April 8, 2019

Cheese Week started on Sunday, March 31st.  But first, as has become customary when new people join us for a week, we went out for pizza the evening before.  The pizzeria is Il Ghittone in Montepaone Lido, a nearby town.  It’s the pizzeria that serves French fries and pizza…the one that has the automatic external defibrillator that I mentioned in a prior post!

Pizza and French fries were child’s play compared the fat-and-cholesterol-laced week we were about to encounter.

Sunday started out slowly.  It was a day devoted to tasting Italian cheeses.  It was meant to be an introduction to the coming week.

We tasted and discussed each of the following cheeses:

1. Ricotta di Pecora (sheep’s milk ricotta) served with orange blossom honey
2. Ricotta di Vacca (cow’s milk ricotta)
3. Pasta Filata (pizza cheese) [Pasta Filata, in addition to being a cheese in itself, is also the name of an entire family of cheeses that includes numbers 4 through 9 below.]
4. Fior di Latte #1 (essentially Mozzarella but made from cow’s milk so it’s not called Mozzarella in Italy)
5. Fior di Latte #2
6. Provola (not as aged as Provolone)
7. Provolone Dolce (“sweet” Provolone, but aged more than Provola)
8. Provolone Piccante (“spicy Provolone, i.e. aged longer)
9. Burrata (fresh Fior di Latte or Mozzarella surrounding a center of shredded, Pasta Filata [called stracciatella] mixed with heavy cream)
10. Burrino (sheep’s milk cheese surrounding a center of butter)
11. Robiola di Vacca (much like American cream cheese but a bit softer)
12. Stracchino
13. Taleggio
14. Taleggio with Mostarda
15. Formaggio di Capra Semistagionata (partially aged [semistagionata] goat cheese)
16. Grana Padana
17. Pecorino Romano
18. Pecorino Sardo
19. Caciotta
20. Gorgonzola Dolce

Between #13 and #14 we were served a snack of pizzette (mini pizza) with truffled pasta filata and mozzarella—just to fend off hunger (right!).

Mid-afternoon we had a cannoli-inspired “snack” made with sheep’s milk gelato (in place of ricotta) topped with chocolate chips, an unbelievable slice of candied orange (not orange peel, but a whole orange!), and a cannolo shell.

After the last cheese, we had a few hours to recover before having a cheese-inflected dinner.  After a couple of statins and some red wine for the resveratrol it was time for bed.

Monday was a day of lectures by Yi-Chern Lee, a milk scientist and Product Manager for Fonterra in New Zealand.  But first…Chef John wanted to feed us!  We moved from the dining room, which had been set up as a lecture hall, to the kitchen where we were served polenta concia.

Chef John’s version of polenta concia was over the top and it was exactly the reason that I did not have breakfast before getting to class.  I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that Chef John loves to feed people and loves to present them with new flavors.  When Chef John is not teaching, as was the case on this day, he is more likely to use his time in the kitchen to whip up one dish after another for us.  I figured we weren’t going to get far through the morning before food arrived so I skipped breakfast though I did have a doppio (double espresso).

Chef’s rendition of polenta concia consisted of polenta with milk added for smoothness.  After cooking it was mixed with Parmigiano Reggiano and porcini trifulata (sautéed and braised porcini mushrooms) and put into individual terracotta bowls with a splash or three of extra-virgin olive oil on the bottoms.  An egg was put on each one after which they were baked and then topped with Lamb Ragu.

Appropriately fortified, until lunch, Yi-Chern started his lecture.  He covered a lot of territory starting with the basic chemical constituents of milk from different animals and factors that affect milk and milk quality.  Much of the day was devoted to discussing each of the possible steps in cheese-making.  Not all of the steps are used for every cheese but we covered all of the possibilities.  I have 12 pages of notes from his lecture.

The next day, Chef John demonstrated one of many possible ways to make cow’s milk ricotta.  It is pretty much identical to the method I have been using though I learned a few tricks about how to keep it creamy should one want it creamier rather than drier.  It’s called direct ricotta in that it is made directly from milk.

Traditionally ricotta is made from the whey left over from cheese making.  The whey is acidified and heated which causes that last bit of protein to coagulate forming ricotta.  The yield is very low so unless you are producing cheese on a very large scale it is not practical to make ricotta using this method alone.

After the cow’s milk ricotta, the rest of the day was devoted to making sheep’s milk cheeses and other dairy products, including:

1. Yogurt
2. Buttermilk
3. Tomini di Pecora (of the following varieties):
   • Calabrese
   • Sardo
   • Fossa
   • Toscano
   • Luinese
4. Pecorino Romano
5. Pecorino Tartufo
6. Piacentum Ennese (with saffron)
7. Pecorino with Oregano and Peperoncino
8. Pecorino with Green Olives
9. Canestrato
10. Pecorino Porcini
11. Pecorino with Arugula, Roasted Black Olives, and Sun-dried Tomato

Wednesday was devoted to learning to make ricotta and mozzarella from Maestro Salvatore Postella, who has been making mozzarella by hand for nearly 50 years.  He says his largest production was a day when he made 6000 balls of mozzarella…and not those tiny little things, either!

We started the process at the beginning by heating 100 liters of fresh cow’s milk.  Technically, this is fior di latte, not mozzarella, since it is made with cow’s milk instead of water buffalo’s milk.  The milk needs to be heated, starter cultures added then rennet added, curds cut in large pieces, curds cut in small pieces, curds matured in the whey, curds drained and formed into a large block, block of curds cut into small pieces, curds heated with water at 90°C (194°F) to pasteurize them and to work them until stretchy before forming into mozzarella balls.

Working mozzarella means putting your hands into water that is close to 194°F!  At my house in Santa Fe, water boils just below 198°F.  Imagine putting your hands in that!!

Now visualize making 6000 balls of mozzarella on the same day!

In any case, Maestro Postella is amazing.  The beauty of his movement with just a gentle flip, then almost caressing the curd followed by three small twists and he’s formed a ball of ethereal mozzarella.  Ours, on the other hand were like baseballs! But, hey, he’s done this for 50 years.  Besides, continuing to work the cheese takes it from mozzarella territory to pizza cheese to provola.

After doing a “play” mozzarella when Maestro Postella invited us to try with the odd bit of curd, I decided to make provola when we were each given an actual portion of curd to work later in the day.  The “play” mozzarella coupled with my experience trying to form mozzarella back at the beginning of the course (in January) convinced me that one or two more attempts wasn’t likely to gain me more skill.  I decided to try to make something where the extra working of the curd was actually a requirement.  Getting some pointers on making provola could actually be helpful in the future if I decide to delve more into cheese making.

The next day, Chef John demonstrated the difference between mozzarella made by Maestro Postella and mozzarella made by us by breaking one of each open.  Ours just couldn’t compare.  His was light, fluffy, and still oozing with liquid, just like good mozzarella should.  Ours really was pizza cheese!

When Chef John pulled a provola out of the bowl of “our” cheese, he asked the kitchen staff (in Italian) who had made it.  (I did.)  The answer came back in Italian and was never uttered in English.  He said that it was well formed and of the right texture.  I felt pretty good about that!

But back to Wednesday.  Maestro Postella made burrata, for which several of us shredded pasta filata to make stracciatella.  He also made ricotta starting with the whey from making curd for mozzarella.  As noted above, this is the traditional way to make ricotta, which means re-cooked.  Maestro Postella used a hybrid method, whey for acidification but with the addition of milk to provide enough protein to make a reasonable quantity of ricotta.

Ricotta is made by taking whey (or whey and milk or milk and cream), heating, and then adding an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar to cause the proteins to coagulate.  It squeezes the last little bit of cheese out of whey that has already been used to make a primary cheese.  You would imagine from this, and you would be right, that way-back-when ricotta was the food of the poor.  No longer…obviously!

On Thursday we started out learning about different ways to salt cheese.  The rest of the day was devoted to the making of cheese and other dairy products from cow’s milk, including:

1. Caciotta
2. Stracchino
3. Camoscio
4. Mascarpone
5. Taleggio
6. Gorgonzola Dolce
7. Cream Cheese (American)
8. Ricotta Salata
9. Caprino (a fantasy cheese made from goat and sheep’s milk)
10. Grana (type)
11. Fontal (type)
12. Crème Fraiche

Cheese Week wound down on Friday with our last visit to the open-air market in Soverato followed by a visit to an artisan producer of buffalo mozzarella and sheep’s milk cheeses.

