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Chicago: Midnight in Paris with CourseHorse and The Chopping Block

Last month I had the opportunity to take a cooking class at The Chopping Block with Course Horse here in Chicago. The theme of the night was “Midnight in Paris” On the menu was beef bourguignon, gougères, celery root purée, and Tarte Normande aux Pommes. The class was rather large but they did a great job of breaking us off into teams. There were three separate groups and which were about six people that cooked together. My group was paired well together based on our age and common interests. I am not sure if they planned it down this specifically but we all really worked well together and I would be happy to cook/dine with them again! 

Our group of five worked together as a team to prepare each dish. The teacher instructed us with each step to make sure the directions were simple to execute. If you are reading the menu and thinking you might be overwhelmed it went extremely fast and smooth. The Chopping Block offered a wine menu if we wanted to purchase wine during the cooking experience or the meal and it was all reasonably priced. 

I have only had beef bourguignon once before and I didn’t really care for it. I suffer from migraines with red wine being a trigger so I was a bit hesitant about this dish but was happy to help cook. To my surprise, it was much lighter than I remembered and suffered no after effects. This was my first time cooking and tasting celery root (I don’t eat vegetables) It was similar to mashed potatoes in the way it was prepared with cream and salt and was the perfect compliment to the beef bourguignon. 


beef bourguignon recipe


beef bourguignon recipe

I had just made gougères on the blog so I let the group work on this one and I assisted. Their recipe was sweeter than mine which was nice to compare. I love that the dough can be used for sweet or savoury foods. I would love to create chouquettes or éclairs soon! 

The apple tarte was a group effort! One of the girls in the group beautifully arranged the apple tarte so I can’t take credit. I prefer a lemon tarte over apple but this one was delicious! I would happily repeat this recipe. 


apple tarte recipe


tarte normande aux pommes


tarte normande aux pommes


tarte normande aux pommes

After the meal was cooked we were able to sit down with our group and enjoy. It was such a fun experience and the weather outside was cold, rainy, and windy so I couldn’t think of a better evening spent over delicious food. There are more cooking classes available through Course Horse that I can’t wait to check out including French Pastries and French Macaron. 

If you read yesterday’s post on the book club selection you may have gathered some of the inspiration for choosing Julia Child’s book ” My Life in France” was because of this meal and experience. 

This post was sponsored by Course Horse but all opinions are my own. 

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