Berlin Cooking Club, German Food (and a word in your ear about Supper Clubs)

Mel and Kelsie are probably strolling down a stretch of beach in Castelldefels as I write this.

It was their idea, the Berlin Cooking Club. The inaugural club had just 4 cooks and guests. Then it moved on to The Dairy. And yesterday it was hosted in Caroline and Tobias’s (of the famed Thyme supper club) spacious flat. 6 cooks, a cocktail girl and 11 guests.Included among the guests: Kristi and Dave who host a supper club of their own called Zuhause that is tearing its way to the top of the “Supper Clubs in Berlin you MUST visit” list.  (If the stunning photos on their website are not reason enough for you to go, Irish born Dave and Canadian Kirsti are immediately likeable, the kind of people you want to make dinner plans with within 10 minutes of knowing.)A cooking club is different from a supper club, it’s a group of cooking enthusiasts who meet regularly.  Each cook makes one dish, or perhaps pair up to make one big dish.  At our cooking club, we always set a theme (yesterday was German food, the time before Swedish, the time before that Lebanese) but with all those cooks in the kitchen, each with his or her own aesthetic, palette and idea of portion size, there are quirky variations between courses.  Unexpected sights in the vista occur, you know, you are driving by, pine trees whooshing past you, pine tree, pine tree, pine tree and then - oh, coconut tree.  Makes you want to stop the car and get out, or wake up (depending on which way you are inclined).  As a guest, the inevitable incongruity might appeal to you or not, the hook being the rock bottom cost (€15 per head yesterday including drinks) and the chance to meet other people’s vetted friends.As a cook, it’s as a convivial way as I can imagine to spend a few hours, utterly devoid of competition, replete with encouragement and ideas.

I volunteered to make dessert, I imagined a ‘schwarzwälder kirschtorte’ (black forest cake to you and me).  I love the combination of sour cherries and chocolate but I didn’t fancy the syrup laden, whipped cream plastered, chocolate shaving covered cake with gaudy glacé cherries perched perkily in yet more whipped cream.  I also didn’t want to be wrestling with a large cake or baking two cakes for that matter.  My vague idea was that I would make a sheet cake, use a circular cutter to portion it out (something that saved me when somehow our party increased in number from 14 to 18 in the last half an hour).  Syrup on top of that.  Sour cherry compote thickened with cornflour and flavoured with cinnamon, orange juice with a good glug of my grandmother’s homemade cherry liquor.  Mini meringues on the outside of that.  A small scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on top of that.  Then a crazy wig of chocolate squiggles.Except the chocolate squiggles didn’t quite come to be.  I nabbed the idea from Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz’s Mission Street Food.  The idea being a homemade version of chocolate magic shell, made up of coconut fat and chocolate (ratio of 1.5 : 1).

“So I am supposed to squirt this chocolate into ice water and then it will set into squiggles.” I enthuse to some of the other cooks.
4 of us hunch over the bowl of ice water, I squirt, we hold our breath.  The chocolate sauce spreads out like an oil spill, not a squiggle in sight.
Tobias walks into the kitchen, finds us all huddled together, heads inclined over a large metal bowl.   He joins us to see what we were looking at.  ”Why are we all staring at a bowl of mouldy water?” he asks.
“It’s not mould, it’s chocolate, we are trying to make chocolate squiggles, it’s not working.” I reply.
“Try holding the nozzle underneath.” suggests Caroline.  I do, I squirt, the squiggles looked vaguely fecal.  We abandon that idea.
“Why not just use normal chocolate without the coconut fat?” Stephan asked “Or more chocolate?”
“No, you know what, let’s just do it as Smucker’s intended,  as a chocolate hat for the ice cream.” I resolved (although I’ve still got the stuff in a squeezy bottle in my fridge and believe you me, this isn’t over, I am going to figure out this squiggle business!)
That my friends, is the beauty of a cooking club.  It takes you from bumbling along silently in the kitchen, where mishaps are deflating and lonely, to part of a group of curious people pitching in to save your day or less dramatically your dessert.  And lets face it, would I ever make a dessert with 6 separate components for my family of 2 adults and 1 seriously fussy 3-year-old?  Umm, no.  For a dinner party of 6? Well if I’m also making, canapés, a starter and main course - then probably not (although sometimes I do it).  For 14 people and eventually, 18? Yes! I like that challenge, especially when people end up enjoying what I’ve made.

