Many people around the world include "cooking" in their list of hobbies. And why not? Cooking is not just about preparing a special meal, it's also about relaxing over its enjoyment, with lots of conversation and wine.
The Dutch, however, take hobby cooking very seriously.
There are many options to cook your own gourmet 5-course meal under the supervision of qualified chefs. Companies often take up these options for staff or client entertainment.
But what really sets the Dutch apart from the rest of the world, is their Cooking Clubs.
A glance through the classified ads will reveal many small, informal clubs looking for members. But if you want to do things properly, you join a large, national club such as Cuisine Culinaire Nederland. It has chapters throughout the country, in specific cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, as well as regional chapters in provinces like Limburg and Zeeland.
Once a month, you get together with your group and cook a 5 to 7 course French-style, gourmet menu. This requires a great deal of organisation!
The chapter in The Hague, for example, has over 275 members that meet regularly at the club premises in Statenkwartier. They don't all cook on the same night! Members are put into groups of about 15, each with its own chef to guide them. The groups are mostly single sex, so that there are no distractions from the pleasures of creating a great meal, and each group has its own allocated night once a month for meeting up and cooking together.
The menus are planned in advance by the Menu Committee, and the ingredients are ready and waiting when members arrive at 6pm. A typical menu will include an amuse, a soup, a starter, a salad, a fish course, an entree, and a dessert. The style is usually French. The recipes are pinned up at each workstation, and include notes about the level of difficulty, how many people are needed to prepare it, as well as the expected serving time. Over a welcoming glass of wine, the members discuss the menu and choose which item they want to cook. Once they've been divided up, the fun starts: chopping, rolling, searing, boiling, roasting, frying... whatever the menu of that month demands. Conversations hum. The chef steps in to answer questions and help with more difficult cooking techniques.
Those with the easier courses usually also end up laying the table, complete with underplates, flowers, candles - everything you would expect in a top French restaurant. The meal usually starts at 8pm. Around this time, a student will arrive in order to start washing the dishes, leaving the members to enjoy the cooking, eating and conversation without the drudgery of cleaning up everything afterwards. In addition to earning some welcome cash, the student also gets to eat the food: with every course, a plate also goes through to the scullery, prepared with the same meticulous care as those for the main table.
A great deal of care goes into plating. Here, you taste with your eyes first, before sampling the exquisite morsels with your mouth. Portions, as you would expect, are small. With five to seven courses to enjoy, you want to be sure you'll be able to make the most of each. Conversation flows, as does the wine. Everyone is relaxed, contented. In between courses, groups of two or three people pop up to add the finishing touches to their own creations.
And then, it's time to go home. As one, the group clears away the table, cleans the workstations, wipes the stove down, ties up the garbage bags to take home for disposal. Empty wine bottles are stacked away. Leftovers are doled out to those who can use them. Hugs, the European three-cheeked kiss, and the lights go out. Tomorrow there will be another group, different faces, same menu, different interpretation. Once again, conversation will hum and tensions will ease as all focus goes into creating another meal worthy of a top French restaurant.
This is the world of the hobby chef in the Netherlands: unique, companionable and a great escape from the mundane.