cooking club

Good suggestions. Thanks!

Why not pick a book or movie and go with foods from there? It could either be foods inspired by the scenes that actually occur, or something really creative, like what you think a certain character's favorite food would be and why. Extra points for a fantasy book that describes foods that aren't part of normal cuisine - for example, there are always good food descriptions in Harry Potter, but you would get to interpret and make up what you think some of the dishes would be made from. I used to read Bryan Jacques's Redwall series as a kid and the descriptions about feasts were always the best part, but because the ingredients were foreign you never really knew how anything tasted. I would get very disappointed when I realized no one was going to go buy me, say, elderflower cordial. I think it would be a really fun party to try to guess from a description what a food is supposed to taste like.

When I was in a cooking group, we did a few cookbook themes. Once we all cooked from Julia Child; another time we all made Nigella Lawson recipes. It might be fun to do a Joe Beef theme, from the Piglet-winning book. Let us know what you decide. Cooking groups are wonderful!

There are potentially some fun food52 contest themes: street food, picnic food, one-bite party snacks, dirt-cheap dinner, fondue....
There are also tons of other countries to consider. Check out Sasha's Global Table Adventure: http://globaltableadventure.com/ She's cooking alphabetically through the world and is up to Micronesia. I just made the Beef Rendang and coconut sticky rice from Malaysia and it was fantastic.

How about a decade themed menu, like the 60's, 80's, etc?

A school cafeteria food theme would be fun, sort of a walk down memory lane.

Some more themes: noodle, ginger, comfort food, finger food, vegan, afternoon tea, cheese, tofu

Eastern European for something really different? Blinis? Borscht? Goulash? Stroganoff? Mushroom and onion kasha?

Ethiopian food and menu. This site has background and menus.
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Cookbook/Ethiopia.html

How fun! I would love to be in a cooking club. For new ideas here were my first few thoughts:

menu inspired by book/movie (food52 does a movie inspired menu occasionally)
breakfast for dinner (maybe a little for the younger crowd, but it's always fun)
deconstructed menu (deconstructed salad, deconstructed eggplant parm, deconstructed cake...)
paleolithic menu (that would be interesting...)

anyways, trying to think outside of the box. hopefully it can help get your creative juices flowing!

that was supposed to say menu