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Each Monday night at the First Baptist Church in Palo Alto, 100 people or more gather for the Gourmet Vegetarian Dinners sponsored by the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community. Started 15 years ago by a group of people who shared a vision of food, lifestyle and health, the dinners are one of the longest, continually running programs of their kind in the country.

Chuck Collison, who moved from Los Angeles to San Rafael and has been sous chef at the dinners for four years, said, "I heard about this (the Monday night dinners) even before I moved into the area."

Chef Gary Alinder has been preparing the Monday night dinners since they began in May 1987. Each week, Alinder cooks a different vegan menu using organic produce, whole grains and natural sweeteners. One week, he serves Indian dishes such as chana dal and pappadams. Later in the month, he tempts diners with Middle Eastern favorites such as baba ghanoush and tabbouleh.

On Monday, Alinder will dish up lentil-barley soup, seitan and sweet pepper goulash, noodles with basil and parsley, braised carrots, sunburst squash and Blue Lake green beans, mixed green salad, trail mix cookies and tea.

"We make it interesting with lots of variety," Alinder said of his ever- changing menus. "It's what most people call good cooking -- just vegetarian."

Though the food initially draws people to the event, the sense of community keeps them coming back. The mailing list for the dinners now contains more than 400 people.

Ken Becker, president and one of the dinners' founders, said, "It's like getting together with family for dinner each week."

That sentiment is clear from the moment diners walk in the room. Ilona Pollak, the dinner manager, greets everyone by his or her first name. It's as if she has invited each person into her home for supper.

"Ilona has done a wonderful job making it a warm, cozy place to be," Becker said.

Prior to Monday evening, Pollak takes reservations via answering machine for the $13 dinner. On average, they serve 60 sit-down meals and box up 40 take-outs.

"I love the people. We have a core group who come every week. It's a nice community atmosphere," Pollak said.

As a nonprofit organization, volunteers are vital to the success of the Monday night dinners. Jane Kos has been arriving early each Monday to help the chefs in the kitchen for more years than she can remember. "The dinners are getting bigger and better," Kos said.

Other volunteers include Colleen and Sandra Corey, sisters who clean the hall and wash the dishes each week.

The dedication of the volunteers reflects the "spirit of how people feel about the organization," Becker said.

In addition to the regular volunteers, different folks offer their assistance each week as servers, dishing up generous helpings of cuminy sweet potato soup, brown rice pilaf, curried cauliflower, carrots and peas and coconut cake.

One of the original goals of the dinners was to serve as "a clearinghouse of information," Becker said. The founders envisioned people coming to dinner and sharing their knowledge and interest in macrobiotics and similar health and lifestyle-related topics.

To help accomplish this, the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community invites speakers to dinner once a month. The next after-dinner event is scheduled for July 1, when Mo-Mei Chen, who is affiliated with the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Berkeley, will speak on "Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms."

During dinner, there is also a great exchange of information and camaraderie among the crowd. While they are eating, diners have the opportunity to stand and make announcements, and even promote their businesses.

For example, one woman sells loaves of macrobiotic bread, freshly baked by her daughter from sourdough starter instead of yeast. And Harold Stephenson announces the next Sunday potluck dinner, which is an offshoot of the Monday dinners.

"We don't designate you bring this and you bring that. We play for luck," said Chuck Olson, a potluck regular. To which Debbie Ferrara, another regular, added, "Every time, it comes out perfect."

The weekly newsletter published by the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community offers space for cooking instructors and personal chefs to advertise their classes and meal services.

Anne Mark, who teaches a monthly cooking class in Palo Alto with Bill Neall,

uses the newsletter to announce upcoming classes.

For Mark, macrobiotics is "an approach to living that emphasizes a way of eating." She sees "food as a means to help us understand our relationship to the world."

Because she and Neall believe macrobiotics is about more than just food, they devote 30-45 minutes of each two- to three-hour class to theory. The cooking is critical though, as Neall explained, "In order to learn it (macrobiotics), you need to cook for yourself because you're the only one who knows what you need."

Mark teaches her students how to prepare food based on how they're feeling as well as the season. She shows her students how to incorporate whole grains, root and ground vegetables, green leafy vegetables, beans, seeds and fermented foods into their daily meals, and she emphasizes the use of locally grown, organic produce.

Mark is particularly fond of sea vegetables, such as nori, wakame, kombu, hiziki and arame, all edible seaweeds. "They're not known to Americans," she said, because you can't find them in regular supermarkets, but they're beneficial to the diet because "they give a large amount of calcium. They're something that could be incorporated by anyone."

Mark likes to use kombu when cooking beans and tosses wakame into soups. For summer, she enjoys arame with onions and corn, and for winter, she enjoys hiziki with shiitake mushrooms and carrots.

Because a macrobiotic diet calls for 50 percent of daily consumption in weight from whole cereal grains, grains such as brown rice, barley, corn, buckwheat and quinoa are workhorses in the kitchen.

However, James Holloway, a personal chef and frequent guest chef at the Monday night dinners, said he almost never sees whole grains when he goes out to eat.

Millet is one of Holloway's favorites. "It's tricky, but not that hard" to prepare, he said. After cooking, "You let it sit and then fluff it with a fork,

like couscous."

Even if you're not interested in a macrobiotic diet, Alinder and Collison recommend two Japanese ingredients that any cook can enjoy: umeboshi plum vinegar and mirin. Alinder finds umeboshi vinegar, which is a byproduct of the salt fermentation of umeboshi plums, a necessity for seasoning bean dishes. He also likes to use it in salad dressings and as a seasoning for grains.

"It's a nice dynamic for bringing out flavor. It's considered a healthy way to go for salt and vinegar," Collison said.

And mirin, which is a sweet, golden wine made from glutinous rice, is great for soups and caramelizing onions, Collison said. "It's a nice way to add sweetness without adding sugar."

Dish appears the last Friday of each month and occasionally on other weeks, alternating with local restaurant reviews. Write Dish c/o Peninsula Friday, The Chronicle, 2425 Leghorn St., Mountain View, CA 94043. Or fax (650) 961-5023.

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