monday, would be good to hear more about the Cooking Club. I’ve let the others in Southside Foodshare know about it too.
Also wanted to let you know about Nourish Scotland, a new Sustainable Food Network in Scotland. They are meeting February 26th and 27th in Stirling. Nourish is interested in all aspects of sustainable food production, distribution and consumption in Scotland, and there will be various workshops.
Hi & thanks again to Graeme & Domenico. I’ve had thoughts about postings so far – agenda is great Graeme. If we start at 6 wat time to finish? bring some sustenance? to munch as we talk? The agenda is quite full – lot to discuss, so someone should chair/ keep an eye on time & attention to matters in hand. C u Monday.
I can’t make mondays but interested to be involved somehow.
I am a member of the foodshare group and keen to do a seasonal ready steady cook with a veg bag style event.
I’m currently working on an art project about food in Fife and hosting soup and discussion events http://a-fertile-ground.blogspot.com/. This finishes at the end of Feb and I could cook up the soups as part of a cook cookery club and give a flavour of some of the discussions??
I am a vegan but happy to partake in the cooking of non vegan food.
Hi All those following this blog. Which I think are very few.
Following the last meeting and my recent break I think it is important to re think the cooking club idea and develop a more straight forward idea to develop some inertia.
So for the following weeks we will be holding cooking events with friends and those that want to come along. Money in the pot to cover costs and a variety of dishes prepared. No water service and lend a hand
Oh I forgot to say this blog will soon be substituted with a new feeder blog which will insert into a revised web site.
The blog will be divided into sections such as cooking club, film club and other Cookie events, Recoat gallery, Conzo and Secret wars and other collaborators. Mel will do a regular piece on public health and we will linkup with Southside happenings too.
Sorry I’ve not replied Jan, I thought I had set this up so that it emailed me when there was a new comment but obviously not!
I’ve not done a seed swap, but will email my colleague who organised one in her village and get some info for you. Hope tonight went well, sorry I couldn’t make it but hopefully be along to another soon.
I just discovered cookie club through the Southside Happenings website. I almost went away again when I saw there were no blog posts (perhaps other people have done the same?) and then I noticed all these comments. I love the ideas for the events – pig night, seed swap and the evenings where everyone brings a dish/bottle.
Is the club still going or has it tailed off? If it is still going I think a calendar of events with details of what’s happening each week would be really helpful for luring in newbies like me?
The first posting on the Cookie cooking club blog!
The blog is here for people to upload their ideas for our Cookie Cooking Club, to help develop the clubs form and provided a notice board for its activities.
Please be direct and make your ideas clear.
The club will only work if enough interested people get actively involved. Without this it has no future and becomes a lost opportunity.
So please let your friends, family and colleagues know about the club and get posting your ideas.
Cookie
Well, Domenico, you’ve got it started.
I hope others will now start contributing some ideas to get the cooking club moving on.
In the words of Arnie – “I’ll be back!”
With very best wishes for now
John Richardson
Monday the 11th . 7.30 pm. Bring a friend, bring a dish or a bottle and we will give you a tour of our set up at Cookie.
Hi All
I was there last Monday and was very interested in all I heard. Should we be using this blog as the place to tip in our ideas for how the club might operate and make suggestions for events / activities with a view to discussing blog entries when we meet up?
Cheers
Graeme
hi yes that is the idea
Put in you ideas and suggestion, links to thing you thing are interesting. Images et al.
Please pass the news and inf on to friends and colleagues.
Our next meeting is next Monday the 11th at 7.30 bring a dish a bottle or a friend. I’ll take you around Cookie and show what we have and how it works.
Ohh and we just received from Italy our latest supply of wine including our new house white Grechetto a vine which as the name suggests has been around from the time of the Greeks
Check out this link:
http://www.bougie.co.uk
A really nice guy making amazing french macaron from his house on Kilmarnock Road. He also does them for for mail order and can deliver them anywhere in the UK for the perfect gift.
I’ll be coming along again on Monday evening and I’ll make some Chicken Liver Pate. Just need your lovely bread and if anybody else has a nice chutney or relish, that would be good.
OK. I’m going to try to start the ball rolling with some suggestions on how the club might function.
The club operates on a not for profit basis but we will need to raise some revenue via a membership fee. My proposal would be to ask each person for three months worth at £20 per month so an initial fee of £60. This is based on an initial membership number of (say) 40 people. That would give an opening balance of £2,400.00 to be spread over the first three months events. That would give each event a £200 budget based on one event per week for 12 weeks.
We will need a bank account and at least two people to act as guardians with one person prepared to operate an accounts spread sheet.
