Dining Club (1) - Le Gourmet Toastmasters Club (Founder's District)

This is a club chartered in 1978 that meets monthly at a different restaurant in Southern California. It belongs to the "Founder's District" as Orange County is where Toastmasters International started, and where the headquarter used to be before 2019. 

I was a member of this club, and it was my annual anticipation for the year-end visit to Cafe Mozart, an European Bistro in San Juan Capistrano.

Le Gourmet Toastmasters Club has a core group of members who are current or past District Officers. Although it never says so, it feels like an advanced club when you speak among so many DTMs.

The special meeting arrangements of Le Gourmet Toastmasters Club are:

1. Restaurant Selection

The cuisine selections are never boring: Italian, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, European, Mediterranean, Hawaiian, Peruvian, Thai, BBQ, ... you  name it. The officers did their best to negotiate the menu within a reasonable of price and variety to cater for special diet needs (e.g. vegetarian).

When possible, the group will have a private room. In most cases, the group will occupy a corner so that it does not interfere with other customers too much. 

I think the most valuable training from this monthly change is that speakers get to learn how to speak at different environments. It is not always that speakers have the luxury to have a seminar room - sometimes we are invited to speak at a wedding, a social event, and this just prepares us for those real-life situations.

2. Dinner Recess

Usually the salad/appetizers/soup will be ready when we arrive, and people start the first dish during the TT session. Then it enters a 20-min dinner recess. During this time, people work on their main entrees while talking socially with their neighbors. 

I like this part a lot as it is not always easy to break ice with strangers for me, and the topics around the table help me know what are appropriate themes for a social occasion. Usually a good social speaker tries not to dominate the conversation, but offers all sitting neighbors a chance to say something. When a guest joins, the host tries to include him/her to the conversation. 

The club history, or the continuation of Table Topics Theme is usually a good way to make guests feel relaxed.

3. Themes

Because this is a dinging club, the speech theme and TT session usually are planned around food, drinks, entertainment, and culture. You are what you eat, and I have learned so much from the life stories shared at this dining clubs.

There is food justice. There is farming and climate change. There is the choice of man power v.s. machinery. There is free trade and national protectionism. There is health diet and see-food diet (eat anything that you see)..... 

The discussion around food is endless and forever interesting.

4. Pandemic challenge

During the Pandemic, it has been a challenge to continue this tradition of restaurant visits. However, the club is creative in two ways to continue its legacy:

First, the monthly meeting is still planned around a cuisine. The difference is, now you become your own chef. During the "Italian Dinner" night, members use their webcam to show what they have cooked and the dining exchange continues.

Secondly, when the to-go service becomes available, some club members will order from the same restaurant. This way, members are eating from the same menu order which provides a different kind of virtual togetherness.

This is one of its kind and I recommend you to pay it a visit on the 3rd Tuesday evening of each month.