About the author: Alicia Kachmar (left) is a freelance writer for go2 Media, Brooklyn Based, Meylah and Crochet Spot; a designer of yarn goods for Crochet Today and Knit Simple magazines; a co-editor of and contributor to the upcoming Quirk Books title, Witch Craft, a compilation of Halloween crafts and recipes. She runs a whimsical crochet business via Etsy Shop and has been known to take the day off to go on Safety Cone Adventures.

I sat down with Tracy Candido of Sweet Tooth of the Tiger to learn more about her Community Cooking Club, which held its inaugural class/meet-up/get-together at the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, a venue I was previously unfamiliar with. (Located at 225 West Broadway, the BHQFU is, according to Tracy, “kind of a lateral learning environment. It’s a place where artists can teach classes to other artists, reaching a need that the community seems to have.”)

Tell us about the Community Cooking Club! How does it differ from some of the city’s supper clubs?
The Community Cooking Club is part potluck and part cooking class, where 10–15 participants work together in teams to make simple, seasonal dishes that we then share and eat together at the communal table. The CCC feels much more easygoing than a lot of the popular supper clubs, a little more DIY. The participation fee, which covers the cost of ingredients, is under $10—while other cooking classes in New York can cost a small fortune to enter.

The CCC is more like an empowerment tool than a luxury event. Also I’m a food artist, not a chef, and so my interest is arming other artists with a critical space to learn how to read a recipe, meet other artists, and consciously eat—commenting on and analyzing what they taste and smell and how they would make the dish better. The CCC is kind of like a studio art class with a crit at the end, but using food as the medium instead of paint or plaster. There is time and space for participants to talk about food projects they are engaging in and their own work as it relates to food. Above all else, the CCC is fun, accessible, and unfussy.

Community Cooking Club's first event (also shown at top), photographed by Karina Mangu-Ward

What went down at the inaugural Community Cooking Club?
The inaugural CCC was rad. The participants were mostly people I hadn’t met before, who were either studying art or had an art practice. Some of the folks had previously only been using microwaves to cook things, mostly popcorn, and some were really great cooks already. I wanted to arm these folks with an understanding that preparing food for yourself and others is really easy and fun—and a lot like making art.

My trusty teaching assistant and I took a trip up to Fairway to buy really fresh, seasonal ingredients like watermelon, local feta cheese, organic blackberries, apricots, crème fraiche, olives, chickpeas, and more. We had a 15-minute introduction to the class and to each other, and then the participants split up into teams of two, and began following recipes and preparing their dishes at each food station. The food stations had everything they needed, including ingredients, the recipe, and kitchen utensils. We made a lot of great salads that they would be able to make over and over again for other community events, like potlucks, parties, and picnics. The cooking part took about an hour, and then we ate and talked for about 40 minutes. The participants got to take the recipes home with them.

This isn’t your first community/food undertaking; up until recently, you facilitated Sweet Tooth of the Tiger, a renegade bake sale of sorts. What made you decide to retire that venture?
Sweet Tooth of the Tiger was an excellent way to engage with art communities about eating, and to recognize our collective and individual relationship with sugar. The bake-sale table would travel around to events at art spaces like Exit Art and ABC No Rio and exchange dessert for a suggested donation. Once the project was able to sustain itself and could cover the costs of ingredients, travel, and time, I began inviting other artists to bake sweets and host their own bake sale under the Sweet Tooth of the Tiger name to raise funds for their creative practice. But it became too large of an undertaking, as I had a day job too, and it was tricky to get all parties—the artist, the venue, and myself as the administrator—in sync. I thought it would be better to burn out than to fade away, so I started the CCC as a new way to engage artists with a critical space to make, talk about, and eat food.

Will CCC operate like Sweet Tooth of the Tiger, leaving Tribeca and traveling around to different venues?
I’d love to expand CCC to reach other communities in other neighborhoods, like Brooklyn and Queens. I’m currently fielding some interest from other community organizations that have great kitchens and already have an educational component to their mission. I’m also hoping to do special Queer Community Cooking Clubs.

The next Community Cooking Club gathering takes place at the Bruce High Quality Foundation University on Wednesday, July 28 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can RSVP by emailing Tracy, all the way up until the day of class.

Also by Alicia Kachmar:
• In the Shadows of Downtown
• Parking for a Day