One of the scary variables of supper clubs is control. Most supper clubs involve the delegation of the food preparation to spread the work. The more you delegate the less you control.
It is an interesting dynamic. Most people are pretty good cooks. It isn’t rocket science. Some people are not good cooks, but they like being in a supper clubs because they like the socialization. Others who are not good cooks are in clubs because they want to learn. Sometimes the bad cooks/slow learners can make people sick with bad cooking.
We once had a supper club where I delegated a salad. A friend who is a bad cook/slow learner brought the salad. He mixed the salad with the dressing hours before the dinner. By the time we started to serve the salad was brown and wilted. I was worried about food poisoning and swapped out new lettuce for old to save the day. I also put my friend on the list to bring a bottle of wine instead of make a dish.
Cooking takes common sense. There are some people that are really smart, but don’t have common sense. I know this guy who is a brain surgeon (really smart) and is into doing things himself around the house. He installed his own chimney when adding a wood stove to his den. The house caught on fire twice from the poorly installed chimney. He is a smart guy with no common sense and a bad guy to delegate cooking to.
OK, I will confess, I can be a control freak. I do want my food to look and taste certain way. Quite often I wind up doing too much of the work because I want to control. I have found that there are people I really trust and there are people I trust to do certain things. My son Brian and my brother in law Bobby are guys I really trust. (Check out the blog about “My favorite communist”) My friend Kathy who isn’t a great cook, but is really smart and has great common sense is a person I trust to do certain things.
The key to supper club control is to try to give people things they can handle. Some people can cook and some people can bring a bottle of wine
If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing on January 30, 2018.