How to start a family-recipe club with friends
Chef and cookbook author Devan Rajkumar on how to teach recipes and cook as a group
Big Night In is a series where Canadian experts and creatives share advice on how to spend a magical night at home. It's the ultimate guide to staying in — whether solo or with friends — featuring thoughtfully curated ideas that are anything but routine.
It's like a book club but for recipes. Friends come together to learn how to make a dish from one person's family vault — and all the secret ingredients, special techniques and household history that goes along with it.
"This isn't just dinner; it's storytelling on a plate, where you share culture, memories and heart," said chef and Mad Love cookbook author Devan Rajkumar. The key, he notes, is for the host to choose a truly unique family recipe. "The more personal, the better — it's about the connection."
Picking a hands-on dish like dumplings, curry and roti, tacos with hand-pressed tortillas or sushi will make the experience more engaging. "Food is a love language, and the more you touch it, the more that love shines through," he said. Just be sure it's something doable — think homemade pasta over a five-hour soufflé. He also suggests skipping meals with pricey ingredients to keep costs down or splitting up the grocery list among the group.
To set the stage for a successful evening, Rajkumar recommends preparing any time-consuming ingredients in advance and setting up workstations before guests arrive. If it's been a while since you've made the dish, you may also want to do a quick trial run to "troubleshoot potential hiccups."
This isn't just dinner; it's storytelling on a plate, where you share culture, memories and heart.
Then, you're ready to teach. Start by breaking the recipe into sections, says Rajkumar, and assigning tasks based on skill level, potentially pairing beginners with more experienced cooks. Next, slowly demonstrate the steps while sharing family tricks and how the recipe has evolved — and encourage questions as you go. "Make it a dialogue, not a lecture," he said.
If he were hosting, Rajkumar says he would kick the night off by serving guests "a killer cocktail" and telling the story behind the food, then he'd "hand out aprons like we're about to star in our own cooking show."
When it came time to eat, he'd serve the dish family-style, before making a toast and "[letting] the food and laughter flow" — another chapter added to the recipe's story.
