On Sunday nights, Ella Shofnos’ kitchen is filled with hustle and bustle. Her and her two roommates run around, the compact kitchen covered in various ingredients. At 7:00 pm, Shofnos and her roommates sit around their kitchen table, sharing a home-cooked “family meal,” as they call it. Shofnos sends her roommates a recipe, or they pick one and send it to her, and she cooks for them. Her apartment in Malasaña is regularly packed with girls’ voices laughing and echoing off the thin walls and the overwhelming aroma of a home cooked meal engulfing the compact apartment.
Shofnos, a 21-year-old study abroad student from the University of California at Berkeley, has always had a love for cooking. Since she was young, Shofnos’ passion for being in the kitchen has been evident. When she was eleven years old, Shofnos applied for “Kid’s Baking Championship”, where she was waitlisted, although her expertise in the baking industry was clear at her young age. She made cupcakes with filling and homemade frosting for school birthdays when most parents would just go to the grocery store. As she grows older, Shofnos’ skill in the kitchen increases. She texts her family pictures of her recent dishes to show off her restaurant-level abilities while living in a city known for its food culture.
“Last week I made egg-roll bowls,” Shofnos said.
She scrolled past a photo of her recent bowl, centered in the middle of the frame and full of a variety of colors and overflowing with ingredients: a fried egg, purple cabbage, and a heaping portion of cilantro all pour out of the portion-sized bowl, the various colors and textures coming together to make a gorgeous snapshot of one of Shofnos’ many vibrant dishes.
Recently, Shofnos’ roommate, Cate Alexander, told Shofnos about her frustration with eating out due to her allergies. Alexander is allergic to shellfish and nuts, limiting her ability to order from restaurants due to cross contamination and other risks. When the girls traveled to Italy, Alexander was thrilled with the amount of dishes she could eat and that she genuinely enjoyed.
“Cate ate so much pasta,” Shofnos laughed.
When the pair returned to Madrid, Alexander ranted to her roommates about how she missed Rome because of all the meals she could eat. Shofnos heard her roommates’ frustrations and decided to put her cooking strengths to use.
“I just texted her when we were both at class and told her to send me a pasta dish she wanted for that week,” Shofnos said. “Any type of pasta, I don’t care. I’ll make anything.”
Alexander was given the freedom to pick any pasta dish and Shofnos would cook it for her. She ended up choosing pasta with vodka sauce. Easy as it is, Shofnos somehow went above and beyond to make it great for her roommates.
“It was so good,” Alexander said. “She made chicken, had some cheese in it, and I think she also made a side salad.”
Shofnos’ cooking has defined her time abroad thus far. Living in a dorm her freshman year of college, then moving into her sorority house for the next year and a half, she has never had her own kitchen before. She feels the need to take advantage of her new ability to cook whenever she can. When she books weekend trips, she looks for Airbnbs so that she can make her own meals.
Friends of Shofnos recognize that cooking is a part of her personality. For special events, Shofnos is always the first to make a coordinating dish. Birthday cakes, hamburgers at cookouts, even popcorn for movies; Shofnos goes above and beyond.
Saylor Bowdouris, Shofnos’ best friend from home, described Shofnos’ tendency to excel in the kitchen.
“We do friend group dinners,” said Bowdouris. “Everyone is supposed to make one thing and bring it. It’s usually like a bagged salad or something, sometimes everyone actually cooks.
Ella always makes mac and cheese but it’s not boxed or anything. She spends hours making it for us.”
Shofnos’ signature mac and cheese consists of a homemade cheese sauce, baking the mac and cheese, and then garnishing it with bread crumbs and parsley. The sauce itself is made with a roux, where Shofnos designates time for folding in the cheese. Her kitchen remains spotless as she cleans throughout the process, avoiding the inevitable mess accompanying the many ingredients and steps taken to make the sauce itself. She even uses a specific kind of pasta shape, a wheel, because one of her friends said it was her favorite.
“I think it’s her love language,” said Bowdouris. “She always cooks and does it for other people. Like she makes what they want for them.”
Shofnos’ favorite meal to make is her pulled pork sandwiches. Back home, she makes her family and friends her sandwiches on special occasions. The entire process takes hours. She has to marinate the meat, cook it, and then assemble the sandwiches, and cook them as well. She finishes them off by brushing them with butter and herbs, a concoction that she also makes on her own in preparation.
“It looks like things from a restaurant,” said Alexander. “Honestly, sometimes it’s better than a restaurant.”
Shofnos attributes her passion for cooking to her mom and her grandma. She remembers growing up and watching her mom in the kitchen. Soups, salads, and bowls were always homemade with healthy ingredients.
“It genuinely is an expression of love,” Shofnos said. “I don’t know. It just feels like a way to show how much we care for each other. When we cook.”
Beyond the familial history of Shofnos’ ability in the kitchen, she also claims her skill comes from the independence cooking provides her. Shofnos is the oldest sibling to a pair of twins. She looks out for them in a maternal sense, invoking her desire to have some sort of control and autonomy in her life and theirs.
“I also think cooking has been my way to both be myself and like, look out for others,” Shofnos said. “I like doing things for myself. I like being in control. Cooking gives me a way to do that.”
Grace Howard, Shofnos’ roommate in Madrid, sees the correlation between Shofnos’ cooking and her personality. Her organization in her personal life aligns with her cooking routines and patterns.
“She’s super put together. I mean, even going to the grocery store down the block, she sits down and comes up with a set list. She writes it all out, takes her tote, and is off,” said Howard.
Shofnos goes to the grocery store at least once a week and uses it as her time to reset. Planning her meals, going to the store, and picking out her ingredients helps Shofnos to organize her weekly schedule and center herself. She goes to either Aldi, Carrefour, or El Corte Ingles to pick out ingredients correlating to her recipes for the week.
“It’s nice to see all the things I want laid out,” Shofnos said. “I can pick what I want. The only thing I wish I had here would be more spices and stuff. I think I just need to go to the Asian market and get stuff there.”
Shofnos has made cooking a defining part of her abroad experience. Beyond trips, the language, and the culture, she has implemented her cooking routine and skills into her life in Madrid.
“We got so lucky,” Howard said, laughing. “We came to Madrid, which is awesome and has amazing food, and Ella cooks this incredible food for us.”