Events could be free to members if the £200 is not exceeded for things like film nights or talks. Non members can attend for a small fee which goes in to the club kitty for future events. If a particular event exceeds the £200 budget then we pay a top up for the night of (say) £10 with non members paying (say) £20.
Goods should be bought through cookie where possible in order to get trade rates and cookie should receive payment to cover heating, lighting, use of equipment etc. Figures to be discussed with Domenico.
I think some ground rules should be established on purchasing ethics i.e food miles, seasonality, fairtrade, allotment swapping.
If an individual member wants to operate a private event then they will not be entitled to use the club kitty and will either have to pay for it themselves or recoup there loss via a ticket price.
OK that’s enough for the moment. I am not trying to lay down my own laws. I am just trying to kick start a dialogue and all items are up for debate at the next meeting.
Please feedback in to this blog.
Here are my suggestions for a couple of events;
A friend of mine is part of a collective that make short films. One film is about the politics and ethics of the Costa Rican pineapple industry. The other is a short film about a local Matanza in Spain which is the annual family pig kill and preparation of the years chorizo and hams. I could have Jan come along and host a screening and a Q&A.
My second suggestion would be holding a pig night. I have friends that keep rare breed pigs for the table. It is a long term project whereby the club commits to buying a piglet from the next litter and once it is dispatched we hold an evening to break down the carcass in to as many treats as we can. Either we do it all ourselves (it’s easy) or we invite a butcher in to do a demo.
Event number three could be a growers night. It’s only a month or two before planting needs to get under way. We could do a seed share given that you may only be using a fraction of what you get in a bought packet. We could also discuss who’s planting what in order to to maximise a harvest share and avoid double gluts of popular items.
Who’s keen?
I think Pig Night sounds great. I have several friends who would appreciate sporadic opportunities to obtain bits of pig. How much meat is on a pig anyway?
Thanks to all for the hospitality last night. Great food from everyone and good chat about the future of the club. I hope both the club and Cookies itself do well.
I think I would fall into the category of people who would willingly support the club with a nominal membership fee, but not actively attend regular meetings nor make regular use of it on a Monday night as a member. I wouldn’t be a subscription member in that sense, with a subscription designed to cover regular use of the facilities. However, I’d be really interested to attend, on a pay as you go basis, occasional ‘outreach’ events on the theme of food or drink.
That might be a good way to balance the club members’ interest in cooking in a professional context, making use of Cookie’s equipment and learning from each other’s skills, with the desire for the cafe to make a contribution to the life of the wider community.
A well-publicised programme of events to which the wider community (non-members) were invited could also be a way of raising funds for the club. From amongst the ideas that have already been posted there are several starters for a programme like that, but more would come as the core members think up things they would like to do. Would also help subsidise more expensive demonstrations and the more costly items that might from time to time need to be bought.
Just a thought.
By way of a summarising last nights meeting: I understood there to be a general willingness to implement a paying membership system but that this sytem was inclusive in nature and not in any way designed to limit access. The main reward for the members investment is a reduction on ticket cost for paying events. Non members will be welcome to all events given that a charge will be made.
No figure was agreed for membership but it seemed agreed that an initial commitment of three months payment would be required to raise enough float to get things off the ground.
It was also suggested that a mission statement / manifesto should be written for the club to aid clarity. This will also unify the message when it comes to promotion. The bulk of this manifesto ought to be driven by Cookie as the club ethos must not clash with the ethos our host.
No individuals were selected to be treasurer or secretary or accountant or whatever. i.e no committee has been appointed for any tasks yet.
The route forward?
A programme of suggested events should be submitted to this blog so they can be discussed and selected.
The selected programme should then undergo a process of promotion in order to raise profile and a booking system put in place so we can know what revenue will come in prior to purchasing in order to avoid liabilties.
Please submit your own comments if I have either forgotten something from last night or completely misinterpreted the discussions entirely. We need more input.
Next meeting? Monday 18th. To be confirmed by Domenico.
Thanks to all for a very interesting evening on Mon plus good food. I just thought I’d flag up this BBC programme which is indeed food for thought about global food production – what does it have to do with us and what we purchase/ eat? “Jimmy’s Global Harvest” BBC2.
Will give my thoughts on club very soon
Thank you Graeme for summarising, very helpful. I agree that purchasing ground rules & commonality with Cookie’s overall ethos are important. My thoughts are similar to Kaye’s; that membership, whether for 3, 6 or 12 months should be as low as possible and that events should be charged for individually depending on their expected cost, with members getting a discount. For those who feel that they both wish and are able to commit to a 12 month membership, a discount should be given on the monthly rate; this will reward commitment & be good for the clubs coffers especially in getting started. Charging for events will give a range of less expensive options, such as films, in-house-demos to more expensive ones where advance purchase of tickets could be encouraged to ensure sufficient numbers attend to cover all costs. I certainly won’t be able to make every Monday.