Back at school, after lunch, Chef reviewed all of the cheeses that had been made during the week and recapped the salting, aging, and conserving processes for each.  Afterwards the four Cheese People went into the kitchen to make their own cheeses.  The Masters students were briefed on the details for our next Menu Execution, our last effort before graduation.

April 2, 2019

Friday, March 22nd was the first day of a five-day break at school.  I headed for the airport in Lamezia Terme and boarded a RyanAir jet bound for Pisa.  Cousin Massimo was meeting me at the airport and taking me to Benabbio to spend a few days with him and Zia Fidalma.

The flight was uneventful but boarding was a bit chaotic.  Though it seems to vary on different routes, RyanAir basically has three levels of tickets:  Cattle Call, Priority, and Priority with Expedited Check-in.  Priority sounds like a good thing since you get priority boarding (there’s no such thing as boarding by row or group number in Italy) until you realize that more than half the plane has bought Priority; mostly so they can bring more than a toothbrush onboard.

Before the announcements start at the gate, passengers start forming into a mob, polite mind you, but still a mob, stretching from the gate agent outwards, filling any possible space in the boarding area.  Apparently, this is Priority but unless you’ve flown RyanAir before, you wouldn’t know.  Till I figured out what was going on (which really taxed my minimal Italian), I was only a few passengers from the end of the mob.

The Cattle Call passengers actually stay seated in the gate area.  They can only bring on one bag that weighs a maximum of 7 kilos (just under 15½ pounds) and it has to fit under their seat, which is likely to be a middle seat since they don’t get to select their own seats.  They don’t really need to try to sneak on the plane early, as happens in the States, because they don’t need to struggle for bin space because they can’t bring more than one small bag onboard.

There was a small group of Priority Plus passengers queuing tranquilly at the gate.  None of them was Italian.  It’s not clear why they’ve paid more than the cost of Priority to get expedited security screening.  The airport in Lamezia Terme is small and there’s not much time to be saved.  Also, the Italians don’t make you take off your shoes or remove your liquids or laptop!  Getting through security is pretty easy.

It turns out that being at the end of the Priority mob isn’t a big deal.  After we clear the gate, we head down the ramp to form another mob near a set of sliding glass doors.  There’s lots of empty space and I get a spot near the doors as people congregate leisurely in this much bigger space.

Once all of the Priority passengers are in the new holding area, the doors open and we walk across the tarmac to the waiting plane.  This is not a regimented, walk-in-a-line-on-the-striped-area-toward-the-plane walk.  This is more like the running of the bulls in Pamploma, just slower.  Italians never seem to be in a hurry, unless they’re driving.  I head toward the stairs at the back of the plane because my boarding pass says that’s where I should enter.  It turns out, I’m pretty much in the middle of the plane (row 18 out of 36 rows).

Italians never seem to be in a hurry unless they’re behind the wheel.  (I just said that, right?)  They stand in the aisle having conversations, taking off their jackets, neatly folding their jackets, putting their folded jackets on top of their bags in the overhead bins, having more conversations, thinking about getting out of the aisle and sitting.  I’m convinced they’d stand there and have coffee if they could!

I finally make it to my seat, still uncrowded and with open overhead bins, but not before a slight, soft-spoken older man with a nice smile tries to have a conversation with me…in dialect.  I had no idea what he was saying and smiled and nodded as I found my way to my seat, hoping I wasn’t being socially inappropriate.

Massimo picked me up at the Pisa Airport and we drove about an hour to Benabbio where Zia Fidalma, and lunch, were waiting.  Lunch was Zia’s wonderful Minestra di Fagioli made with borlotti beans, cooked and pureed, with a bit of pasta (lumache, specifically) added.

I heard about this soup when Zia Fidalma, Massimo and Francesca visited Calabria in February.  It definitely lived up to the hype.  At the table we drizzled it with unfiltered olive oil made from their own olive trees and added a bit of black pepper.  Red wine accompanied the soup.  Bread allowed me to sop up every bit of soup from my bowl before proceeding to cheese and fruit.

After lunch, Massimo and I walked to their garden plot full of olive trees.  In years past, vegetables would have been planted among the trees but no longer.  We picked a wild green, cavoletto, which accompanied our dinner later that day.

After lunch Massimo and I took a drive.  First to Fornoli to see the house in which my father-in-law grew up, dubbed Casa Pieri by Zia Fidalma and Massimo.  The house, 90 square meters (less than 970 square feet), is for sale for €150,000, a steep price.  Afterwards we went to Barga, a picturesque town where my husband’s grandfather was born.  We made a short stop at a wine shop in Bagni di Lucca owned by one of Massimo’s friends before getting to Benabbio just after 7 PM for dinner.

Bourbon is difficult to come by in Italy.  After a bit of Russian vodka, we settled down to dinner:  Fettine di Manzo in Umido (thinly sliced beef cooked in a small amount of tomato sauce with olives—and sometimes capers), purè di patate, cavoletto briefly boiled and dressed with olive oil, and bread.  The olives were from their trees and cured by Zia Fidalma.  The olive oil was also their own production.  Fruit and cheese rounded out the meal for me, though there was also a homemade torta de mele (apple tart).

The next morning we did a grocery run to the big hypermarket in Gallicano, a nearby town, before stopping at the open-air mercatino in Bagni di Lucca.  Back at home we stood around the stove while Zia Fidalma made focaccette rimpiturite, which we ate hot from the griddle with stracchino.

Focaccette are thin savory pancake-like affairs made from a batter of flour and cornmeal with a slice of pancetta in the middle.  The whole thing is cooked between two cast iron griddles.  I declined dessert but Zia Fidalma was prepared to make necci, a thin cake made of chestnut flour.

We did a bit of walking around Benabbio, including looking at the outside of houses for sale.  The house adjacent to Massimo and Zia Fidalma is for sale.  It has a kitchen, large salon, two bedrooms and a bath on the first floor.  There is an additional room on the second floor.  On the ground floor is a workroom, a large cellar, and a garage.  I also got to meet Pancetta, a cat that belongs to Massimo’s cousin.

That afternoon we went for another drive, this time to Castelnuovo, hitting a few garden centers as well.  In the evening, after another nip of vodka, we met Francesca for pizza at Es Vedra in Fornoli.  Fornoli is where Casa Pieri is located.  In fact, Casa Pieri and Es Vedra are on the same street:  Viale Papa Giovanni XXIII (Pope John Paul XXIII Avenue).  Casa Pieri is at #1.  Es Vedra is at #94.

I’m happy to say that ‘nduja has invaded Tuscany.  I had a really wonderful pizza with ‘nduja and the better part of half a liter of wine.  Francesca assisted me by drinking a glassful after finishing her beer.  The pizza with ‘nduja was listed on the menu as Pizza Amnesia.  I can assure you that I don’t want to forget it!  I now think of Es Vedra as our neighborhood pizzeria even though we don’t own Casa Pieri…yet!

On Sunday I flew back to Calabria.  This time I knew the drill with Priority and managed to get in the right line at the gate.  After an uneventful flight home I was met outside of baggage claim by my driver.  As we were walking out of the airport at 1:45 he told me he needed to be back at 3:00 to pick up some other people.  Normally, the drive from the airport to the school is about 45 minutes, not counting parking, etc.  I assumed he might be a bit late for his next trip.  Not so!  We made it back to the school in 23 minutes!!!  Never once did I care to look at the speedometer as we were hurtling down the autostrada!

There were still two more days left to the break.  Other than a three-hour walk on Monday that was prompted by a bourbon run, I spent the two days relaxing.  The rest of the week was actually low key as well.

We had cultural visits on Wednesday and Thursday.  The Wednesday visit was to an agriturismo where almost everything we ate, including all the cured meats, were made in house.  The Thursday visit was centered around a visit to Squillace to see the castle, visit a small shop that produces hand-made and hand-painted terracotta and have lunch prepared by someone’s Nonna in the style of a shepherd’s lunch.

