Madelaine Bullwinkel teaches French cooking techniques at Chez Madelaine Cooking School, now in it's 33nd year, in Hinsdale, Illinois. She incorporates hands-on experience with the "why" and "how to" in her award-winning contemporary kitchen. To help her students develop confidence in the basics, Madelaine interprets classic French cuisine for the home cook, emphasizes quality fresh and dried ingredients; and teaches uncomplicated recipes with clean, vigorous flavors.

Since 1995 Madelaine has led small, personalized week-long tours to France. When she travels to Provence, Bordeaux, the Loire Valley and the Limousin, Madelaine chooses a private home or small hotel that best represents the regions culture and cuisine. By combining her food and wine expertise with an earlier career as an art historian, Madelaine is able to offer a multileveled week of immersion in French culture. The pleasures of daily life - artisan market shopping, chateau wine tastings, hands-on cooking classes - are enhanced by visits to places that illuminate each regions cultural heritage.

Using her apartment in Montmartre as a cooking atelier Madelaine began offering week-long tours in Paris in 2008.  These adventures in Parisian living include shopping in local food markets, the preparation of seasonal meals in the apartment, forays into central Paris to visit cookware stores, gourmet chops and celebrated bakeries Tours include a walking tour of Montmartre and meals in the restaurants of rising young chefs in the neighborhood.

Madelaine is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Chicago. She has a degree in Haute Cuisine Francaise from L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Maryland. Madelaine also published a cookbook, Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine. In March 1998 Chez Madelaine was featured in Bon Appetit and in a "Travel to Cook" insert in Better Homes and Gardens. In October 2001 Madelaine received a Good Eating Award from The Chicago Tribune: "Good Eating honors those in the food and beverage industries who are making a difference in Chicago through their commitment, quality, passion and vision. These experts have enhanced life in Chicago with their accomplishments."