National dining club gives Twin Cities diners access to top local chefs

There was a short, sharp ding, just loud enough to break through the enthusiastic hum that accompanies a good meal. Whenever the bell rang, everyone quieted down; it was time to hear from the chef.

We were between courses of a tasting menu devised by chef Adam Ritter, the co-owner of the acclaimed south Minneapolis restaurant Bûcheron.

Ritter, who was previously the chef at Demi, a tasting-menu-only restaurant in the North Loop, moved to an a la carte format in early 2024, when he opened his James Beard-nominated ode to Midwestern ingredients with Parisian bistro-style point of view. But this night, he was back to plating 40 identical dishes of Lyonnaise salad with cornbread croutons, nourishing his entire audience of diners at one time.

It was a change for both the chef and regulars, and that was the point. The dinner was one of the first in the Twin Cities from a national, membership-based dining club called the Tasting Collective. Since Bûcheron, dinners have been held at both Hyacinth and Herbst in St. Paul, and will be at All Saints and Owamni in Minneapolis in the coming months.

Founded in New York City in 2016, the Tasting Collective charges an annual fee and then gives members the option to buy tickets to a tasting dinner each month. The five-course meals are $75, and give chefs a chance to cook a bit outside of the box, trying out some new dishes — and getting direct feedback via comment cards and in a Q&A at the end of the meal. Diners are seated communally, with the potential to make new food-focused friendships.

The Tasting Collective currently operates in 17 cities, with the Twin Cities being one of the more recent additions to a 15,000-strong membership base.

Tasting Collective founder Nat Gelb zeroed in on Minneapolis and St. Paul’s “booming” food scene when it came time to expand. “A lot of the types of restaurants that we love to work with, smaller, independent restaurants, where the chefs are doing forward-thinking, innovative food, boundary-pushing food, but also elevated, and obviously the national acclaim that’s been happening in the Twin Cities with the James Beard nominations — it was a no-brainer for us," Gelb said.

Gelb first launched the initiative when he found himself hungering for meaningful food events where guests could interact directly with chefs. He sought out special, ticketed dinners, but found them to be cost-prohibitive.

“As a fresh college grad, those sorts of experiences were way out of my budget, and very exclusive and elitist. It was more of a high society thing than I was looking for at the time,” he said.

Next, he began organizing his own private dinners with a group of like-minded foodie friends. But even those didn’t hit the spot.

“The chefs still had to cook for the rest of the dining room full of regular diners, so they weren’t really able to let down their guard. It was not exactly the openness and the engagement that I was looking for.”

Finally, he made arrangements with a chef at a restaurant in Brooklyn to take over the whole dining room on a night the place was normally closed. “And that was the real aha moment,” Gelb said. “He put together this incredible meal and was just out all night talking about his passion about food, his restaurant, telling jokes.” How many more chefs would love to get out of the kitchen and come face-to-face with the people who were as interested in their food as they were? Gelb came up with a business model that started with a membership, and would fill up dining rooms on closed or otherwise slow evenings.

With the Tasting Collective still new in Minneapolis, the fee starts at $99, plus the cost of each dinner. After reaching a threshold of 350 members, it’ll go up to $165. Early interest has been strong, and after the first dinner at Bûcheron, held over two nights with two seatings each, the next events added even more nights to accommodate new members.

There’s no simple demographic profile of a member, Gelb said. Just a common interest.

“The thing everybody shares is this passion for food and a more meaningful culinary experience,” he said. “We’ll get people in their 30s sitting next to people in their 70s and just having a great time. That’s one of the things I really love. It’s not your kind of elitist society; it’s just the people’s supper club.”

Michael Leon was among the first to sign up when the Tasting Collective arrived in Minnesota. “We go out to all the great restaurants already twice a week,” Leon said. “This is a way to do something different.”

Leon had been to Bûcheron before, but never on a night when Ritter was experimenting with off-menu items like a beouf bourguignon poached in red wine with black garlic.

Before the first dinner was over, Leon had already booked a spot at the following month’s selection: Hyacinth. Known for Italian cuisine, Hyacinth became a barbecue restaurant for the event, with spare ribs joining the lineup from chef Abraham Gessesse that also included classics like panna cotta.

At Bûcheron, chef Ritter said he appreciated the opportunity to hear directly from diners about his new dishes via comment cards, as opposed to finding out later on Yelp or Google that a guest didn’t like something.

When the last course — a Bûcheron mainstay, cookies and cream — was about to be served, the bell chimed once more. Ritter stood at the front of the small dining room to take questions.

They got personal fast. Ritter grew up on a farm in Stearns County, and a guest wanted to know which restaurant he worked at near there, long before he cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens around the world. Ritter named the spot, and the guest seemed to recognize it. “My boss was Marlene,” he added.

Gelb said those kinds of interactions, where diner and fellow diner and chef can connect, are what the Tasting Collective is all about.

“Everybody’s staring at their phones all the time and look at their computers all the time, and I think people are starving for real human connection,” he said.

“Breaking bread around a dinner table is such a breath of fresh air.”

The Tasting Collective’s next Twin Cities dinners will be held All Saints on May 18, June 1 and June 8; and Owamni on June 16, June 23 and July 7. For membership details and reservations, go to tastingcollective.com