Barcelona 'grandmas' dish out cooking wisdom. And find nourishment themselves

BARCELONA, Spain -- Once the potatoes are cooked and the eggs half set, Sonia Castel places a plate over the sauté pan and instructs one of her students to grab the handle.Castel, 63, thrums on the counter for a drumroll as Mason Kauffman, one of a group of American exchange students in the cooking workshop, holds the plate steady and steels himself to flip the pan. After a countdown of 3, 2, 1, cheers erupt as he makes the flip, sliding the eggs back into the pan to finish cooking a Spanish tortilla, or omelet.“I was so nervous,” says Kaufmann, a junior at New Hampshire's Plymouth State University, smiling broadly.After each student has a turn, Castel pulls them into a hug and practically demands a kiss on the cheek. “You have to pay for the lesson!”The workshop at Grandmas Cooking Barcelona offers tourists, schools and other visitors “authentic Barcelona cooking classes with local grandmas and grandpas.” It aims to share traditional Spanish and Catalan dishes and techniques that have become harder to find in the city's restaurants.The benefits run both ways. The program helps provide purpose to older people who might be struggling with loneliness, says its founder, Veronica Baena...