Cookbook Club: Evening of Self Care featuring Ottolenghi Comfort
Join us as we gather to share a cozy dinner and evening of self care!
The longest-lasting and most important relationship you’ll have is with yourself. So, to end the month focused on all things love and relationships, spend an evening nourishing yourself with comfort food and connection.
Cookbook Club is a growing community of folks who love to cook and gather. If food is your love language, this is the place for you.
What to Expect:
This month, we’ll be cooking and sharing dishes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook, Ottolenghi Comfort.
Bring a dish to share that brings you comfort. Third Place Bar will be serving up NA beverages to accompany our meal, or try a glass of Plumdiggory Rosé from Hubba Wines – a beautiful, sustainable, woman-owned and run winery in Paso Robles, CA.
Then, join Isabella Cassell (LPCC certified coach, creator of The Full) and Joni Goldbach (creator of Letters from the Table) in an hour-long workshop focused on Cultivating Self-Love.
Grounding in Self-Love Meditation: Begin with a guided meditation to center, nurture self-love, and create a calm space for reflection.
Values & Inner Mentor Exploration: Define your top personal values, then engage in a visualization to connect with your wise inner mentor who embodies these values and offers compassionate guidance.
Self-Love Letter Writing: Conclude by crafting a heartfelt letter to yourself, affirming your strengths, and committing to nurturing self-love and growth.
Learn how to make a bouquet garni with Gina Provenzano. You’ll take away a bouquet or sachet of herbs ready to add depth and flavor to your next pot of soup or stew.
Continuing the theme of wellness, we’ll be raffling a 5 class RIDE pack from one of our favorite group fitness studios – Barry’s! Stay until the end of the evening for your chance to win.
Agenda:
6:00pm: Gather and Mingle. Set Out Your Dish. Grab a Plate.
6:15pm: Share a Great Meal and Conversation.
7:00pm: Show Yourself Some Love in our Workshop with The Full and Letters from the Table
7:45pm: Make a Bouquet Garni with Gina Provenzano
8:30pm: Barry's RIDE Class Pack Raffle & Farewell
How to Prepare:
Sign up to attend
Select a recipe from the featured cookbook: Ottolenghi Comfort
Check out a copy from your local library, buy a copy, or find one of the recipes from the book online.
If you aren't able to get the cookbook and cook ahead of time, simply bring a comforting dish to share.
Add the dish you plan to bring to the recipe sign up sheet along with any dietary notes. Dishes are listed in the 2nd tab along with links to those available for free online.
Bring the dish you created ready to share with serving utensils. There is a microwave available for reheating your dish, if needed.
We'll have plates, cups, and silverware on hand, plus boxes to take leftovers home.
Meet Our Partners:
The Full
The Full is a connection company that provides a variety of services to address the loneliness epidemic. Our main offering is Dating App Disconnect, an event series that helps people move past the dynamics of dating apps, and return to real connection — with themselves and others. We help people create an energized, satisfied, and hopeful life that feels like a party!
Check out The Full on Instagram!
Barry’s
Barry’s is more than a fitness studio. Barry’s is the global destination to get the best workout of your life. They are dedicated to changing lives worldwide through our workouts and community.
Come to Barry’s Chelsea studio to experience their RIDE class. RIDE x LIFT is the newest Barry’s innovation utilizing the winning formula for the Best Workout in the World™. Barry’s RIDE x LIFT is a 50-minute class offering high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on an indoor cycling bike paired with traditional strength training with weights on the floor.
Gina Provenzano
Gina is an Art Director, Photographer, Floral Designer, Food Stylist, and creative with over 20 years experience and a rich background bringing creative visions to life at companies like 1-800-Flowers, Macy’s, Bon Appetit Magazine, Woman's Day Specials, Family Circle and more.
Hubba Wines
Hubba is Riley (Hubbard) Roddick’s winery in Paso Robles, CA producing gorgeous, sustainable wines made with intention and minimal intervention.
In Riley’s words, “In my opinion, wine is all about pleasure and that is what fuels my passion for making, drinking and sharing it with the people I love. My relationships with family, friends and mentors mean the most to me in my life and my wines are an homage to those people who continue to inspire me. I hope they do the same for you!”.
Learn more about Hubba Wines and place your order at hubbawines.com.
Third Place Bar
Third Place Bar NYC is a series of alcohol-free pop-up bar events in New York City founded by Sam Bail in late 2022. The goal of Third Place Bar is to provide an environment for people to socialize and connect without feeling the pressure to drink - whether they’re just not drinking for the night, taking some time off, or are on a longer alcohol-free journey.