Costs of running the restaurant – HLP & staff must be covered. D needs to give a figure which would cover 3 hours of an evening for example; fixed & variable.
The club needs a mission statement to help focus on what we expect from the club. Is it just about cooking amazing food & using professional equipment, or is the focus on health, sustainability & education; not just good food, but food that is good for you.
The club requires a committee of at least 3, preferably 4 diligent souls who will commit themselves to the task for a year. I feel it should be chaired by Domenico; a treasurer & secretary should be other posts. On the basis that promotion of events is very, very important perhaps there should be an “events sub committee” to direct & organise, although promotion is also the responsibility of club members.
The club should have a constitution – the duties of office-bearers, AGM meeting date – which needn’t be the usual “dry” occasion – after all we’re all foodies!! How will ordinary members contribute their views on a regular basis? Via the blog?
Once mission & committee are settled the next important step would be to “brain-storm” all the event ideas & sort them out into any definite arrangements already made, major/ expensive events, mid range & low cost events. We already have some very good ideas. Then decide what can actually be timetabled according to season & the number of nights available – will events always be on a Monday night? What about bank/local holidays, summer holidays? The programme does not need to have every week filled, but enough to get started with and a few further ahead which need advance planning & give us something to work on!
How do events including children come into this (if at all, or appropriate)?
If members are encouraged to participate in collective buying what products are available? Wine? Olive oil? A short list would be helpful.
Nothing needs to be written in stone or inflexible, but some framework is necessary. Would it be a good idea to timetable in a few informal club meetings to only discuss club business & organisation, where we can review our income, cost covering, promotion etc?
My own areas of interest could be in British food, vegetarian food & nutrition, vegetable growing (I’d like to help folk “grow their own” in pots etc – anywhere & anyhow!), Hopefully once the growing season’s underway I’ll have lots of salad leaves – the ones you buy & pay a high price for & the ones you never get unless you grow your own, “home-composting” – everyone should/ can do it!!! I’ll so my bit towards event brainstorming separately.
Brainstorm event ideas
Inaugural Event to launch the club
Themed cook-in-night – theme could be a dish style, ingredient/s, national cuisine. 3 people cook on site, some bring along a dish, some provide ingredients
Vegetarian /vegan food & nutrition
Films about food production – both good & bad
Professional demos esp butchery, fish, dealing with poultry & game
Home composting – promotion, Q&A, quiz (prob as part of an evening)
Speakers
Book / publications night
What do do with……..? bring an unusual ingredient, or something you’ve bought & don’t know what to do with (admit it we’ve all done it!!!!)
What to do with…….? Season gluts/ cheap seasonal produce available eg turnip/ swede, cabbage, rhubarb, courgettes……….
Home preserves – easy to unusual
Bread making
Tastings – anything & everything!
Scottish Cheeses
Traditional Baking
Brilliant stuff Jan. We need more people posting this kind of input.
I am in agreement with everything you have said. It just needs a big push to get the “juggernaut” moving. Once it’s got momentum I have every confidence in it.
Tonights meeting should really have this level of focus in order to get things moving.
Would having a written agenda be too boring?
Great I see we have some wings.
Sorry for tonight but we needed some family time which has been lacking over the Christmas New Year period.
I think from both Jan and Graeme’s comment there is the basis of a constitution.
I will attempt to consolidate your ideas and post it as a draft constitution for your final comment.
To get things going I think it would be good to propose a more up scale event.
Any ideas?
Some other event/club ideas
Frugal fayre/ thrify cooking
Foods we remember/ heritage recipes
Making the best of the carcass & offal
Mushrooms
Cheese in recipes – is Wensleydale the British “Feta”
Grow your own – why bother?
2 thoughts regarding club; nominate a”gaffer” for each event/ club night so that responsibility for setting up/ clearing away etc doesn’t always fall to the same people, esp office bearers. Need written “how to use” manual for kitchen equipment
Aluminium foil takes much, much more energy to produce than to recycle http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/metals.htm.
I will take your clean aluminium foil to Can-do-recycling, in Rutherglen. By clean I mean washed of most of the debris, not pristine clean; sheet foil, dishes, lids – use the “scrunch test”. Start collecting today!
Here are some things for the start of our program.
