I have been a member of The Kitchen Reader for over 5 months now. It is an online book club that has been running for more than 4 years.

Members of The Kitchen Reader, bloggers from all across the globe, read food-related books, blog about them and post the reviews. The Kitchen Reader moderated by Sarah at Simply Cooked publishes round-ups of everyone’s posts on the first of the following month.

In many countries regular food book club or cookbook club emerged with members that try some recipes, meet regularly and discussed the books. I like the flexibility of an online book club since you can join from anywhere in the world.

The Kitchen Reader selected The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit as its January 2014 book. This is a globetrotting collection of flavor pairings as told by a writer with a discerning palette and an entertaining, original voice.

After a few months with The Kitchen Reader I am curious about the origin of food book/cookbook club and emailed Lynne Olver the editor of Food Timeline to ask about it.

Lynne researched the origin and evolution of cookbook clubs in the UK and the USA that began in the 18th century. Today, she said, such clubs are very much alive. You can read her in depth research including the references here.

Basically, there are five distinct definitions of cookbook clubs, with different focus and purpose:

1. Cook book subscriptions

This scheme is popular in the old days. Subscribers were private donors funding the publication of a book and acknowledged in the first pages of the book like in Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, written in 1747.

2. Grocery store promotions

Selling multivolume books and buying in installments were common in post World War II America. The first volumes were usually free or offered with huge discounts. Subsequent volumes were released on a regular schedule. Such promotions aplied for the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking (published in the 1970s).

3. Book-of-the-Month-Club special cook book promotions

In 1968/1969 the Book-of-the-Month Club promoted five "indispensible cookbooks" for $2.00 a volume. They were: The New York Times Cook Book, Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The Spice Cook Book, and Larousse Gastonomique.

4. Cooking and Crafts Club, a division of the Book of the Month Club.

In 1973 The New York Times displayed an ad with "An invitation for everyone who loves to cook: The Cookbook Club, a new service of the Book-of-the-Month Club.” Among the clubs competing with The Book of the Month Club group were Southern Living Cookbook Club and Gourmet Cookbook Club.

5. Culinary discussion groups

Such groups focus on cookbooks as a literary genre. These groups are usually organized by home cooks, cook book authors, or food bloggers in private residences; and cooking is central to the meeting. 　

As much as I would like to attend discussion groups that meet regularly, it is impractical for now, therefore I keep searching for online food book clubs.

Four foodie friends, Heather of Girlichef; Rachel of The Crispy Cook; Deb of Kahakai Kitchen; and Simona of Briciole take turns hosting Cook the Books, a bimonthly book club/blog event that focuses on a different foodcentric book each round.

After reading the selected book, bloggers cook up something delicious inspired by the book and blog about it which are then rounded up and posted on the web.

Cook the Books Club entertains bloggers by having a guest judge, often the club’s featured author who picks a winner from the submissions and presents a winner's blog badge.

Its December/January book is In Baking Cakes in Kigali by Angel Tungaraza. It is a novel where the character bakes her colorful cakes and gives hope in the heart of Rwanda, a country recovering from war and horrific acts against its citizens.

Britt Bravo created the VegCookBook Club for anyone who would like to eat less meat and animal products. She hopes the club will become a fun and creative community that inspires members to cook more often for themselves, their families, friends and communities.

Each month Britt selects a vegetarian, or vegan cookbook for bloggers to cook from together. Members share their experience by writing about the recipes they tried, asking questions, sharing a link to a post, posting photos on Instagram or Flickr group, and tweeting about what they cooked.

In January 2014 the VegCookbook Club features author Lindsay Nixon. She authored of four VegCookbooks: The Happy Herbivore, Everyday Happy Herbivore, happy Herbivore Abroad, Happy Herbivore Light & Lean.

Another form of book club that I find appealing is one that encourages reading challenge like the Foodies Read 2014 led by Vicki from I’d Rather Be At The Beach.

Members decide how many food books they want to read with different reading levels: Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books; Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books; Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books; Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18; and Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19.

After reading books categorized under Cookbooks, Memoirs/Biographies, Fiction, and Nonfiction, members post on their blogs and Foodies Read 2014 spread the word.

The Foodies Read 2014 is extremely flexible since challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2014. Members do not need a pre-selected list of books and any book format (print, audio, ebook) is also allowed.

Since the books read can cross over with other challenges I am joining Foodies Read 2014 and start at Chef de Cuisine reading level with a plan to read 14 books in 2014.

Wouldn’t it be fun to join several online food book clubs ?

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Text: Amanda Niode

Images: Ariwasabi, Marek Uliasz, Jean_Marie Guyon, Alexey Zarodov/123rf, The Kitchen Reader, Bloomsbury, Cook the Books, Random House, Vegcookbook Club, Foodies Read 2014.