Despite the rain, we did the first two.  Unfortunately, Nonna had been hospitalized and was unable to make lunch.  Instead, we went to a restaurant where we were served a dizzying array of antipasti followed by a revelatory pasta of thick hand-made noodles (fileja, I believe) in a minimalistic, and minimal but delicious, tomato sauce with just the barest amount of porcini and shrimp.  It was truly a perfect example of how less can be more.

Friday was a day off though there was a run to the open-air market for those of us who wanted to go.  I managed to buy a large quantity of pepperoncino picante, which I plan to use to make cured meats, as well as two dozen babà molds.

Saturday was the last day before Cheese Week and the addition of new students to our group.  It had actually been several weeks since we last sat in the kitchen and had Chef John demonstrate the preparation of various dishes.  It brought a comfortable feeling, which several of us discussed later, to sit there and have Chef John demonstrate how to make Penne all’Arrabiata; Fegato di Coniglio con Porri (rabbit liver with leeks); Gnocchi, Spade e Melanzane (gnocchi with swordfish and eggplant); and Pasta alla Carbonara—all of which we ate BEFORE LUNCH.

After lunch, Chef Juan demonstrated a technique for making a frittata, which we, of course, ate, with bread and Roasted Garlic Aioli that Chef Juan also made to accompany the frittata.  In the afternoon we joined Chef Juan in the Pastry Lab to make Limoncello, Arancello, and Liquore di Melograno (pomegranate liqueur).  Chef John sent in afternoon snacks.  First was rigatoni with a sauce of pureed fresh green peas, the sauce for which he had demonstrated that morning.  Later we got White Chocolate Orange Spuma (mousse) with Panettone Browned in Butter and dotted with Whipped Cream!

With Cheese Week about to start the next day, for which four additional students would join us, followed by our final menu execution the following week, Saturday was really the last day we would be together ourselves as a group.  When all the work was done, Chef Juan sliced a beautiful Jamon Iberico de Bellota that he had brought back from Spain before we began the Masters Program in January.  He also served an amazing Morcilla (blood sausage) from Spain made with fat from Jamon Iberico.  A few bottles of wine rounded out the afternoon.

At 7:45 we headed out for pizza with the new students who were joining us for Cheese Week.  Our new adventure was about to begin.

March 28, 2019

With Pastry Week behind us, after making our pasta sfoglia on Friday afternoon (see the prior post), we got together for a pizza party.  This was a no-pressure pizza party… no competition, no judging… we just made and ate pizza and had wine and beer.  Well, there might have been a little bit of bourbon beforehand but if there was, I’m not telling, or I don’t remember, or something…

About pizza parties:  Chef John feels there are certain foods that are so fundamental to Italian regional cuisine that we absolutely need to nail them perfectly by the time we finish this course.  This includes things like pizza, focaccia, handmade pasta, and ciabatta, just to name a few.  Pizza parties are fun but they’re also a way to keep practicing pizza-making to solidify our skills.  It’s a way to be in class without being in class.

Although Pastry Week wasn’t a particularly stressful week, we all seemed to let loose a bit more than we had at our previous pizza parties.  Maybe it was the anticipation of the stress that we knew would accompany the upcoming execution, menu execution, that is!

The next day, Saturday, was nominally a free day.  It was also beautiful.  The chefs packed picnic lunches for us and we had an al fresco lunch on the beach.  There was one little bit of business before lunches were distributed, however.  We needed to divide ourselves into two groups for our next menu execution, for which preparation started the next day.

Each group also had to randomly pick 10 slips of paper out of a box (well, this is a cooking school so it was really a plastic food container, not a box).  Each of the 20 slips of paper in the “box” contained the name of one of the 20 regions of Italy.  We had to come up with a menu that reflected each of our 10 selected regions.

My group was assigned dinner so we didn’t have a meeting to discuss our menu ideas with the chefs until noon the next day.  The other group, assigned to prepare a luncheon, had a 9 AM muster.  We took the afternoon off completely and planned to convene early the next morning to come up with menu ideas.  A few of us did research in the evening to identify the most characteristic raw ingredients and classic dishes of each of our regions.  This was a valuable head start the next day.

Coming up with a complex menu is stressful.  Coming up with a complex menu that meets Chef John’s criterion that it would be worthy of a €250 price tag is even more stressful.  Chef John likes complicated menus.  He also likes complicated dishes.  Sometimes a complicated dish becomes even more complicated during the days of preparation as Chef John gets a new idea that he “suggests” we consider.  There’s a certain gleam in his eye when an idea excites him and, suggestion or not, you know you’ve got to try it when he gets that look.  (Remember the pasta sfoglia from the end of pastry week?  It became one such complication.)

It took us all day, and I mean all day, to come up with a menu that met approval.  We also had to pair four wines with our meal.  We didn’t actually work on the pairing till the day before service but I’ve noted the wines along with the dishes with which they were paired.  Here’s where were our menu ended up:

Antipasto Tris

Caponata with Marinated Anchovy Crudo

Baby Octopus Salad Perfumed with Citrus in a Puff Pastry Shell

Small Arancini Filled with Cuttlefish and Peas on Spicy Tomato Sauce

Pane Carasau (Sardinian Crispy Flatbread)

Prosecco

Table Bread

Cibatta

Primo Piatto #1

Risotto with Peas and Pea Cream Garnished with Mint Oil, Fried Peas, Parmigiano Chips and a Fried Mint Leaf

Primo Piatto #2

Fregole allo Scoglio

(Sardinian Toasted Pasta with Seafood: allo Scoglio = from the Reef)

Falanghina

Primo Piatto #3

Cannolo alla Norma (see below, way too complicated for a parenthetical note)

Secondo Tris

Rabbit Involtini with Prosciutto San Daniele and Sage, Porcini Mushroom Trifulata

Rabbit alla Ligure

(Braised Rabbit with Olives, Artichokes and Pine Nuts)

Pan-Seared Rabbit Loin with Balsamic Onion Sauce

Potato Puree

Spring Vegetables

Focaccia with Parmigiano Reggiano and Black Pepper

Aglianico

Dolce Tris

Babà, Rum Syrup, Pistachio and White Chocolate Sauce, Candied Pistachio

Babà, Hazelnut Liqueur Syrup, Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate Sauce, Candied Hazelnut

Babà, Amaretto Syrup, Almond and Dark Chocolate Sauce, Candied Almond

Gelato

Vin Santo Gelato

Cantucco

Vin Santo

With our menu finally settled just before dinner on Sunday we put together a spreadsheet of all the ingredients we needed as our shopper would depart at 8 AM the next day.  We all went to bed early.

But before that, Chef Juan and Mariana (also a culinary school graduate) treated us to a wonderful traditional Venezuelan dinner on Sunday.  The hard work was to begin on Monday and this was a very welcome treat.

We were allotted kitchen time starting at 2 PM on Monday.  We met early in the day to plan out all the tasks, day-by-day, working towards serving our meal at 6 PM on Wednesday.  We then made the initial assignment of tasks for the first day.

As the focaccia recipe was mine, I was asked to make it.  Of all the remaining dishes I wanted to make the babà and the risotto:  the babà because I’d never made babà before and Masetro Caridi had just taught us how, the risotto because I love making risotto.  Because I was making the focaccia and the babà, it was logical that I should make everything that needed to be prepared in the Pastry Kitchen.  That still left the risotto as an option for me to prepare on the night of service as all the component parts would be prepared by the other members of our group.

I spent three calm afternoons (well, other than one melt-down by a kitchen assistant on the last day) in the Pastry Kitchen (called the Pastry Lab, here).  I made:

1. Biga (a preferment for ciabatta)
2. Cibatta
3. Focaccia
4. Pane Carasau
5. Cannoli Shells
6. Cantucci
7. Babà
8. Three different liquor syrups for the Babà
9. Chocolate-free sauces for each of the Babà for a guest who did not eat chocolate (one of the other students made the chocolate-based sauces)

   

Cannolo alla Norma is really a Frankenstein.  We took two classic Sicilian dishes, one sweet (Cannoli) and one savory (Pasta alla Norma) and combined them.  I made savory cannoli shells.  The filling was eggplant with three types of ricotta (fresca, salata, and infornata).  The whole thing rested on a puddle of tomato sauce.  This was one of the ideas that captivated Chef John after we had proposed a much more traditional pasta (Gleam…Suggestion…Execution).