To attend the Berlin Cooking Club, you have to be invited by one of the cooks (so get to know us!) but of course you can always start your own.  I thoroughly recommend it, more fun than a book club!Supper clubs are open to all.  And you really do need to go to a supper club because some of the best food you will eat in Berlin may just be at a supper club!  Certainly that is where you will find people behind the stove that care about what they are cooking and the ingredients they are using, you will be treated nicely, usually you will meet interesting people and pay well under what you would expect to for a similar meal in a restaurant.It’s an interesting subject and one that merits further exploration.  Rachel B. Doyle wrote a good piece for The Guardian which you can read if you click here.   The majority of supper clubs that I’ve been to or heard good things about are run by young (25-35) foreigners.  Their food, hospitality and respect for seasonality is irreproachable.  I can rattle off 5 supper clubs you should visit while in Berlin but I will scratch my head for longer to give you 5 restaurants.  (In London it would be exactly the opposite).

10 of the best supper clubs in Berlin according to Rachel B. Doyle for The Guardian
Some of the ones that I’ve enjoyed or at least heard very good things about:

12 Responses to Berlin Cooking Club, German Food (and a word in your ear about Supper Clubs)

  1. Karen says:

    I’m so happy to have discovered your blog and will now be following it. Your post made me feel like I was there trying to help with those squiggles. Delicious looking dessert.

  2. Mel says:

    yes! we probably were on the beach ;-)

    looks like another fab cook-up…and so happy you all are keeping it going strong. we’re still finding our feet here…and enjoying the exploration of catalunyan food in the meantime.

  3. LDN Eats NYC says:

    Hey, looks great, so fun how youv’e gone from an outsider looking in to becoming a part of the Berlin food scene. I’ve done it in my own way, from eating every pizza and burger I could find to cooking them….Now working at Shake Shack, its a crazy place, the volumes, the personalities and the systems that make it run…..

  4. David says:

    Thanks for this post! I wanted to try the supper / cooking clubs for a long time and your list helps me finally do it.

    A thing that comes to my mind which you might enjoy is the Running Dinner (there probably are several now). Its about cooking a meal with a fresh mix of guests and a new flat for every course. Not every cook involved is gifted, so it’s more about the social.

    • Hi David, Thanks!
      I have heard of the Running Dinner but don’t know anyone who has been, have you gone to one?

      • David says:

        I’ve participated in the one organized by Franziska and Joost for the last five years or so. The quality of the cooking is a game of luck, but its great fun socially and you see a lot of nice flats. The crowd can be bit yuppie-ish but it has become increasingly mixed in the recent years. If you’re interested I can get you on the list. Its probably full for this year, but the dinner is every year.

      • Thanks for offering David. My priority is to get to a few more supper clubs this year, I am really impressed with what some of the things that these guys are getting up to.

  5. Jorge says:

    Hey! I have been reading your blog for a while now. Nice to read that you went there :) It’s kind of unusual to read about your hometown in a blog you read right? If you enjoy catalan food, then I encourage you to try to cook some things like sopa de galets, pà amb tomàquet, conill a l’all i oli among others. If you make pà amb tomàquet, try also to put it altogether with a tortilla de patatas, that is such a killer combination :) I just made that two days ago again.

    • We almost moved to Barcelona once. I sold my flat in London and everything. In the last minute it all fell through but that would have been incredible. The whole bread tomato thing is the bomb, so good - especially as I am one of those people that if I were cast away on a desert island, all I would want to take with me is tomatoes

      …and maybe my Mac.

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