The International Cooking Club Singapore (ICCS) was created in mid-August, 2015, to provide women living in Singapore who have an interest in cooking and learning new recipes from around the world and want to make new friends the opportunity to become part of a small group of like-minded women who meet regularly to cook and have a lunch together. In early March 2016, we registered as a non-profit organization in Singapore. There are no fees to join and no exchange of money for ingredients at the cooking or baking sessions.
As of March 2019, we now have more than 300 active women (plus more than 300 alumni who have moved back to their home countries, etc.) from 92 unique countries in 30 groups spread across different areas of Singapore. A few of these groups are baking groups. Each group has a group leader and usually has an average of 10 ladies per group.
The majority of groups meet on a fortnightly basis (2 x per month). We have a few weekend groups and two evening groups. We also have one vegetarian group, one vegan group and one gluten free group. Aside from the evening groups, the majority of weekday day-time groups meet from 10 am – 1 pm.
The first week, the group leader prepares a meal (ideally from her home country or cuisine she knows well) and does a cooking demo (ideally hands on involving all ladies) for the ladies in her home from 10 am- 12 noon. After this, the group enjoys the meal just prepared over a one-hour lunch. The next session is hosted by another lady in the group (at her place, she cooks or organizing a hands-on session, etc). Recipes are always shared in hard copy on the day of the cooking session so ladies can take notes and learn, and are also shared with the wider group of ICCS members and posted on our FB group (a secret FB group) and our blog (a public domain).
No worries if your kitchen is too small, you can use someone else’s home in the group. You can even co-host a session with another lady in your group. You don’t have to be a good cook to join, just keen to learn. Each member must cook once per cycle (for a fortnightly group consisting of 10 women, a cycle is 10 sessions / last 20 weeks long on average). Many groups find that they have become such good friends that they start a second or third cycle.
Please note we also have several ‘pan ICCS’ events each year where you get the opportunity to meet women from other cooking groups and from all over the world, and taste some of their home cooked delights in addition!
At this point in time, due to lack of resource on the administration and managerial level, we are not adding on new cooking or baking groups. However, many of our groups do have a few openings here and there so we are keen for new ladies to join. We will do our best to place all potentially keen applicants in a group – at the same time we must ensure that each group is maximized in terms of nationalities/ethnic backgrounds, location in Singapore, if vegetarian or have other food restrictions, day of week etc. If we can’t place you at this point in time, you will be put on a waiting list and we go strictly by this list to admit new interested ladies.
If you are interested, please complete this form and I will be in touch with you as soon as I can.
Thank you for your interest,
Michelle Pilarczyk
Founder, Director and CEO of ICCS