As for the pasta sfoglia (puff pastry), we thought our antipasto was a done deal after Sunday’s meeting but somewhere around Tuesday Chef John thought it was too plain.  He suggested (Gleam…) that we make puff pastry shells to hold the baby octopus salad.  As we were nearing execution time, one of the other students was in the pastry lab rolling out, cutting, and baking the best of the puff pastry we had made on the last day of Pastry Week to make shells for the octopus salad!

The group asked if I would cover front of the house for the dinner.  Everyone agreed that I could still make the risotto and they would cover my position but it just seemed too complicated and stressful, as well as disruptive for the guests, so I opted to just work front of the house.

I had to introduce each dish, describe where it came from (if traditional) or how we created it using ingredients characteristic of one or more of our regions, describe each of the wines and explain why they paired well with the dishes.  I also added a bit of patter here and there to keep the evening light with anecdotes about the possible origin of the name “vin santo” and a story about Pasquale Caputo, aka Pat Cooper, the Italian-American comedian.

When the meal was over, the chefs marched into the kitchen to give us a bit of feedback (the positive feedback…the more critical feedback would wait till after break).  As they were leaving, I asked Chef John if we could open a bottle of wine in the kitchen (a violation of school rules).  He said we could do ANYTHING we wanted.  The emphasis was his.  I know the criticism, when it comes, will likely be sharp, as it should be (you can’t justify a €250 dinner without perfection), but I also know that his response was an indication we had done a good job.  It was a positive end to a taxing week.

Unlike our first menu execution where classes ended on the day we cooked and served our meals, we had one day of class left.

It was a pretty low-key day though.  We left at 8:45 in the morning on Thursday, March 21st for a “Cultural Excursion” to Azienda Statti.  The Statti Company (azienda = company) is located on an estate that has been in the hands of the Baronial Statti Family since the late 1700s.  The company is currently managed by two brothers, Alberto and Antonio Statti.

The estate originally produced olive oil.  Since the 1960s it has been producing wine but only in the last few decades have they endeavored to market wine under their own name.  The estate also has citrus groves, a range of other crops, 800 cows, and forage for the cows.

Organic waste from crushing grapes for wine, pressing olives for oil, and from cows is used to produce methane.  Much of the methane is used to generate electricity.  The olive pits are not used for methane but are dried and coarsely ground to produce fuel for pellet stoves used to heat the buildings.  The estate is energy self-sufficient, and even sells electricity back to the local utility.

After a tour of the grounds and winery we had a tasting of eight wines, four white and four red.  The group consensus was that the wines were quite good.  Remember, we had a whole week of wine tasting with a sommelier as well as the occasional guided tasting at other times so we’ve tasted a fair amount of wine.

Other than Cirò in northeast Calabria, Calabrian wines aren’t well known outside of Calabria.  Statti is trying to break into a crowded market.  One of their strategies is to price their wines aggressively low to try to gain market share.  Good wines at great prices equals a winning strategy for consumers.

Following the wine tasting we were served an array of locally produced cheeses and salumi with bread and olive oil, from Statti, of course.  Their olive oil is really good, too!

We got back to school minutes before lunch was served at 2 PM.  After lunch we were free.  A five-day break was looming and the atmosphere was relaxed.

The next day I planned on boarding a plane to Pisa to spend a few days with Zia Fidalma and cousin Massimo in Benabbio.

March 24, 2019

We’ve done a bit of bread and pastry throughout the course but for a week starting on March 11th that was our (nearly) exclusive focus.  We also had four additional students join us.  Annie, a pastry chef from the Philippines who was at the Italian Culinary Institute for Gelato Week, also stayed for Pastry Week.  Three Air Force personnel came for Pastry Week.  Each was a personal assistant, working for one, high-ranking Air Force officer.

The personal assistants do all the tasks of an executive assistant, like maintaining schedules and organizing their bosses’ activities, but they also maintain his/her uniforms (and business suits if he/she is required to wear civilian business attire as part of his/her Air Force duties); keep all areas of their bosses’ house that could be seen by guests in perfect shape; cook meals; and plan, execute, and serve dinner parties.  They were a nice addition to our group.  Their dedication and precision were awe-inspiring.

They were always the first to volunteer to try out ANYTHING and they were meticulous to the point of near perfection—even with tasks they had never attempted before (like laminating puff pastry and rolling it into a perfect rectangle!).

Apparently, when they go through culinary training in the Air Force, the accuracy of their dice is tested by passing diced vegetables through screens of various sizes to confirm that they are able to consistently create perfect diced vegetables.  They were all really excited about incorporating Italian techniques and foods into their cooking.

We had a crazy day of demonstrations and hands-on work on the 11th, including:

1. Pane Carasau, a crispy flat bread from Sardinia that I love and now know how to make
2. “Italian” Muffins (Chef John’s take on “English” Muffins—not Italian at all but fun to make nonetheless—and in a strange way not too dissimilar from Tuscan testarolli, of which there are several versions.)
3. Piadina, a flat bread (which we never finished because Chef Juan didn’t like the way the dough turned out)
4. Rosette (Roman bread rolls incised with a “rose” design on top)
5. Hot Dog and Hamburger buns (obviously also not Italian)
6. Mantovane
7. Pane Arabo

Chef John also demonstrated, and then we ate for lunch, a Piemontese pasta called Tajarin (dialect for tagliolini) made with an absurd amount of egg yolk.  It’s something like 40 egg yolks for 2.2 pounds of flour.  (It makes you wonder what all the whites were being used for.  I vaguely remember from early in the course that the whites were used, a long time ago, for clarifying wine.)  He also made Candereli, potato dumplings from Alto Adige that are basically the dough for a potato gnocchi stuffed with a meat filling.

Maestro Paolo Caridi (Facebook and Instagram), one of Italy’s top Pastry Chefs, joined us for two absolutely amazing days demonstrating how to make an amazing array of Italian pastries, sweet breads and confections, some pan-Italian and some local Calabrese treats.

I was pleased to discover that my cannoli recipe was very similar to his (smile) though he has the advantage of being able to fill his cannoli with sweetened sheep’s milk ricotta which is unavailable in Santa Fe.  I’ve even tried to buy sheep’s milk in Santa Fe to make my own ricotta but can’t find a source.

He made egg-shaped confections (Uovo Sodo Goloso) consisting of a “yolk” of marzipan surrounded by a “white” of white chocolate and pistachio paste. Using almond paste would have produced a more appropriate color for the “white” but he likes pistachios and they are a typical Calabrian product.  They also add an amazing flavor contrast to the marzipan center.  It was topped with melted white chocolate.  He made these treats by emptying out egg shells and filling them with the various mixtures.

Colomba was, perhaps, the highlight of the two days.  Essentially (this is an approximation but not far off) it is Panettone baked in the shape of a dove.  Panettone is a very rich sweet bread with candied fruits and/or raisins that is traditionally served at Christmas.  Colomba is the Easter equivalent.  This was a two-day project (mostly due to the multiple rises of the dough) that I feel I could execute where it not for the fact that I don’t have Lievito Madre (Mother Yeast).

Mother Yeast is a pre-ferment made with natural yeast.  It is similar to sourdough starter except that the final product isn’t sour.  Other types of pre-ferment are made with commercial yeast.  If all goes well, it takes about a month to make a respectable Mother Yeast.  Maestro Caridi demonstrated how to create and maintain one.  He has been keeping his going for 25 years with DAILY—yep, daily not weekly—feedings.  Try that without a staff of workers!  You’d have to take it on vacation with you.  Explain THAT to TSA!

Apparently, there is no substitute for Lievito Madre in this particular product and it’s not allowed to be called Colomba if commercial yeast is used.  Nonetheless, I am going to totally hack this recipe and use commercial yeast for my first go-round.  I’m going to do this mostly because ratios of eggs and butter to flour are exceedingly high.  It’s possible that the whole dough might just separate.  I don’t want to have spent a month cultivating Lievito Madre only to have the bread dough turn into a disaster.

If the colomba, and by association panettone and pandoro (which is like panettone but without dried or candied fruit) work out, it might be what finally compels me to maintain my own natural yeast starter.

