I was hoping it’ll still be Sunday somewhere in the world, but I guess time doesn’t wait for anyone. I had an amazing weekend in Washington D.C. visiting a college friend. For those who were in Chicago, I heard it was gorgeous here as well and I hope you got to spend some time outdoors! I’m very excited for all the summer fun in the next couple of months, but just to document how my friends and I spent winter in the windy city, here’s our excursion to the Social Table in March. Thank you Shraddzy for writing my post xx

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Guest Post by Shraddha Mittal

A few weeks ago, Steph and I took a cooking class at The Social Table in Lincoln Park. We came across the establishment on a rainy Sunday afternoon and, after perusing the website a bit, signed up for one of their classes! At The Social Table, you pick your dinner menu in advance, and then the night of you actually learn how to cook the meal. The menus usually center around some sort of theme. Steph and I decided to go for “Rustic Italian”, which, for those of you who know us well, was quite possibly influenced by our love for Eataly…

Quick side note about me: Up until about 2 months ago I had been vegetarian for 21 and a half years of my life. I recently have realized that my protein intake is zero and so I’m slowly switching over to eating meat. My friends enjoy referring to me as “transitional” (I don’t enjoy it as much…). So, for me, not only was this going to be a lovely evening spent with one of my closest friends, but also it was going to be the first time I had ever cooked meat in my entire life! And, I can say on both accounts, that it was a success!

Anyway, going back to the dinner. First of all, the entire setup was adorable!

This was really the perfect place for a date night or even just a fun girls’ night! We were in a class with about 14 other people. The instructor went through step by step on how to cook each dish while we created it together as a group. He also went over some very basic cooking skills, like how to chop vegetables, while also teaching us more complicated things, such as how to prepare risotto. There were people of varying cooking expertise in the class, some who clearly had never picked up a knife or a ladle before, and some who were chopping away like Gordon Ramsay! You could get as involved or not involved in the cooking as you wanted to. Most people were there to understand some basic things about how to cook this menu, mingle with people, and of course drink wine, since it’s BYOB!

I’d have to say my favorite part of the cooking lesson was learning how to efficiently chop onions. It’s definitely something I plan to do much more often than stirring risotto for 3 hours when I’m cooking for myself… Nonetheless, I had a great time! Cooking in a large group surprisingly turned out to be a lot of fun, and the food, if I do say so myself, was amazing!

Just a heads up, Steph and I were the only ones there who werenot a couple. We still had fun, but going in knowing that that could be a possibility was definitely helpful. I would still go back for a girls’ night instead of a date, since I find it incredibly difficult to look cute in those large black aprons… Either way, it’s a great place to spend an evening, and, for those of you who live in Chicago, I highly recommend it. Some of the events for this month include Italian Dinner Party, Simple Supper, and Vegetarian Table. Maybe I’ll actually go back for that last one, haha!

Thanks for coming to The Social Table with me Steph, and for letting me write about it on your blog! 🙂