Umbrian Farm arrives lock stock and barrel at Cookie Cooking demonstrations held on Friday and Saturday
http://www.pianadelleselve.it/index_inglese.htm
Wednesday the 24th Feb arrival of Claudio’s farm in Scotland.
Claudio’s kitchen staff will run Cookie over the weekend of the 26th Feb. This is a gang of the most amazing country cooks who have never set foot out of Italy. The ladies will take over Cookie and bring to Glasgow a no nonsense Italian cooking which is all about the core values we have at Cookie. The finest of dining without pretensions.
Claudio has organised a van to be driven by himself and his farm hands who will bring up from his farm the whole range of ingredients used during this weekend, from ducks, lamb veg wine and olive oil.
They will carry out demonstration cooking lessons on the Friday and Saturday.
Pasta making and Meat preparation on Friday. Sauces and Cakes making on Saturday.
The will serve on Saturday and Sunday traditional meals of their Umbrian farmhouse kitchen.
For your entertainment.
Colin Woods and Calum MacPhail two young Scottish film makers will be putting together a series of shorts about Cookie and our activity. The footage in the end will become a Documentary which will be posted on Al Gores Channel http://www.current.com
I have contacted a couple of our Suppliers to ask them if they will come to Cookie to talk about their activity in the Food market
Murray Brown from Clyde Organic Dairy and The Whole Shebag our supplier of organic veg.
I think the insight into what it takes as a farmer to get his products on to your table would be very interesting.
All good stuff again.
My only question is how do we now start to make the hard decisions? There’s no point in have ten more wooly get togethers with no progress.
Who will be the committee members?
What is the first event?
When is the first event?
How do we promote the first event?
I don’t think the subject for the first event is critical. I just think it ought to have broad appeal in the hope that we get good numbers and the logistics are not too tricky.
Is there a meeting on Monday evening (25th)?
Will we be in a position to take the decision necessary?
We are going to be carrying out some essential changes this weekend and Monday at Cookie so I think the next meeting should be on Monday the 1st Feb. For this meeting we need to do our homework and have an agenda drawn up.
I think the committee is forming in a way through the people blogging.
I will get down and put that mission statement together with Mel and we will put it up on the blog by mid week.
Could everyone reading this blog make an effort to attend on Monday the 1st Feb and post their nomination for the positions of secretary and treasurer
Domenico, can you confirm time for meeting on Feb 1st please, I’ll be there. However whilst I’m very supportive of the cooking club & Cookie, I can’t commit to a committee post – too many other commitments, but AM very pleased to help with individual events & elsewhere as much as poss.
First Event; Good Friday & Easter holiday w/e is April 2nd – is that or shortly before too late for a launch event? We need time to get organised. Thinking about what Cookie & the cooking club stands for, a few key words came to mind: quality, local, sustainable good food, “no nonsense”/ not pretentious, prepared by hand/ ourselves, heritage/ traditional. As a club, the club “members”, should be central to an event – not just leave it to Cookie/ Domenico & Mel.
Could we include suppliers/ produce such as Clyde Organic Dairy, The Whole Shebag, West Beers, allotment produce (???) So I just started thinking along the lines of simple buffet style food, convial chat, wine & a couple of short speeches focusing on the club ethos & planned programme. I take it we’re aiming to attract the max number of people – space could be an issue; some folk may not stay for long, but we still want them to get the message. Simple, but wholesome….? too simple? Just some thoughts.
We do need to get a draft programme together before this tho.
Graeme, would you be willing to be nominated as treasurer or secretary? If so I’ll propose.
Hi various questions to answer
Time for next week. I thought earlier at around 6 so we finish up early and people don’t have that gap between work and starting. Let me know if you think this is ok?
I think the date is too far off and the first event should piggy back off our Umbrian friends arriving. They will be making pasta on Friday and Saturday sauces and cakes so I think we have a cooking club event in itself with these two sessions. This might even have media coverage so it would be good if members can be around to show support of the club idea.
I agree that the thing should take a simple format and start out by an evening just cooking together. Lets start with a offer to cook a meal, say someone does a starter, someone the main and a pudding by a third? We can all chip in for the cost and lend a hand on the night. I think this would get the chat going and allow people to bring their kids if they want. (maybe I’m a sound bit hippy but I am used to these kinds of evenings with friends)
I think it is important to use and communicate with suppliers. They might sponsor some events and they can certainly tell us about their business and promote their produce. It would be good to see the Collective the Southside Food share connect to our club and the club use this as a source. the Wholeshebag.
I would love to hear peoples idea on supply and suppliers and I think the club could be a great medium for this. As is the idea for barter from gardeners and Allotment holders.