In addition, Maestro Caridi demonstrated the following:

1. I Cudduraci, a sweet short crust pastry filled with shell-on hardboiled eggs, covered with another layer of crust, and lavishly decorated.  Apparently, this is a traditional Calabrese pastry that a woman makes for her fiancé.  The size of the pastry and number of eggs is supposed to correlate with the degree of “amore!”
2. La pitta ‘mpigliata, a traditional Calabrian sweetbread stuffed with candied fruits and spices.  It is very rich.  Traditionally it is given by a man to his fiancé.  You guessed it, the larger it is…
3. Agnello al forno, an almond short crust pastry in the shape of a lamb filled with candied fruits and nuts.
4. Agnello di marzapane, a lamb made out of marzipan.  This is Italy, near Easter, after all, hence all the lamb shapes and Easter breads.
5. Babà, small yeast-risen breads soaked in rum syrup.
6. Bocconotto, small filled pastries.  In this case, Masetro Caridi used a cream filling.
7. Fraguni, open-faced pastries filled with ricotta and salame that were originally carried as lunch for workers in Calabria.
8. Croccante, basically almond brittle
9. Torrone, Similar to croccante but without the sugar being cooked as dark.
10. Marzipan sweets, basically marzipan stabilized with a little flour, butter and egg white then rolled and baked.  Adding a little baking powder makes them crunchy.

After Maestro Caridi finished his two days, we had a crazy day in the Pastry Kitchen with Chef John and Chef Juan doing a tag team performance…er, demonstration.  They were simultaneously preparing dishes with instructions being shouted out between them like a yodel bouncing back from a facing hillside.

It was almost impossible to keep my notes straight but after weeks of practice with Chef John cooking multiple dishes as the same time, with me flipping back and forth between pages to get the instructions associated with the correct recipe, I just had to adjust my technique to directions being shouted out almost simultaneously for two different recipes from two different chefs.  Also, since Chef John hates down time, he would start yet another recipe while waiting for the previous one.  I often had three or four recipes being recorded at the same time.

That day we got experience with:

1. Pasta Sfoglia (puff pastry)
2. Italian meringue
3. Italian buttercream in two flavors, one vanilla and one hazelnut
4. Pizzette (tiny pizza to be served as a snack)
5. A brownie-like creation with abundant nuts but no flour
6. Cornetti, the Italian version of croissants but definitely different
7. Pasta Frolla, a short crust pastry for tarts

Friday morning was a market day, as usual.  The weekly open-air market in Soverato has really been picking up over the past few weeks:  more vendors, a larger array of produce, more customers.  I will definitely miss the array of foods available once I get home.  I’m even enjoying the chaos of the market.  Though I don’t speak much Italian, and I can’t understand a word of the local dialect, I know enough to make a purchase and occasionally trade a sentence or two back and forth with a vendor.

Friday afternoon there were a few demonstrations back at school:  Frollini (a sweet pastry that can be baked on its own or filled), Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Ganache and a range of Monoportion Cakes (basically, in this instance, thin sponge cakes cut into shapes and layered with buttercream and covered with glaze (or not).

Afterwards, we each had to make a batch of pasta sfoglia (puff pastry).  I don’t imagine that I’m likely to make it again but I felt like I did a credible job, never having done it before.  The first step is rolling butter into a perfect square, which I did by placing it on parchment paper then folding the edges of the paper over to make a square.  It was then pretty easy to roll the butter to the folded edges creating a perfect square.

The butter went into the refrigerator while I rolled out the dough into a much larger square.  The sides of the square of dough had to be the length of the butter measured from corner to corner so that when the butter was put on the dough rotated 45 degrees, the four corners of dough could be folded over encasing the butter but not overlapping.

It’s then a matter of putting the butter on the dough, folding the dough over the butter then going through a series of successive folds of the whole thing, rolling and chilling between each, to achieve a block of pastry with 576 different layers after four successive folds.  With one more fold, you’d end up with 2304 layers but by then there is a real risk of having each layer be so thin that the butter leaks out.

There were no further plans to use the pasta sfoglia.  We were to just have the experience of making it.  It all got put in the freezer while we took a one-day break.  However, the pastry came in very handy during the menu execution that started the day after Pastry Week ended after Chef John made a last minute “suggestion” to improve one of our dishes.

Stay tuned…

March 11, 2019

Forget Fellini, he’s small fry.  (See a prior post).

This past week was Gelato Week.

We started out gently on Sunday the 3rd, belying what was to come next.  We had a free morning then had lunch of Risotto followed by Rolled Stuffed Pork with Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli followed by an Orange Marmalade Crostata (from marmalade we made during conserves week) in individual butter crusts that Ryan spent the better part of a day making.

In the afternoon we went to three gelaterie (plural of gelateria) to taste and critique gelati.  Chef Juan suggested that we sample the same gelati at each shop so we had a consistent point of comparison.  He further suggested that the two gelati be Fiordilatte and Nocciola (hazelnut).

Fiordilatte is absolute simplicity, consisting of milk, cream, and sugar.  There’s not even any vanilla.  There’s no hiding poor quality when making Fiordilatte.  In addition, Fiordilatte is the base for many different gelati so tasting that one gives a strong clue to the quality of many others, including many fruit gelati.

Nocciola is flavored with hazelnut paste—a very expensive nut paste if it’s made well.  Nut-based gelati are very popular in southern Italy and cost almost twice as much to make as Fiordilatte due to the cost of the nut paste.  Tasting a nut-based gelato is a good way to see if a gelateria is cutting corners, either in quantity or quality of nut paste.

We were, in fact, allowed to order as many different gelati at each shop as we wanted.  Most of us just ordered two, with one or two people also ordering an extra pistachio gelato to share.

We got back to school late afternoon and had a few free hours before dinner.

Monday started with several hours of lecture about gelato, including topics like serving temperature; ideal qualities (sweetness, creaminess, fluffiness, yumminess, and stability); ideal ranges for each of the major compounds in gelato (fat, sugar, protein, solids, etc.); anti-freezing power of different ingredients in gelato; basic gelato equipment; major indicators of poor quality gelato; gelato “pre-mixes” (the gelato equivalent of a boxed cake mix…you can guess how Chef feels about these!); and the differences between sorbetto, cremolata, and gelato.

Around 11 AM we had a brief pause for a “grilled cheese” sandwich of house-made Porchetta and Fontal cheese on house-made rolls, cooked in truffle butter!  Truffle butter here is made from whole fresh truffles smooshed with butter—none of the (fake) “truffle” oil.  This was just to tide us over until lunch at 1 PM which consisted of a caprese salad and focaccia followed by pasta e fagioli.

The afternoon was taken up by the production of a number of different gelato bases that were pasteurized and then refrigerated.  The texture and flavor of the gelato improves if the mixture (called the base) is refrigerated for 24 hours before gelling.  The following bases were made:

1. Fiordilatte (milk, cream, sugar, dextrose, skim milk powder [needed for extra protein] and guar gum and locust bean gum [as stabilizers])
2. Caramel
3. Nut base (to be mixed with various nut pastes for an array of gelati)
4. Strawberry Sorbetto (a sorbetto is a gelato without dairy products)
5. Lemon Sorbetto
6. Savory Peanut Gelato
7. Orange Cream Gelato
8. Coffee Gelato
9. Rum Gelato

Don’t freak out about the guar gum and locust bean gum.  Both are really agricultural products that have been eaten for hundreds of years.  The alternative is using egg yolks, which are used in some gelati and which are more common in northern Italian, rather than southern Italian, gelati.  The disadvantage is that egg yolks introduce an eggy taste.

On Tuesday chef made the base for a chocolate sorbetto.  Remember, sorbetto has no dairy products.  When it was frozen it was absolutely delicious.  If you didn’t know, you would never imagine in your lifetime that it had no milk or cream!

Chef also made a “Yellow Base” using egg yolks and mascarpone, which was ultimately turned into Vanilla Gelato, as well as a Strawberry Coulis that was later swiped into a simple Fiordilatte gelato.

As the day progressed, many of the gelato bases from the previous day were frozen and then, of course, eaten.  When I say many, I mean MANY.

