Cooking couples are hosts at heart

The group gathers about four times a year for a themed, multicourse meal. Hosting duties rotate, with the host couple handling menu planning and cooking. Such get-togethers have become popular around the country in the last few years. There are a few cooking-club cookbooks on the market for groups who want inspiration or recipes, and the Bon Appetit magazine website offers a “cooking club starter kit’’ with all kinds of how-tos for would-be clubbers.

When it got off the ground, the group at this Wayland dinner needed no professional guidance. Patricia Reinhardt and her husband, Tom Liszewski, decided it would be nice to take their interest in food up to the next level. By everyone’s account, it was Liszewski who really made it happen. The self-described foodie says, “I had a pet peeve when we made dinner. We would talk about everything but the food.’’ Adds Reinhardt: “We entertain quite a bit, and we felt that people don’t always focus on or appreciate the food.’’ They enlisted the Correias, friends and fellow foodies; each couple invited another couple, and thus the group of eight was formed.

That was a little more than three years ago, so each couple has now had the opportunity to host a few times. Looking over past menus, one cannot help but wonder if there’s some pressure to make each dinner more elaborate than the last. There was the local-harvest menu; a French menu that ran from wild mushrooms en croute to a chocolate-lavender torte; an Italian night that included homemade pasta and osso buco; a sweet-sour-salty-bitter menu with courses ranging from braised short ribs with lemon risotto cake and horseradish gremolata to bitter grapefruit sorbet.

Is this competitive cooking? Group members deny it, but Liszewski admits, “There is some pressure to perform. You want it to be at least as good as the last meal.’’

For the Correias’ foray into rijstaffel, the most challenging element might have been the shopping. “The markets were like treasure hunts,’’ says Steve Correia as he and Janet prepare the final dishes on the afternoon of the party. This particular meal, inspired by Janet’s Dutch Indonesian background, requires lots of specialty items, and trips to Chinatown, Lowell, and H Mart in Burlington. The Correias have eaten rijstaffel in the Netherlands, and a Dutch cousin provided the recipe for a dish that will prove to be one of the most successful: sambal goreng, a sort of spicy vegetable curry made with tofu and tempeh.

Cooking-club meals are accompanied by wines and cocktails nearly as elaborate as the feasts themselves, thanks to the efforts of Dan Chadwick, the group’s unofficial mixologist. When he and his wife, Robin Goldman, arrive at the Correias’ home, he unpacks his supplies for a drink he has created for this occasion. It’s based on a spirit called Batavia Arrack, a rum-like beverage from Indonesia that Chadwick calls “funky but acceptable.’’ He has dubbed his concoction the Arrack Attack.

The Correias have spent the better part of the week preparing rijstaffel. A key to success, says Janet, is to choose a menu with make-ahead components. And though the duck is still steaming on the grill and dishes are warming on the stove as guests arrive, the kitchen is clean, the table is set, and all is in readiness for the feast.

When they sit down, this group takes a few minutes for the hosts to describe the dishes and the guests to talk about them. But the ingredient that makes the group gel has nothing to do with cooking. It’s a must for any would-be cooking club, says Liszewski.

“The underlying chemistry of the couples,’’ he says. “Each one of us truly enjoys hosting.’’

Jane Dornbusch can be reached at jdornbusch@verizon.net.