I think we should draw up a calendar which pin point seasonal food and celebrates it arrival with events specifically focused around its season.
eg we make apple juice and press if for people on the street when it is in season.
We have a strawberry fest
We pot jam as a collective or attempt to make wine or cure meat?
So lets let me know what you think of an earlier time slot.
So if Graeme is up for it I’ll second him for whatever post he would like and we need someone else to stand too and we will have the committee. Any suggestions or anyone else want to propose themselves?
I am happy to be nominated for a role on the committee and if selected I’ll do my bit. My only snag at the moment is that the dates for the Italian launch weekend clash with me being away on my honeymoon. But any club format will have to survive with absenteeism so lets fire on regardless.
We will need a bank account with minimum two signatories. I think this ought to be the Co-op bank as the only bank with anything even resembling ethics.
One short term reservation I have at the moment is the lack of other names on the blog. Myself, Jan and Domenico are making a sterling effort but where is every one else? If Jan cannot commit to a committee post and Domenico remains the neutral overseer then that only leaves myself and we need more input. It can’t be the Graeme Johnston club.
Where is everyone else who were at the first two meetings? Perhaps some people are not blog literate. Do we need to seek a more umbilical method of communication? My suggestion would be a message direct to individuals email addresses but that requires consent to do so and the collection of addresses at the next meeting.
I am prepared to do a bit of prep work on an agenda for the meeting on the Feb 1st and will post it with enough time to gather contributions.
Please go to the following link to download a document we can use as an agenda for Monday nights meeting. I will print out a handful of copies in the hope we can use it to push things on a bit.
https://acrobat.com/#d=ehKyep1Xqqii6zDRPnYKVg
See you all Monday at 6pm
Graeme
Hi all,
I’ll come to the meeting on Monday, would be good to hear more about the Cooking Club. I’ve let the others in Southside Foodshare know about it too.
Also wanted to let you know about Nourish Scotland, a new Sustainable Food Network in Scotland. They are meeting February 26th and 27th in Stirling. Nourish is interested in all aspects of sustainable food production, distribution and consumption in Scotland, and there will be various workshops.
If anyone is interested in attending please email lesley@centreforstewardship.org.uk
Look forward to meeting you all on Monday.
Cheers,
Chris
Hi & thanks again to Graeme & Domenico. I’ve had thoughts about postings so far – agenda is great Graeme. If we start at 6 wat time to finish? bring some sustenance? to munch as we talk? The agenda is quite full – lot to discuss, so someone should chair/ keep an eye on time & attention to matters in hand. C u Monday.
Hi there,
I can’t make mondays but interested to be involved somehow.
I am a member of the foodshare group and keen to do a seasonal ready steady cook with a veg bag style event.
I’m currently working on an art project about food in Fife and hosting soup and discussion events http://a-fertile-ground.blogspot.com/. This finishes at the end of Feb and I could cook up the soups as part of a cook cookery club and give a flavour of some of the discussions??
I am a vegan but happy to partake in the cooking of non vegan food.
Alex
Hi, Chris can we get together & chat about seed swap sometime?
So next week is rapidly approaching — are we on the 22nd? and if so, who fancies making what?
Hi Robbie
I would be in for it but I am away.
Concerned about lack of correspondence and blogging though. This whole thing is floundering I fear.
Hi All those following this blog. Which I think are very few.
Following the last meeting and my recent break I think it is important to re think the cooking club idea and develop a more straight forward idea to develop some inertia.
So for the following weeks we will be holding cooking events with friends and those that want to come along. Money in the pot to cover costs and a variety of dishes prepared. No water service and lend a hand
Let me know if you fancy coming.
Oh I forgot to say this blog will soon be substituted with a new feeder blog which will insert into a revised web site.
The blog will be divided into sections such as cooking club, film club and other Cookie events, Recoat gallery, Conzo and Secret wars and other collaborators. Mel will do a regular piece on public health and we will linkup with Southside happenings too.
Hi,
Sorry I’ve not replied Jan, I thought I had set this up so that it emailed me when there was a new comment but obviously not!
I’ve not done a seed swap, but will email my colleague who organised one in her village and get some info for you. Hope tonight went well, sorry I couldn’t make it but hopefully be along to another soon.
Cheers,
Chris
Hi
I just discovered cookie club through the Southside Happenings website. I almost went away again when I saw there were no blog posts (perhaps other people have done the same?) and then I noticed all these comments. I love the ideas for the events – pig night, seed swap and the evenings where everyone brings a dish/bottle.
Is the club still going or has it tailed off? If it is still going I think a calendar of events with details of what’s happening each week would be really helpful for luring in newbies like me?