Since Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, and this being Italy, we ate well.  In between various gelati, lunch consisted of several meatball creations.  One was meatballs put onto a very large ring-shaped bread with lots of tomato ragu and cheese.  The next were meatballs cooked with sweet peppers and also made into sandwiches.  The third was meatballs and sauce on ciabatta.

Most of the afternoon was devoted to making gelato bases.  We each were tasked with coming up with a flavor of gelato, with swipe-ins and toppings if desired, and executing it.  Executing gelato means math.  There are ideal proportions for each chemical component of gelato and we had to create our formulas to achieve these proportions.  For example, milk is not just milk, it is water, sugar, fat and protein.

The optimum proportions of each ingredient, according to Chef are:

1. 6-12% fat (less than ice cream)
2. 16-22% sugar, of which glucose is not more than 20% (more than ice cream)
3. 8-12% skim milk solids
4. 58-68% water
5. 32-42% dry residual

This adds up to more than 100% because the dry residual is not a separate category but is the combination of anything in the gelato mix that remains behind if it is dried out, e.g. milk solids, sugar, etc.

Coming up with a new gelato formula, then, means determining which ingredients in which proportions will produce a mix of the desired qualities.  Of course, this is only the beginning.  The gelato has to taste yummy, too.  But getting the numbers correct is a step in the right direction.

I chose to make Tiramisu gelato for which I needed to come up with a Mascarpone gelato base.  I then needed to make tiny, tiny cakes flavored with espresso that were baked, dried and re-baked until crisp before being soaked in rum syrup and dropped into the gelato while it was being extruded.  On top was a drizzle of chocolate mixed with oil so it would not get too hard.

Wednesday started with an explanation of how to make Brioss (dialect for Brioche).  These are similar to French Brioche.  They are used for gelato sandwiches.  Unlike American “ice cream sandwiches,” these are truly sandwiches:  fluffy, slightly sweet brioche filled with different flavors of gelato, often three of them.

Chef gelled some of the Fiordilatte base from the previous day and made Stracciatella (ragged) gelato.  Stracciatello gelato  is basically Fiordilatte on top of which is drizzled wisps of melted chocolate which are broken up and worked into the gelato when it is served.    Chef also made Frutta di Bosco (fruit of the forest) gelato (mixed berry gelato) after which Chef Juan made Masa Chablon (a chocolate coating) using white chocolate.

Chef then made his knock-off of Nutella, which he had made previously.  It is simply a mixture of about 2 parts melted, high-quality milk chocolate and 1 part hazelnut paste with a pinch of sugar.  Without a doubt I could sit and just eat tubs of this stuff.

Nut pastes in Italy are truly amazing—and very expensive.  They are basically nuts, and nuts only, ground under heavy rollers until they produce the most ethereal and wildly flavorful creamy pastes.

I had a revelatory moment when Chef made white chocolate crumble.  This is truly amazing.  Just take a big bar of exceedingly high-quality white chocolate and put it in the oven at 180°C until it turns light brown all over and the entire thing caramelizes.  Let it cool, crumble it, and drizzle with a bit of salt.  You will have no idea it is white chocolate and it is the most sublime crunchy crumble for an enormous array of desserts.

In the afternoon we started gelling the gelati we mixed up the day before.  As they were made, they were dished out for the entire class.  Here’s the rundown of what we ate:

1. White Chocolate Gelato with Caramelized White Chocolate Crumbles (see the previous paragraph)
2. Coffee Gelato with a Toasted Walnut Swipe
3. Almond Milk Tea Gelato
4. Almond Gelato with Milk Chocolate Stracciatella
5. Chocolate Sorbetto
6. Spicy Chocolate Gelato (made with the addition of pepperoncino syrup)
7. Amaretto Gelato with Chocolate and Chopped Almonds
8. Tiramisu Gelato with Rum-Infused Coffee-Flavored Cake and Chocolate Drizzle (mine)
9. Strawberry Gelato with Zabaglione
10. Savory Peanut Gelato with Italian Meringue Toasted “Marshmallows”
11. Orange Gelato with Chocolate-Dipped Candied Orange Peel
12. Pineapple, Ginger, Turmeric, and Basil Gelato with a Honey Drizzle
13. Red Wine Gelato with a Pecorino Cream Swipe and Candied Pancetta

We stopped there and continued the next day with:

1.  Vanilla Gelato topped with cubes of Pandoro (a sweet bread like Panettone without the fruit)
2. Earl Grey Tea Gelato with a Dried Fig Swipe
3. Gorgonzola Gelato with a Pear Coulis and Chopped Walnuts

We didn’t make it to the last one:  Bourbon Brown Sugar Gelato which we had the next night after dinner.  It was wonderful.  It was just a Fiordilatte base with Bourbon poured in.  I am definitely going to make this one!!  I offered, multiple times, to store it in my freezer but so far that hasn’t happened.

On Friday, the last day of Gelato week, we had an extended lecture about setting up a gelato business including necessary equipment, layout of an ideal gelato kitchen (or gelato lab, as it’s called here), pricing models for gelato, showcasing and storage of gelato, and some business ideas.

Gelato week wrapped up with a pizza party—just a party this time, no contest—in the Pizzeria with the wood-burning pizza oven.  It was a relaxing end to a very educational, but exhausting, and overly caloric week.

Saturday was a free day.  Sunday started Pastry Week, for which three new students joined us.  Stay tuned…

March 3, 2019

Sommelier Week ended on February 26th with a MORNING TASTING!  Got that?  Alcohol for breakfast!

To be sure, one reads lots about wine experts swishing and spitting when tasting wine, and I suspect they do much of the time.  I’ve always found that a bit curious though.  Granted, without swishing and spitting the accuracy and reliability of the tasting would decrease as the event went on.  Nonetheless, there is a whole sensory experience that happens when you actually SWALLOW the wine that cannot be achieved by swishing and spitting.  At least that’s been my experience.

I was pleased then, when on the first day of our Sommelier Week, Chef Mark McDonald suggested that we actually swallow the wine, at least once for each wine tasted.  I can truthfully report that everyone swallowed every time.  There was no swishing and spitting among members of our group.

The MORNING TASTING started with a very small pour of each of two different vintages of a Lebanese white wine.  The vintages were 2003 and 2001.  Each wine could still age for another 10 years.  That is amazing for white wine!  And, when you consider everything Lebanon has been through it just nothing short of miraculous that wines like this are still produced.

We had a quick taste of a 1997 Riesling before moving onto beer.

Think about it.  Beer is made from grain and yeast.  It’s really just liquid bread, right?  Not so bad for breakfast after all!

OK, OK, so I exaggerated a bit.  We spent a few hours in the kitchen preparing for the evening meal before starting our wine and beer tasting with Chef Mark.

That evening was a new experience.  We’ve had pizza night where each of us made pizza of our choice in the wood-fired oven to share with everyone.  We had a menu execution for which, as a group, we had to create and execute a multi-course menu.  We had a pizza and cocktail night where, in teams of two, we had to devise a cocktail and a pizza that paired together and execute both in ten minutes!

On the last day of Sommelier Week however, we each had to make a first course for 18 people.  These got executed in succession.  One student made a soup, another risotto.  The rest of us made pasta…starting by making the pasta by hand that morning.

In the lead-up to Pasta Night, each of us had to submit three different options for what we wanted to make.  The Chefs then got to decide which we would make.  We were informed of our choices in the morning and had to set about preparing everything for that evening’s dinner.

I got to make Pasta Alla Chitarra with Mussels in Tomato Sauce with Pepperoncino.  My other options were Linguine with Clams in White Sauce and Lasagna Bolognese.  I have become enamored of the chitarra (see below).

Chitarra is the Italian word for guitar.  It is also the word for a device that is used to cut pasta using guitar strings.  It fascinates me far more than cutting pasta using a pasta machine.  Apparently, the chitarra cuts the edges of the pasta more sharply causing a different reaction with the sauce than is obtained using a pasta machine (Italians are truly food obsessed and discussions like this are not uncommon, even among non-chefs).

After each of us made and served our Primo Piatto (First Course, which can be pasta, risotto, or soup), the chefs each created a pasta.  Each chef, that is, except Chef John (who runs the school) and Chef Chris who was planning on making a Barley Risotto (Orzotto) which got shelved until Saturday dinner due to time constraints.  Chef Juan’s Chocolate Dessert Lasagna is the headline photo for this post.

