Mila Furman was 11 years old, maybe 12, when she first watched the Food Network show “Essence of Emeril” with her mother, Dora.

Mila and Mom kicked back at home on that seminal day for the youngster, as celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse shared his “kicked-up” recipes with his viewers. Mila’s eyes grew, grew, and grew some more, morphing into the size of a pair of dinner plates.

Bam! Just like that, Mila knew what she wanted to do when she was old enough—and tall enough—to stand behind a kitchen counter and whip up a dish for her sure-to-be-enthralled television viewers.

“I saw myself on TV, as I sat on that couch next to my mom,” Furman, now 38 and a resident of nearby Lake Zurich, recalls, adding she and her mother also watched the show Great Chefs of the World together. “After that there was never a minute when I did not think I would be on TV someday, teaching people how to cook.”

Mila Furman appeared on TV in 2020 often as the private chef in Girl and the Kitchen—which started as a cooking blog in 2013 and expanded with the launch of a boutique catering company, specializing in servicing homes in Chicago suburbs four years later. ABC7 Chicago’s Windy City LIVE featured the highly engaging, fun-loving wife of Mark and mother of two (daughter Charlie, 8, and son Marcel, 3) in a segment. So did WGN. And Fox Chicago. Windy City LIVE booked her for another segment. She squared off as one of four chefs in a competitive pop-up kitchen outside a grocery store on the Food Network’s show Supermarket Stakeout.

Furman recently introduced her masterclass, “The 4-Step Cooking Method,” to Girl and the Kitchen fans. The four steps: learn, identify, apply, and practice. The course centers on technique, taste, and efficiency, rather than a specific recipe.

“My goal with this masterclass is to combat the common misconception that cooking is stressful or scary,” says Furman, who considers herself a writer first and a chef second. “With my masterclass, even the most time-pressed home cook can pick up some great strategies and techniques to cut the 10 hours, on average, they currently spend cooking each week down to three, allowing them to focus on the things they love most.”

With Girl and the Kitchen and its punchy mission: “Good Food. Done Right” or, in other words, “Eat well and wholesomely,” Furman has amassed more than 2.5 million visitors to her blog, more than 11,000 Instagram followers, and more than 10,000 Facebook followers.

“I’ve been blessed,” Furman insists. “I was a little immigrant girl with a big dream. I can’t emphasize that enough. Nothing was ever handed to me. I work really hard for everything. I built my company from nothing but hope and charisma. I want to have my own TV cooking show someday; I want to go national.”

“I also want to build a legacy for my kids.”

For more information, visit girlandthekitchen.com including details about Furman’s new masterclass, “The 4-Step Cooking Method,” as well as registration for the free webinar.