Elena is a fairly good cook and she enjoys cooking as well. Doesn't matter how little time she has to prepare, she'll bring a bunch of stuff to a cookoff and it's usually pretty damn delicious. She prefers to bake though and now that her permanent residence is in France, she enjoys taking baking lessons during the off-season to improve her skills and learn about new pastries to make. Even after learning about french desserts, her secret weapon remains her grandmother's Smetannyk recipe. She makes it to such perfection even her dad has a hard time keeping a straight face when his mother asks him which version of the cake he prefers. She also knows her granddaughter surpassed her but she'll never admit it of course. I'm not sure who would win in a cookoff among the Los Angeles Panthers players but one thing is for sure, Elena would put up a good fight.