It was a lazy few days after Pasta Night.  We had two days off followed by a slow Friday followed by another day off.

On Wednesday, the day after Pasta Night, eight of us hired a driver to take us to Pizzo and Tropea.  They are wonderful towns on the west coast of Calabria.  Both are also largely closed this time of year.

Pizzo is known for its Grotto Church, carved into the rock.  It was closed, though we did manage to snap a few pictures through the metal bars before leaving.

We stopped for gelato across the street where the proprietor offered to call the manager of the church to see if he would open for the Americans.  Oh, if we had only come two days later when he had different hours it would have been possible.  (Possible only in the sense that the official schedule said the hours were longer starting March 1st, not necessarily that the official schedule would be adhered to [see below].)

After gelato, we met our driver who, before taking us to Tropea, asked us if we wanted to stop at the castle in Pizzo, telling us that it was open.  We agreed.  The castle, however, was not open even though the signage indicated it should have been open (see above).  The benefit, though, was that the castle, unlike the church, was near the piazza, which we otherwise might have missed, and where we had a wonderful al fresco lunch before heading to Tropea.

I had fileja (a local pasta not unlike strozzapreti, but thicker) with a sauce of ‘nduja and tomato.

Tropea was also, largely, closed.  There is a small Alimentari (food shop) that several members of our group had been to on a prior visit but it was closed when we arrived.  Since most businesses in Calabria (except restaurants) close from 1 to 4 (or 5) it wasn’t clear whether the shop was closed for the season or for the afternoon.

Lucky for us, the Alimentari was just closed for the afternoon.  After padding around Tropea, and finding a crumbing building perched on a bluff overlooking the sea that needed to be purchased and rehabbed, we discovered that the shop was open.  I bought two ‘nduja salami and a big package of pepperoncino.

Our luck did not hold out with the restaurant where we wanted to have dinner so, around 5 PM we headed back to the school where we had dinner prepared by Chef Chris.

Thursday was another free day.  The chefs made us an amazing brunch.  Mariana started us off with Blood Orange Mimosas made from freshly squeezed blood oranges.  This was followed by Eggs Benedict on Homemade English Muffins accompanied by Home Fries.  Next came Waffles with Market-Fresh Strawberries and Whipped Cream.

I opted for a 2 hour and 45 minute walk in the afternoon which included exploration of the hypermarket, Paoletti, in the nearby seaside town of Montepaone Lido.

Friday morning was a trip to the market followed by a free afternoon.  After the market in Soverato, we went to a restaurant supply store in Catanzaro Lido and then to the Guglielmo store.

Guglielmo is a local coffee roaster, the fourth largest in Italy.  Between the restaurant supply store and the Guglielmo store, I made quite a shopping haul.  Frank had taken my previous purchases (2 VERY LARGE sauté pans for pasta, 5 cookbooks, silicone molds, plastic drying racks for pasta and cheese, and four jars of spicy condiments) back to the States leaving me with more free space in my suitcase.

On Friday I bought a chitarra for pasta (see above); a press for fruits and vegetables (but also used at the school for octopus and terrines); a specially coated twine used for cured meats (much better than the butcher’s twine available in the States); plastic inserts for canning jars to keep the contents submerged under brine, vinegar, or oil; and porcelain espresso cups made to look like the flimsy disposable plastic cups used throughout Italy.

Saturday was another free day.  I was in the kitchen, however, experimenting on a focaccia recipe and making a batch of Carne Adovada thanks to Frank who brought New Mexico red chile on his recent visit.

Whenever we discuss the high quality of raw ingredients available in Italy, Chef John often points to the poor distribution system which means that most food is hyper-local.  International foods are in very short supply but if you can content yourself with Italian food, the hyper-local nature of the food supply means that meals are based on super-good and largely local ingredients.  Seasonality is a way of life.  Italians eat what is in season.  Not only is it better, it is cheaper.  For example artichokes are now 10 for €4, less than half of what they were just a couple of weeks ago.

As Chef John says, “Italy is blessed with poor distribution.”

February 27, 2019

I feel like I’m living in a Fellini movie.  Consumption of food and alcohol has reached amazing proportions.  Take Monday for example.

Monday, February 25, 2019 was day five of our sommelier training.  Sommelier days started in the kitchen with food preparation and consumption and ended with about three to four hours of wine tasting (followed by dinner…and more wine!).

The previous night, Sunday, we went out for pizza, drinks and karaoke so Monday started at the unusually late hour of 10:00 AM (except for those of us who had signed up for baking duty).

In the kitchen at 10 AM Chef John immediately prepared a plate of Tortino di Semolino (similar to semolina gnocchi but cut into larger pieces) accompanied by a fried egg, steamed spinach, tomato sauce and feta cheese.  Next we had a bowl of tripe stewed in tomato sauce, topped with battered and fried onion rings and seared foie gras and accompanied by crostata.  Following that was Bavette (similar to linguine) with a sauce of baby octopus and tomato sauce and plated with octopus carpaccio.

At this point it was now noon.  Only two hours had passed and we had consumed a day’s worth of food.

Shortly after noon we were served maltagliati pasta with braised oxtail, fava beans, rosemary oil and Parmesan cheese.  This was followed by a “milkshake” made of housemade fior di latte gelato, heavy cream and bourbon vanilla paste!  Now it was shortly after 12:30.

We were turned over to Chef Juan for a lecture on food costing during the height of our postprandial somnolence.  At 2:15 we went into our fifth day of wine tasting with Chef Mark.

We tasted only four wines, a very short list compared to the other days, as Chef Mark was making a five-course wine-pairing dinner for us that evening.  The afternoon wines were paired with a dish of boned quail stuffed with truffle-and-cream laced bread stuffing, seared in a mixture of olive oil and lardo di colonnata, served with a potato and celery root puree, matchstick beets, seared cauliflower, pomegranate syrup and pomegranate.  The idea was to evaluate how each of the wines paired with this very complex dish.  (Generally not well, is the answer.)

Blessedly, we had a few hours off so that Chef Mark could cook.  Around 4:30 I headed to my suite.  At 5:00, I decided to take a quick nap, thinking I really wouldn’t sleep.  When my alarm went off at 7:00 I couldn’t figure out why the alarm was sounding before the sun had risen.  It took me a few moments to realize it was evening and I had to be at dinner at 7:30.

 

Dinner was a five-course meal that was NOT Italian but that was designed to explore wine pairings.  The first course was an Indonesian-inspired shrimp curry in coconut milk.  Next was a vegetarian plate of broccoli and cauliflower, each prepared three ways including pureed, pickled, and cooked.  Next was Mexican-inspired albondigas soup in a very flavorful broth made from house-cured pancetta and multiple types of dried chile.  The main course was chicken thighs braised in beer.  The braising liquid was used as the base for a peanut mole.  The dish was served with a cornbread that was very much like a corn pudding.  Dessert was a tris of gorgonzola:  gorgonzola cheesecake sprinkled with chopped pistachios, shortbread with a gorgonzola cream sauce and a sweetened pistachio puree, and a ball of gorgonzola with orange blossom honey.  Each dish was accompanied by a different wine, except for the chicken which was accompanied by the same beer I which it was cooked.

Doesn’t this sound like a Fellini movie???

This is pretty much how the previous four days had gone, as well.  The first day of this week-long session was Thursday the 21st.  It was the first day after our five-day break.  In the morning we went to the market in Catanzaro Lido.  Frank was still with me.  We were looking at the stall of a vendor selling ceramic and terra cotta wares.

I was quoted a price of €10 for a ceramic spoon rest.  I thought it was expensive compared to other similar items that actually had price tags.  I was about to leave when an Italian woman came up and began a very animated conversation with us.  I told her, in my limited Italian, that I was a student at the culinary institute.  The conversation continued for a while with me struggling to understand and respond.  Then she pointed out a two-part terra cotta contraption meant to hold a candle to heat ‘nduja in a small terra cotta bowl.  The warm ‘nduja was to be spread on bruschetta.  I confirmed that I loved ‘nduja.  She told the vendor to give us a good price so I took the plunge and said I’d take the spoon rest and ‘nduja warmer, expecting to be quoted something like €25.  Instead, the price for both was €13!

