By STEVEN JUPITER
PITTSFORD—Every month, usually on the first Monday at 5:30 p.m., the Pittsford Cookbook Club meets at Maclure Library to share culinary efforts with likeminded neighbors. The meetings are themed, sometimes in accordance with a selected cookbook and sometimes in accordance with a holiday.
In March, for example, the club’s cooks made pies in honor of Pi Day (March 14, since the numeric approximation of pi is 3.14).
“I ate more pie in that one evening than I had in the past year,” laughed Elizabeth Simpson, who has been coordinating the group, which began in 2019, for the last two years. Members were free to bring whatever kind of pie they chose, and the group ended up with a mix of sweet and savory. One member brought a cherished family recipe: a coconut custard pie that had been her mother’s go-to offering whenever she needed to bring dessert to an event.
Though some of the members are experienced cooks with impressive skills, Simpson emphasizes that most members are just home cooks with a love for and curiosity about food.
“No one is there to judge,” she said. “We share what we made and talk about what we’d make again and what we wouldn’t. Sometimes things come out looking just like the images in the cookbook. Sometimes things don’t work out quite as well. But there are no critiques.”
Simpson doesn’t even consider herself a master chef.
“I like to bake but there was just a need for someone to run the club,” she said. “So, I volunteered.”
Though the number of attendees can vary from month to month, meetings usually have 8 to 12 members present. Some folks will go all out and attempt some of the more complex recipes in the featured cookbook while others opt for something simple to prepare.
“Everyone’s busy. People work. The important thing is just to join in, to whatever degree you can,” said Simpson.
Aside from Pi Day, recent themes have included tapas, vegan cooking, and Italian. Simpson chooses themes and cookbooks that don’t require fancy equipment or obscure ingredients that can’t be bought locally. But members are free to challenge themselves: one member made homemade seitan for the vegan evening. (Seitan is a plant-based protein made from wheat gluten, often used as a meat substitute in Asian recipes.)
The club also has culinary outings from time to time. They’ve visited Taco Fresco Mexican restaurant and Loose Loona teahouse, both in Rutland. At Loose Loona, they were given a presentation on tea by Michele Cordeiro. They visited Pittsford’s Camp Betsey Cox to sample Cambodian cuisine prepared by the camp’s head chef, Sotheary Meas.
“Sotheary prepared delicious food and taught us about Cambodian culture,” Simpson said.
The group has also hosted food professionals at their meetings at the library. Last May, for example, Jenna Baird and Jacob Powsner of Baird Farm in Chittenden taught the group about maple syrup in honor of the month of May-ple.
Next month, the group has invited Chef Kenneth Lee of 22 Park Eatery in Brandon (formerly of the Mountain Top Inn) to demonstrate the preparation of shakshuka in the kitchen at the Pittsford Congregational Church. Shakshuka is a spicy Middle Eastern stew with tomatoes, feta, and eggs. Though most meetings are open to all, this outing required sign-up and all the slots are already filled. Shakshuka is a delicious, showy dish and folks are apparently excited to watch Chef Lee prepare it.
And though the club won’t be meeting in May—Ms. Simpson will be traveling—they’ll be back strong in June for “Paris Picnic” at the pavilion at Pittsford Village Farm. The dishes will be drawn from the “Paris Picnic Club” cookbook, which Simpson thought had some easy and charming recipes. Participants are also free to bring a picnic-friendly recipe of their own.
Anyone interested should peruse the cookbook at the Maclure Library, where the club maintains a table with its featured cookbooks (available for the month before that book’s meeting) and a sign-up sheet where folks can let the group know which recipes they’ve chosen (to avoid duplicates). The table also features—somewhat randomly but delightfully—a bronze bust of the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens.
“The Maclure has been so supportive of us,” said Simpson. “[Director] Shelly Williams and [librarian] Elizabeth Soulia help us out with whatever we need.”
And for those who live in or closer to Brandon, a similar club has recently begun at the Brandon Free Public Library. That club meets the third Thursday of every month at 5:30 and is organized by Pat van der Heijden, a Brandon resident who had attended some meetings in Pittsford and decided to start a similar club at her home library as well.
According to Simpson, the best way to think about the club is as “a themed potluck.”
“You just have to enjoy cooking, eating good food, and sharing with friendly people.”
Anyone who’d like more information about the Pittsford group may contact Elizabeth Simpson at esimpson675@gmail.com.
