Due to COVID-19, this year the French Club has had to come up with a new idea. About 20 to 30 students participated in cook-alongs provided by the French Club.

“Normally French Club does outings to restaurants—Mon Ami Gabi in the fall and Melting Pot in the spring,” French Club Sponsor Emily Fellmann said. “But since this year we couldn’t do that we decided to make our own food together on Zoom.”

So far this year, there have been two cook-alongs in French Club. One in December, where they made crêpes. The second one hosted by French Club was in March, where they made chocolate mousse.

“In December, French Club met on Zoom and we watched a Jacques Pépin video where he demonstrates making crêpes,” Fellmann said. “We all were at our own homes and cooked them along with him. At the end we were able to show each other our final product and also talk about the recipe and process along the way. The members’ families were happy to help eat the final product.”

Pépin, an 84 year old French chef, has been on American TV since the 80’s. He has also written reviews for a number of major media companies, like the New York Times. Pépin has a Youtube channel in which he demonstrates and makes a number of meals, which is where the French Club learned the items they made.

“This past month we did a similar Zoom meeting but tried a different recipe- Mousse au chocolat- or chocolate mousse,” Fellmann said.“This time we followed two different recipes but did not watch a video. The mousse turned out great for most members and it was a good turn out for our meeting as well.”

Margaret Sizemore’s ‘21 favorite cook along was the crepes the club did back in December.

“I personally preferred the crepe cook along because they can be prepared as savory or sweet dishes,” Sizemore said, “And chocolate mousse is good but it’s very sweet and rich”

On the other hand, Victoria Salvato ‘21 preferred the chocolate mousse to the crepe.

“My favorite cook-along this year was the mousse au chocolat, because the mousse au chocolat was my favorite,” Salvato said, “because I had it when I visited Paris and it brought back a lot of fun memories from that trip and made me want to go back and visit France even more.”