I recently took this french cooking class with my husband, and we both loved it! Chef Vincent is a really cool guy and a great chef and teacher. The night started with some wine and appetizers. Chef Vincent surprised us with an authentic winter French tradition - warm racklet cheese - as it was the first day of snow in Chicago. For our menu we chose french onion soup, duck magret, duck fat potatoes, and the fondant au chocolat. Everything tasted absolutely amazing. We actually made the fondant au chocolat for a party the other night and everyone loved it. I hope to take another one of these french cooking classes, and I definitely recommend it to others!

(From Yelp...) I loved this place! The reason I am not giving it Five Stars is because we weren't provided the proper attire that is advertised online-apron instead of the chef's coat and burger king hat instead of the fluffy white chef's hat. The venue isn't anything spectacular, but has a very rustic Parisian feel. Also, if our dinner could have been done in 2-3 hours versus 5-6 this may have made my Friday and hangover less miserable.

When the bubby and I walked in, we were greeted with candlelight and the tunes of Nina Simone, Madeline Peyroux, and Edit Piaf, to name a few. Chef Vincent then brought out 3 types of fresh baked bread, fresh churned butter, duck mousse, country pate, french pickles, shaved parmesan, and cherry tomatoes. It took all of my willpower not to go to town on the bread. The best part is that later in the night Vincent was discussing how he wants to start a breadfix service similar to netflix, to deliver freshly baked french bread at home. I have never had bread as good as this-ooeeey gooooeeey inside and heartily crusted on the outside, I would definitely subscribe to this service.

A bottle and a half of wine goes by and we haven't yet started cooking, so we're all feeling pretty good. We then make our way into the kitchen and start arming ourselves with the proper utensils to start making our meal: Escargot, Sea Bass, Duck Fat Potatoes, and Il Flotante.

Il Flotante-We started off making this since it had to cool for a while. My "islands" of meringue apparently were awful since I accidentally let the milk and sugar heat too quickly so it became chunky---a big no no for the presentation of the dessert. Quite tasty though and a very informative demonstration. I'm not a huge dessert person and don't have much experience with sweets and pastries so I found this very helpful.

Escargot-We kind of forgot about the escargot so we had to do this twice since the little snails were burnt to mini coals. The bubby's arms were kind of tired softening the butter, but these were buttery and garlicky the second time around and I was really turned on watching him beat that butter to death. Anyways...I digress...

Duck Fat Potatoes-MMM...this was sooooo good. Golden russet potatoes cooked to a light crisp with duck fat, garlic, and parsley. This is O M G and the preparation seemed easily repeatable.

Sea Bass: We first started by charring red and orange piquillo peppers, chopped them, and added diced tomatoes and parsley and heated the mixture. We then deglaced the pan with a light wine and in parallel cooked the fish. Vincent then added Spanish chorizo and mussels for some added spice and variety.

All in all, this was a great meal and I am confident I can repeat each course at home-a very important quality to look for in cooking classes. Cook Au Vin is intimate and a good substitute for the group classes at the Chopping Block and Sur la Table-you're the only ones in the kitchen. While I did enjoy classes at the more corporate locations, I didn't necessarily like eating with strangers and sharing food. Cook Au Vin was so romantic-Oui Oui je t'aime...

Chef Vincent was awesome!