When
Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev was planning her 23rd birthday, she wanted to do something totally unique. She decided to cook her friends an elaborate four course meal at Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta. The delish menu consisted of chicken satay kebab, coconut milk and lemongrass steamed Thai mussels, seared salmon and tuna salad with avocado, beets and lemon vinaigaigrette and warm chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Woah, that sounds pretty tough to make! We chatted with Nina about how the big event went, her favorite cooking memories and her other birthday plans.
Seventeen: Happy birthday! Tell us about the dinner you made for your friends. What made you want to book such an elaborate meal?
Nina Dobrev: My birthday dinner was held at Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Arts where I hosted a culinary class, followed by a three course dinner that my guests and I prepared. I really wanted to do this because it's not your typical birthday outing, and my friends and I love to cook! I mean, I love to
try and cook. I'm pretty good, but I'm not saying I'm great. So that's exactly why I wanted to learn from the best. There's a certain type of bonding that happens when you cook with people you love, and this gave me an opportunity to do just that
17: What other plans do you have for your birthday?
ND: After dinner, my friends and I went to a local Atlanta hangout spot called ORMSBY's just to relax, have a good time and enjoy each other's company. I sent a mass text to the cast and crew of
The Vampire Diaries and all my ATL friends to meet us for post-dinner drinks and games. ORMSBY's has a whole area of competitive games, like bocci ball and pool. We had a great night!
17: How did you learn to cook?
ND: I learned by watching and helping my mother in the kitchen. I also learned by trial and error. Even though I'm big on recipes, I love to make up my own dishes and when you take a risk in the kitchen, you learn a lot about food!
17: What is your "go to" comfort food?
ND: My favorite is Peanut-Butter Puffins with unsweetened vanilla almond milk!
17: Do you have a favorite cooking memory?
ND: Over the holidays is when I have the most occasions to cook and
bake. My mom and I went to several holiday parties. One of my favorites was an ugly Christmas sweater party! I took my mom to a vintage store and we bought the most ridiculous, yet amazing sweaters. After that, we spent the entire day baking! I'm not kidding, like 6 hours. I have a giant baking book, so I close my eyes and pick a random page. Whatever it is, I try to bake it! So my mom and I did that together. The kitchen was such a mess, but we laughed so hard and listened to enough
Christmas songs to last me a lifetime.
17:Being so busy filming
Vampire Diaries memories?
ND: There have been a million. This is a very special group of people and together we've experienced some pretty amazing things. In the last three years, I feel like we've gone through everything. On set as our characters we've gone through every emotion and experience. We've laughed, we've cried, lost family and friends, and gotten dressed up for the many Mystic Falls lavish events. In real life, we've done big things like go on trips together — for my 21st birthday we all went to Vegas — and really simple, little things like dinners and watch movies. The girls and I go on annual Labor Day weekend trips — I don't think I've ever laughed harder. We're really lucky.
17: Can you tell us about the new episodes at the end of the month?
ND: There's a ball coming up in Mystic Falls and all the main players are invited. They don't know what to expect because there's a lot of tension and being at this party feels like it's a ticking time bomb. Everyone is on guard waiting for it to go off. There's drama on and off the dance floor — some of the characters connect, for better or for worse. And the last thing I can say is that there are some pretty pivotal things that are said and cannot be taken back. It will come as a huge surprise for the audience!
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