Meet the cooking club that's been meeting every month for 20 years
When I first heard about this cooking club I was eager to drop in, but my own schedule led to several cancellations—it took more than four months of trying before I actually made it through the door—so it was a little humbling to walk into a room of women who've managed to meet every month for decades.
But they greeted me with a warm welcome and in no time, despite being the one guest with a CBC microphone recording everything for Daybreak, it felt as though I'd been there before and would definitely want to come back.
"When you're cooking and preparing [food] everything's stripped away and you're not putting on airs," said Kim Chatterson, a member of this cooking club for 20 years and affectionately known as the "ring leader."
'Like a second family'
"It's like a second family. It's a girls' night out except you're staying in and just catching up with old friends," said Patty Pace, our host for the evening.
There are nine women in the club, which originally started among colleagues at a West Island company in the mid-90s. Most members no longer work at that company and new members have joined over the years, mainly by referral.
Each month a different member hosts in her home and gets a break from cooking.
The host selects the recipes, buys the food, then lays out the ingredients and a copy of each recipe. As club members arrive, they each choose the recipe they want to prepare and get started. After the meal, they rate the recipes on a scale of 10 and post everything on their web page.
They also split the cost of the groceries, which usually amounts to $10-$15 per person.
Pace lives in a cozy two-bedroom apartment in Pierrefonds so, with seven cooks that evening, the food preparation spilled over from the kitchen into the dining room.
The menu
On the menu: at least seven recipes including roasted sweet potato and carrot soup, turkey tacos, hash browns and smores cookie bars.
Chatterson was chopping carrots for the soup and stepping in to chop onions for the tacos, whip up cookie batter, do whatever necessary to keep the cooking at a healthy pace.
She says 20 years ago the recipes were gourmet, these days they're quick, easy, healthy recipes she winds up adding to the menu at home for her family.
"The first time I hosted was in my parents' kitchen so what's really cool is over time we've been through weddings, babies, deaths, we've sort of all experienced life together," she said.
'We've all been through loss'
Chatterson passes a cutting board piled with chopped onions to Jennifer Croll Wolfe, a member for nearly 20 years, who's browning the ground turkey.
Reflecting on what the club has meant to her, Croll Wolfe remembers the pain of losing her mother who "was always a tremendous influence."
"The first cooking club I came to after she passed away was very hard for me. I think I just walked through the door and I just sort of crumbled," she said.
"All my friends were here and we've all been through loss," Croll Wolfe said.
Cooking twice
That time with friends is so cherished, members go to great lengths to avoid missing out and often find themselves cooking for their families before heading out for an evening of more cooking.
"Full admission: I went to the grocery store and got chicken wings and french fries [for my kids] but I did cut up vegetables for them," said Karen Robson, a single mother of two boys.
"It's a night out for me. It's the highlight of my month," she said.
Robson had barely made it in the door when Mia Saks told her to grab a pair of slippers from off the couch.
Saks has been knitting a lot lately and had shown up with enough handmade slippers for everyone, before starting to prepare bread stuffed with an artichoke dip.
It looked irresistible and clearly was not the healthiest choice on the night's menu.
"Sour cream, cream cheese, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, dill–which is good, artichokes–which are good," she said, laughing.
"Just for that alone, I'm thinking you should stay," she told me, not realizing she had me at "sour cream."
One of her favourite cooking club memories is when she hosted the month of her 50th birthday and chose recipes that were popular when she was a child and watched Julia Child on television.
"My mother had all her cookbooks and so Dover sole was something my mother used to make so we made that, we made lemon meringue pie, we made chocolate layer cake ...the scalloped potatoes were fabulous," Saks said.
Learning from friends
As the youngest club member Amy Rapkin likes to tap into all that cooking experience.
"They've taught me a lot of things in the kitchen," Rapkin said.
"And she's taught us about things like Tinder!" Chatterson said, adding "but we have to put our glasses on before we can do it."
Long-time member Melanie Atcovitch has two young children and says she appreciates all the parenting advice and support from members whose children are now teenagers.
She works in management and was the last to come through the door after a 12-hour day at the office.
"I have a busy life and I love meeting with my girls every month and really being able to decompress," she said.
Atcovitch offered to do the dishes since all the cooking was already done, then finally we all sat down to dig in.
Double dessert
Everything was delicious. Especially the smores cookie bars. They were a bigger hit than the churro sticks.
"We try to have two dessert recipes because if one's bad it could ruin the whole cooking club if you don't finish off with that good dessert," explained Sarah Barron, adding that her family often looks forward to any leftover desserts that make it home.
And although Atcovitch missed the cooking part of cooking club, she got a good dose of her friends.
The conversation was lively all evening and no topic was off limits.
"It's just a really warm environment and we're grateful for having each other."
