Were Dijon somewhere else, it would be a star attraction. But such is the renown of the wines of Burgundy, the region’s capital city gets short shrift. I love its magnificent Gothic architecture, fascinating food-and-wine museum, elegant boutiques and impressive open-air market. Having visited Dijon several times before, I asked the Travel Office to get creative. I made an open-ended request for an immersive experience, and my advisor (who knows me well) came up with a wonderful idea: a private food tour and cooking class.

Our guide, Marie-Christine, met us in front of the charming carousel in the heart of town. We already knew that Les Halles, Dijon’s renowned marketplace, would unfortunately be closed the day of our tour, but it proved to be a blessing in disguise. Instead, Marie-Christine led us through the UNESCO-listed medieval center to some of her favorite shops, including ones my companion and I would never have visited on our own. She introduced us to a boulangerie selling organic bread; a little-known store specializing in pain d’épices (gingerbread) and a fromagerie dating from 1872, where we tasted Délice de Pommard, a mustard seed-encrusted triple-cream cow’s milk cheese.

With a serious haul in hand, we drove a few minutes to Marie-Christine’s home for our cooking class. She taught us how to make two specialties using ingredients sourced from nearby farms. In the first, we began with practicing the tourbillon technique, a method of swirling hot water to shape an egg into a perfect poach. We nestled the results into cast-iron ramekins and blanketed them with a sauce of white wine, cream and Époisses, one of Burgundy’s most celebrated cheeses (and one I particularly love). Although the recipe proved remarkably simple, the flavors were wonderfully rich. As we prepped the next dish, I couldn’t resist soaking up the last of the cheese sauce with a chunk of fresh bread, table manners be damned. For dessert, we learned to make a locally inspired pain perdu. Instead of plain white bread, we used pain d’épices, garnished with fresh blackcurrants and strawberries: a gorgeous finale.

At a beautifully set table, we chatted about life in Burgundy, and somewhere between the first course and the last, it began to feel like we had known Marie-Christine for years. Cooking classes are a dime a [baker’s] dozen, but ones like this, that make you feel like a local insider for a few hours, are much harder to come by.