S'mac!

S'mac is an East Village restaurant that serves nothing but macaroni and cheese. If you think this sounds fantastic, you're totally right. Thursday I had the good fortune to take a class with owners Sarita and Cesar.

The not so secret secret to mac and cheese? Bechamel. See, my mom always just dumped a pound of cheese and a quart of milk into a pound of pasta and that was perfection. But as I learned, bechamel is how the pro's get started.

Here's what I learned to do:

Melt but don't brown butter and slowly stir in flour. Keep the heat low as you slowly stir in hot milk (160 or higher). Once it the sauce starts to thicken you can turn up the heat to medium. Stir till it gets creamy, then turn off the heat and go prep the rest of your ingredients.

We made three of their recipes: Masala, Mediteranean and Cajun, each delicious. With each one, they explained the different combinations of cheeses very nicely – cheddar gives the most classic taste, muenster adds creamy texture without overpowering other flavors, american cheese is makes it soupy (if you like that sort of thing) and parmesean has a tendency to burn and only works in a few instances.

Essentially, if you make a good bechamel, you can add whatever cheeses you favor and come out with something delicious. Their recipes are optimized for mass appeal, because they've discovered that New Yorkers have STRONG opinions when it comes to their mac and cheese.

Both Sarita and Cesar are engineers turned restaurant owners. They're both relaxed and welcoming; the class felt a lot like sitting around a cozy kitchen with close friends. Bonus points to Whole Foods Bowery Culinary Center – the intimate set up added a lot, and I would definitely return for another class.

PS – keep your eyes peeled for a S'MAC book in the future!