What do you guys do?

Latitudinal Cuisine is a community of people exploring the world of global food and local friendships.
We organise weekly dinners in London and around the world where we cook food from the longitude corresponding to the day of the year.

Everyone brings stuff, talks about it, talks with others, and shares what they brought.

We meet locally and eat globally; we meet those before us to discuss the world beyond us.

What do you eat?

Everything, as long as it’s from the right area. We also devour the stories that helped make the meal.

Who can come?

Anyone. As Long as they bring food, talk and participate.

Anyone can join the group at any time and suggest new group members.

How many people come?

As many as the host can accommodate, or wants to have. Some people host for 6; others have hosted for 45, and we’ve had sit-down dinners in larger venues for 100 people.

Where do you eat?

We meet at each other’s houses – or any other venues we can find.

Seats and tables and china and glass are preferable. Picnics are fine.

We’re open to suggestion

How does the dinner work?

You book, cook, and turn up with your dish, which you present and share, and you eat a great 3(or more)-course meal composed of what everyone brought

1) We mail our members anonymously at the beginning of each week with details of upcoming events.

People mail back with their response and book seats, as much in advance as they like.

First come, first serve; reservations are binding, and reneging for whatever reason takes you off the list (you can rejoin if you host an event).

This year we start a new rule – everyone must invite and bring another guest with them (This ensures the diversity of the group is as fresh as the food). It’s easy

2) Once the list is full, the host mails the guests and asks them to co-decide the menu.

Everyone decides and declares what they will cook to ensure there are no overlaps or duplications and that the meal is fairly balanced between starters, mains and desserts.

You are encouraged to cook your dish yourself – not just buy it; it will taste better, we will all learn more, and it will generate and spread greater value and pleasure.

You’re also asked to bring the food pre-prepared and complete so the meal can start promptly. It is rare we have a venue so well-equipped that a large number of guests can all cook simultaneously.

Everyone brings a dish. Couples are two people > that’s two dishes please, not one. Ditto wine.

3) Guests present their dish, feeding our minds and ears as well as our eyes and stomachs.

You are encouraged to explore its history and provenance, and share the findings of your research. Increasingly the meal is partitioned into a greater number of smaller courses so each dish can be more deeply appreciated.

4) Everyone tweets (tweats) the HOW-TO of their recipe to #latcuisine on the night.

5) Everyone helps clean up quickly afterwards. The host keeps all leftovers.

What kind of community are you building?

Hopefully a diverse one.

We’re different things to different people. Some of our folks love cooking; some love travel; some love meeting new people. Some people are gastronomes, or run their own restaurants; others prefer the ethnogography, or the semi-socialism and the politics; and others love dancing after the meal. Some people have even found love – we’re not a dating agency, but quite a few people seem to have, erm,  furthered their friendships .

Everyone is united by a love of travel, learning and the milk of human friendship. Somehow everyone who comes is always wonderful – perhaps because the bar is slightly elevated: you have to be open-minded, research-minded, explorative and generous. And you’ve got to love food and culture and conversation.

How can I join?

Currently we mail people both via email and Facebook; in future we will run a separate registration service which will enable people to connect via the site, log dietary restrictions, etc.

You can either join the Facebook group or (better) send us an email request.

We mail out anonymously and maintain only the most minimal database, for mailing purposes, which will never be shared with other groups or organisations.