AN APPETITE FOR ADVENTURE, FRIENDSHIP

By John Winters, Globe Correspondent

SHARON - Richard Books remembers the time he waited at the Boston Greyhound terminal for a bus carrying the lamb that he and his friends were eager to sink their chops into.

The frozen lamb, delivered from New York City, was earmarked for an important event - the regular gathering of the Almost Gourmet Club. "We wanted a rack of baby lamb, but the guy said he would only sell me the whole lamb," Books recently recalled. "He said he'd send it on the bus. He said he does it all the time."

The lamb arrived. The meal was one to remember, Books said.

The pains to which Books, a longtime member of the Almost Gourmet Club, went to get that month's main dish shows just how serious these locals take their special dinners.

No one tracks the number of gourmet clubs nationwide, but those who follow the food industry say they're quite popular these days. "Gourmet clubs are alive and well," said Jorj Morgan, lifestyle director of BlueSuitMom.com and the food correspondent for Mom Talk Radio.

Morgan dedicated a chapter to gourmet clubs - or supper clubs, as she calls them - in her forthcoming book, "At Home Entertaining: The Art of Hosting a Party with Style and Panache."

"There are tons of great reasons to form a supper club. It is an excellent way for a foodie to stretch his or her skills," she said.

While the clubs are centered on food and its preparation, they often take different approaches. Some clubs adopt a cookbook for the month, or try out different themes. Food magazines also offer monthly supper club menus, giving members yet another option when planning a get-together.

The Almost Gourmet Club - officially known as Almost Gourmet Havurah, using a Hebrew word for a group meeting for a specific purpose - began about 1983. It came to public light recently when Allen Garf, chairman of the Sharon Board of Selectmen, mentioned his membership when the board was interviewing club member Richard Slater for a position on the town Conservation Commission.

Every other month, the 16 member couples split into four groups to plan a menu of foods none of them has cooked before. The menus and recipes are carefully chosen and then distributed to all the club's couples.

The following month, on the appointed evening, club members cook their assigned dishes and take them to one of the four host homes.

Sometimes the meal is one for the ages - recalled years later with relish. Other times they become punch lines, as in "Remember that duck I cooked? You could bounce it off the wall."

The meals are a way to enjoy different foods and to keep in touch with club members. (All but two of the couples are from Sharon; the others are from Easton.)

"It's about friendship and cooking," said David Segaloff of Sharon.

There are some rules: Members must belong to Temple Sinai of Sharon, and all items must be kosher (no pork or shellfish). And the wild card rule is no matter how your recipe turns out, you have to bring it to the dinner and face your dinner mates.

Hence the stories like that of the "rubber-like duck," as told by the chef, Selectman Garf.

"I thought they were going to kick me out of the club after that," he said on during the club's annual summer barbecue. The cookout is one of two times a year the entire group dines together, with the other an annual winter cocktail party. This year's specialty: beer-can chicken.

The meals prepared for the dinners range from five-star offerings one would expect to adorn the cover of Bon Apetite magazine, to, well, beer-can chicken.

Most of the food the club prepares comes out just as the recipe intended. Often, the dinners make for dishes long savored, like the pasta primavera members still recall years later.

Or a dish of steak and peppercorn, or the pulled beef brisket.

"It usually turns out really well," said member Susan Slater of Sharon.

There have been changes over the years, she added. Computers and e-mail have made distributing menus much simpler, and the food that ends up on those menus is different.

Also, about 11 years ago, the "almost" was added to the group's name, and that made way for healthier dishes as opposed to the fancier, more exotic offerings that were high in calories.

"We all need to pay attention to where we are" health-wise, said Slater.

The group does more than just feast. Members have volunteered their cooking skills for local charities and have gone on field trips to area restaurants and seminars to help them take their cooking skills to the next level.

Some members, like Shari and Bob Levitan of Sharon, have been bitten by the gourmet bug thanks to the club and have taken cooking lessons in Italy and France.

Club members don't socialize much outside their kitchens and dining rooms, member Enid Garf said. But once the food hits the table, "It's like we've always been together," she said.