Cooking Groups

Ninecooks hosts cooking groups for adults and children 11-14 that meet every 5-8 weeks. The #1 Cooking Group -- the original nine cooks -- has been cooking together since early 2003.

Before each get-together Lydia designs a menu around recipes that can be prepared in less than three hours. There's no fee, but everyone brings a share of the groceries. Each group decides what kind of cooking they'd like to do or skills to practice, and menus focus on using good, healthy ingredients, available from local markets and farms.

We've tackled everything from Asian noodles to cactus paddles and the challenge of making tomato-free salads in winter. We've mastered the immersion blender, the molcajete and the mandoline. We've even taken our show outdoors, cooking paella over a fire pit.

Participants receive the recipes from each session, along with information about where to find any special ingredients, spices, tools and more. When we forget an ingredient (and we do), or don't have the exact size pot called for in a recipe, we improvise — and usually that's the most fun of all.