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Whitewater Gourmet Club preserves group dining traditions

WHITEWATER — The Whitewater Gourmet Club for 45 years has carried on what has become a lost tradition: family and friends gathering around the dinner table to share a meal, conversation and company.

“People are just sitting around the table eating and talking—like we used to do—and you think, ‘I haven’t done this for a long time,’” said Marge Fischer, a club member for more than 20 years. “It’s a tradition that we’ve lost, and it’s kind of fun to do that again a few times a year.”

The Wisconsin State University Faculty Dames, a women’s group at the college, formed the Foreign Foods club in 1964. The group regularly hosted dinners that explored foods from foreign lands.

The group changed the name of the club to the Whitewater Gourmet Club in the 1970s. Membership soon grew to include people in the community, not just those who were associated with the university.

The club today boasts members from Whitewater, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Elkhorn and Fontana.

The club each year selects a theme and plans four or five events around that theme. Two or three dinners are hosted by several couples at their homes, and two dinners—a Christmas party in December and a summer picnic in June—are hosted by several couples but at only one place, such as a rented banquet hall or park.

Menus for the in-home dinners are planned for about 10 people, or five couples, and each couple attending the dinner is asked to prepare at least one dish.

The planning committee for each event holds a trial dinner about a month before the actual event. The trial dinner is meant to help meal planners ensure ingredients (including hard-to-find items) are available and recipes are easy to prepare.

Those attending the dinners share the cost of the meal, usually less than $10 a person.

The theme this year is Food Network chefs, said Bob Jennings, a club member for about 40 years. The first dinner, an Ethiopian meal, is Saturday, Oct. 17. The next dinners will feature recipes from famous TV chefs Paula Deen, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, he said.

Jennings, who along with his wife joined the club only a few years after the couple moved to Whitewater in 1966, said the club gave them something new and interesting to do—and gave them an opportunity to eat meals and prepare recipes they might not normally try.

The gourmet club does not require its members to be gourmet chefs; it simply demands they enjoy cooking and eating, Fischer said.

“It makes it fun; it makes it interesting, and you don’t really have to be a super cook,” she said.

Fischer said because of her participation in the club, she has prepared dishes she never dreamed she would have even attempted let alone eaten. She said she has kept a number of the recipes made for club dinners and added them to her collection.

But what sets the gourmet club apart from other social groups is not just the food; it’s the people and unique experience of sharing a meal with them, said Darlene Knuteson, a club member for more than 25 years.

“It was the people, the company,” she said of what attracted her to the group. “You’re with people not in your normal social circle. It’s a very diverse group from all different walks of life. There’s very spirited conversation—interesting and informative.”

Membership in the club has stayed steady or dropped off a bit in the last several years, Jennings said, and the club is asking members to invite friends to the events this year.