Meet Your Hosts:
Fabrik
Welcome to Fabrik! We are on a mission to uplift communities and foster serendipitous connections in real life.
Fabrik is a home for communities where everyone has a place to belong. With spaces designed to feel more like your living room than your office, Fabrik’s third spaces are vibrant hubs where people can come together in real life, explore interests, forge meaningful connections, and build a sense of community.
If you'd like to come early and work for the day, day passes are available for $29 here.
Cookbook Club
Cookbook Club NY is a community started by Stephh Lau to spread the joy of hosting cookbook clubs. Join the Discord to learn about other Cookbook Club chapters and events!
Letters from the Table
Letters from the Table is a collection of love letters to people, places & times that changed us. It is a place where sensory memories are expressed through recipes. Most importantly, it is an invitation to the table — to experience intensely personal perspectives expressed through food and to share your own.
Sign up for the newsletter to receive periodic letters, recipes, and atmospheric content.
Joni Goldbach
Joni, the creator of Letters from the Table, is a fractional Product leader supporting business leaders and teams in reaching their goals and creating meaningful experiences for their customers. She is passionate about finding and creating moments of connection in her work and through passion projects like Letters from the Table.
Johnny Kamal
Johnny is a Lebanese data engineer who immigrated to the US thirteen years ago and grew up in a food-forward household, so cooking was his best way to stay in touch with his culture. He is determined to bring happiness to as many people as possible one bake at a time, and is determined to bring people from different cultures and backgrounds together through our one common language: Food.
Event FAQ
Do I need to be there at 6:00pm?
It's totally ok if you're running late. We'll start eating at 6:15pm, but if you can't make it until a little later, don't let that stop you from joining us for the evening.
Do I have to cook and bring a dish to share?
This is a potluck event designed for folks who love to cook and explore the perspectives, cultures and history shared through cookbooks, but we get it. Schedules get busy, and it's not always possible to cook something for a weekday event. In a pinch, pick up something to share that fits the theme. As Ina Garten says, "store-bought is fine"!
How do you handle allergies and food safety?
Cookbook Club events are potlucks where we share a meal of home-cooked dishes together. We expect attendees use common sense food handling and storage when preparing for the event. We have a microwave and refrigerator on site for reheating or keeping food cool, but if you are worried about food safety or storage in transit, opt for bringing a dish that is safe to store and serve at room temperature.
We do everything that we reasonably can to make sure that all who come to our events have enough to eat and don’t leave hungry. Please reach out to us ahead of time if you have food allergies or dietary restrictions we should be aware of. On our recipe signup list, we ask that folks list allergens so that other attendees can plan ahead.
Can I receive a refund for my ticket?
We use RSVPs to plan for the number of attendees and ticket pricing to cover our costs in hosting. Unfortunately, we cannot grant refunds, but you are welcome to pass your ticket on to someone else.
Is there an age restriction?
Our events are 21+. We will have a selection of non-alcoholic and lightly alcoholic beverages (think wine and beer) on hand to accompany our shared meals and enhance the experience. The goal is social lubrication, not inebriation. We aim to provide a safe and comfortable space where folks can connect. We wiill check IDs as needed, and folks who are displaying unwelcome behavior will be asked to leave.
The artwork in the event image is amazing! Who is the artist?
Noah Verrier is the artist whose work, Pho, Bahn Mi, and Boba Tea, is highlighted here. His work includes gorgeous still-life oil paintings of comfort food like this in a style reminiscent of the Old Masters. His work is available for sale on his website including extremely reasonably priced prints.
Where can I find more events like this?
Feeling the love? There are lots of other events coming up to keep those good vibes going.
If you’re on Long Island, check out our friend, Aliana’s Art & Writing Workshop on Saturday, 3/1. And she’s offering 10% off for folks in our community. Use code NY10
Keep an eye on the Fabrik event page for more upcoming events at Fabrik.
Follow Letters from the Table on substack and on Instagram to be the first to know about our future events.
And… to find more Cookbook Club Chapters in the local NY/NJ community and beyond, sign up for Stephh’s Cookbook Club Community Discord! We’re just one of many fantastic local groups.
Please note: By signing up for this event you agree to receive email communication from us. You can opt out at any time. Photos will be taken during the event for promotional purposes. By attending, you consent to your image being used in future marketing materials. If you have any concerns, please let us know.