Croque monsieur topped with bechamel sauce and a side of salad with beer vinaigrette is just a normal dinner for the members of the Elon Cooking Club.
The club, which consists of a dedicated 30 students, meets to create and cook a full meal, normally with a theme. Croque monsieur, a traditional French dish, is basically a fancy version of grilled cheese, using Gruyere and ham. Julien Loubiere, a junior at Elon University and president of the club, used his knowledge of French cooking to prepare the meal for a few members of the club on Sept. 13.
"I've always really liked to cook. My mom and dad are both French and they would make these abstract meals," Loubiere said. "I have a decent palette and I know what good food tastes like."
Loubiere started the club last spring after talking to some of his friends about the possibility.
"Freshman year, I wasn't really involved in any organizations and the idea of a cooking club had always been in the back of my mind," Loubiere said. "My buddies all felt the same way so I knew if I got it started I'd already have a set number of people join that could actually make it work."
Six months later, the club had been established. So far they have had a Creole night, a cookout and a breakfast for dinner night. Before each of the meals, the club discusses what dishes they want to cook and votes on recipes. The final decision comes down to the executive board of five members. Recipes have included jambalaya and beignets for the Creole night, burgers and beer-battered onion rings for the cookout and French toast casserole and eggs benedict for breakfast for dinner.
During the meetings, the members go through basic cooking techniques such as how to properly cut an onion and how to cook a piece of meat. After the meetings they discuss the pros and cons of their meal. They also document all of their meetings with pictures and hope to be able to put together a cookbook to sell at the end of the year.
This year, the club is hoping to try out many different things to accommodate everyone, including vegetarian and healthy options.
"Since we're such a new club with very different backgrounds, we have a lot of a diversity," Loubiere said. "We've had people ask about baking and frying so we're trying to incorporate a little of everyone's ideas and hopefully grow and learn from that."
Loubiere is also hoping to teach some meals that would be easy for students to make. The club is teaming up with Midnight Meals Sept. 29 to show students how to cook a few meals with things a student would have in a dorm and that don't require an oven.
More than 300 interested students signed up for the club at the organization fair on Sept. 9. Students don't have to have any cooking experience to join the club.
"Some kids have experience and that's awesome, but the club is definitely there to teach kids how to do things," Loubiere said.
The club is kicking off the year with a tailgate Sept. 24 before the Family Weekend football game. Anyone interested in the club is welcome to attend.