If you’re a COOK veteran, you know the drill. When you come to a COOK demonstration, the evening begins with brief introductions and an icebreaker question that everyone in attendance answers, including our visiting chefs. Here are some of the latest chef answers!

Favorite Frozen Treat

Having worked in some of New York’s finest restaurants and learning from some of the best culinary minds it has to offer, Aurora Wold of Aurora Grace Chocolates knows a thing or two about confections. The chocolatier and pastry chef set up her brick and mortar shop on 5th between South and Lombard Streets in Queen Village after spending a good amount of time on the farmer’s market circuit (she’s still in Rittenhouse on Saturdays AND Tuesdays, fyi!). While you might not find anything from the Mars Company within its walls, Aurora’s fave frozen treat is the Snickers Ice Cream Bar.

Where to go: Come on, pretty much any 7-11, CVS or Rite Aid!

Ideal Comfort Food

You can find solace in just about any food, but the definition of “comfort food” is in the eye (and gut) of the beholder. Asking a chef that trades in Southern cooking like Kurt Evans (formerly of Booker’s and South) seems like an apropos thing to do. When the newly recruited culinary director at New York’s Drive Change stopped in for his class, he not only shared his love for cooking but his family history that has roots in Lousiana, South Carolina and Virginia. Mac and cheese is the comfort food he reaches for, and that makes so much sense. Aside from the limitless creativity, this very basic dish is a linchpin in black heritage cooking that will always have a place in America’s culinary lexicon.

Where to go: Just to Serve You in West Philly

Celebrating Sandwich Month

If you didn’t know, August is National Sandwich Month. With a laundry list of options, you can have a room of 100 people and have well over 100 choices for a favorite sandwich. True to form, Chris D’Ambro of Ambra in Queen Village tabbed the hearty Muffuletta as his. While we associate the cured meat bomb with New Orleans, legend has it that it does indeed have Italian roots. With mortadella, provolone, ham, salami and olive tapenade served on a sturdy bread, this was an ideal lunch for Italian American farmers and railroad workers in the Big Easy.

Where to go: Beck’s Cajun Cafe in the Reading Terminal