"We have never repeated any-
thing in all these years," she
said.
Her group usually includes
an appetizer, soup, entree,
dessert and sometimes a salad.
Only rarely does a purchased
item sneak in.
"One time we were having
our kitchen remodeled," Mont-
gomery said. "I stopped by
Marie Callender's and picked up
two lemon meringue pies. I nev-
er heard the end of it."
With food as the focus, hard
liquor does not figure promi-
nently in gourmet clubs. But the
groups may consume four to five
bottles of wine in an evening.
"It's not necessarily a time to
booze it up," said Bill Reichert,
who started the first Gourmet
Grub Club in Seattle in 1988
and moved to San Diego sever-
al years ago. Each recipe gen-
erally calls for a different wine,
he said. "You've got to pace your-
self."
Besides food, gourmet club
events can involve theme-relat-
ed costumes, elaborate table and
home decorations, games and
Some groups or-
The theme is what entertainment.
ganize summer dinners around
a croquet theme, with everyone
sets the gourmet
dressed in white.
At Middle Eastern meals,
group gatherings
guests may sit on the floor and
with their hands. If it's
apart from potluck eat
Greek, wear a toga. If it's New
Year's, it's black-tie.
dinners.
Invitations may come in
brown paper bags for a South-
ern Fried Chicken Party. They
might be hand-lettered in the
and brought to the dinner site best formal script or designed
ready to serve. Even the most on a computer. limited
"You're only mited by your
elaborate gourmet kitchens can-
not accommodate 10 cooks cut- imagination," Walkoe said. "We
ting, boiling and baking at the had parties where the theme
same time. However, the host was red. The food was red, we
may need to make room in the wore red, the lights were red,
refrigerator to keep some trans- everything was red. That was
great."
ported items cold.
But Montgomery said her
The themes can be selected
group
has yet to agree to one of
as much as a year in advance,
with each member or couple her more exotic suggestions for
taking a month. A more unpre- a gourmet dinner party — a
dictable approach i is for the "woodland picnic" theme.
"We'd dress up like teddy
hosts to pick the theme and
send out the menu and assigned bears or other animals," she
recipes a couple of weeks in ad- said. "Nobody wants to do it.
vance. They think it's a weird idea."
Walkoe and her sister orga- IDEAS AND ASSISTANCE
nized their first club for area
Shields has written two books
friends by having each host take to help you start your own
a turn cooking all the food.
The Gourmet Grub Club:
"We wanted to get away from group:

and an unlikely choice, "Nifty
`50s."
The suggested menu for a
`50s gathering includes Peppy
Party Mix, Molded Waldorf Sal-
ad, Super-Duper Meatloaf ac-
companied by young Italian
Chianti and, for dessert, Lemon
Meringue Pie, which goes to
show that a gourmet club din-
ner need not be nouvelle with
starched linen napkins.
Menus and recipes can come
from magazines, cookbooks,
newspapers and other sources.
If you have never made a dish
before, it pays to try it out in ad-
vance.
The cooking can take two
routes. Club members might
take turns doing all the work: If
it's September, it's my time to
shine. More often, each couple
prepares a separate course, with
the host responsible for the
main dish.
Items are usually chosen so
they can be prepared in advance

the cafeteria, potluck feel,"
Walkoe said. "Being invited into
somebody's home for a nice
cooked meal was wonderful."
Montgomery said her group
ends each meal with a discus-
sion of the menu and wines for
the next event.

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