When Frank and I wrapped up shopping, we sat at a nearby bar (a “bar” is a coffee bar in Italy) having espresso.  Teresa, our new friend from the market, came by and said she was buying us another round of coffee.  She did so and briefly sat with us.  She is a commanding presence.  Despite being very lively, she spoke Italian (to us) clearly and slowly so that I understood almost everything, learning about her children who are living in Russia, for example.

Following the market, we went to Scolacium Archaeological Park.  The area of the park was originally inhabited by the Greeks, followed by the Romans, followed by… you get it, the usual story of Italy!  It was discovered when the owner was working on his olive grove.

Back at school, lunch was a multi-course affair that included rabbit, which Frank loved.  (Don’t tell his mother!  He’s convinced her that he doesn’t like rabbit which, of course, isn’t true.  He’s also convinced her he doesn’t like fish and soup which also isn’t true.)

That afternoon was our first session with Chef Mark McDonald, who is also a sommelier.  We were instructed in a method to analyze wine, and tasted five different wines.  I’m sad to say I didn’t make any notes about dinner, nor did I take any pictures so it’s lost.  I know for sure that I didn’t have any wine!

The next morning, we started with hands-on in the kitchen.  Afterwards,  Chef John used many of the ingredients we had prepped to make dishes for us to eat.  I took the lead on making spinach pici.  Pici are thin, rolled pasta similar in length to spaghetti but a little thicker, and hand rolled.  As I write this, the pici have not shown up on any plate served to us.  Sometimes the Chefs eat the food, sometimes it has to be disposed of—but rarely—sometimes it appears weeks later!

First to be prepared and served was Broccoli Rabe and (huge balls of) Burrata and dressed with extra-virgin olive oil (we go through gallons per week), lemon juice, anchovies and garlic all blitzed in a food processor.  Following that we had a riff on a Sicilian dish, Pasta alla Sarde, but made with anchovies which Chef John prefers to sardines.  We tasted house-cured Bottarga and then moved on to an exceedingly complex Zuppa di Pesce (fish soup).

To make the fish soup, Chef John first made a light Fish Stock from bones and heads with some veggies and tomato puree.  He cooked mussels and added the cooking liquid to the broth which was ultimately frapped and strained before using.  He baked whole langostino after coating the tails in seasoned breadcrumbs.  He sautéed shrimp in shrimp butter which was made by combining equal parts butter and fresh, whole shrimp and cooking and mashing till the shrimp started to crackle and brown after which the butter was strained and the shrimp discarded.  He cooked branzino (sea bass) filets in butter.  Then, and only then, was the soup assembled.  Into the bowls went mussels, branzino, shrimp, and fish broth.  On top went the langostino.  A piece of focaccia was artistically inserted along the side.

The soup was followed by lolipopped frogs’ legs (that we had previously prepped and which had been frozen for a couple of weeks) cooked in brown butter then doused with prosecco.  After the frogs’ legs he made Sarde in Saor, a Venetian dish of floured and deep-fried sardines layered with an onion mixture.  The onion mixture is made by cooking lots of thinly sliced onion in lots and lots of olive oil.  When soft, vinegar and sugar and raisins are added.  Mercifully, this dish needed to marinate so it didn’t get served until dinner.

Chef also demonstrated how to make conserved tuna and his version of eggplant parmigiana.  The parmigiana also appeared at dinner.  The tuna is in jars waiting for another day!

At this point, Chef Mark got us for an afternoon of wine tasting.  We tasted seven wines before I took a pre-dinner nap!

The next day, February 23rd, started with making two breads: Honey Bread and Butter Bread.  Both would end up on plates over the next two days, most notably, the butter bread was used to make soft-shell crab sandwiches!

Chef then made, and we ate, fish tartare with crispy fish skin.  Following this was a beautiful octopus carpaccio (the extra of which would be served on the 25th along with pasta and a sauce of baby octopus).  Chef then made two different olio cotura dishes, one salmon and one spatula.  Spatula is a long fish with nasty sharp teeth that looks like a barracuda.  Olio cotura basically involves poaching something in oil.  We ate both of these later in the day served with a caper foam that Chef Juan whipped up.

The day in the kitchen ended with Vitello Tonnato, traditionally thinly sliced cold poached veal served with a tuna fish mayonnaise and capers.  Rather than poach the veal, Chef cooked it sous vide.  The small amount of liquid from the sous vide was incorporated into the mayonnaise along with house-cured tuna.  After the Vitello Tonnato we had Tomato Soup made from house-canned tomato puree followed by Milanese, thinly sliced veal or beef, breaded and fried in CLARIFIED BUTTER!  We went to the dining room for lunch (yes, lunch) of pasta with a sauce of pureed house cured and smoked salmon and cream.

Chef Mark then started an afternoon of wine tasting.  I think we had six wines based on my notes.

On the 24th, Chef demonstrated the cooking of the oxtail that was served on the 25th with pasta and fava beans.  He also started the baby octopus sauce for the next day.  With those demos out of the way, he cooked something that was served to us:  Chick Peas with Infused Olive Oil, the kind of simple peasant food that I love!

We then had Tuna Croquettes served with the Shrimp Demi followed by sausages made of Baccala (salted cod) [for which Chef Juan stood in the back of the kitchen for over an hour stuffing tiny, tiny casings using a funnel and his fingers] served with polenta and Salsa Livornese!  We made two kinds of Arancini but after I deep-fried the first batch, the remainder were put away for another day (sometimes restraint shows through but not often!).

Chef started the tripe that was served the next day as well as his take on Buffalo Wings, involving turkey wings, pepperoncino picante and 20 hours of sous vide before the cooking liquid got turned into a sauce using ‘nduja and butter!  These didn’t make it to the table until the afternoon of the 26th when they were served with a beer tasting headed up by Chef Mark.

Chef demonstrated the preparation of the quail that would end up on a tasting plate the next day (truffle stuffing, seared in olive oil and lardo di colonnata, etc…).  The day in the kitchen ended with battered and fried soft-shell crabs served on butter bread with tomato sauce and cheese!

Chef Mark’s wine tasting involved five wines.  We had a few hours to recover before going out for pizza, karaoke and alcohol.  The school paid for the first round of drinks for everyone.  A few of us then ordered another drink not knowing that Chef Mark would buy bottles of liquor for the table!  I was among those with the smallest alcohol consumption that evening (three Jack Daniels’, two Obans, two Rums, and about 3 or 4 Gins—one of which involved a bottle being poured into my mouth [well, mostly onto my face] while on the dance floor).

You now understand why the next day started at 10 AM instead of 9 AM

February 20, 2019

I am sitting in the servants’ quarters as I write this.  The servants’ quarters of a palazzo in Matera.  The Palazzo Gattini, in Piazza Duomo, is now a luxury hotel.  Around the corner and down some stairs are the former servants’ quarters, now turned into short-term rentals.  Ours is in Dimora Santa Barbara hosted by a wonderful father-son duo, Angelo and Ivan.

I couldn’t be happier.  The suite is massive; definitely bigger than my first house.  It has a separate fully-equipped kitchen, a large salon set up as both a living and dining room, a bedroom that is up a flight of stairs and overlooks the living room, and a bathroom.

The floors are marble and granite, the furnishings are antique, and the lighting is soft.  It is also blissfully quiet.  I could spend weeks, perhaps months, here but, unfortunately, it will only last two days.

Let me fill you in on what has happened since my last blog post.

The week of conserves and mixology ended on February 15th with what was billed as a “Pizza Party.”  Ha! It was not a party, it was a contest.  At the end, everyone was hungry because every two students made one small pizza, half of which was eaten by the judges.

We were randomly assigned to teams of two.  Tommy Palmer and I were a team.  The premise was that each team had to create a pizza from a basket of ingredients that would change from team to team using a maximum of five ingredients, not including the crust, and pair it with a creative cocktail using a maximum of five ingredients, not including garnishes, from a well-stocked bar.  The clincher was that we would have 10 minutes to make and bake the pizza and create the cocktail after we were given our basket of ingredients!

Once the ground rules were laid out, each team was given time to discuss cocktails with our mixologist, Agelos.  The conversation happened at the bar inside the school.  When our turn came, Tommy and I each took a seat at a bar stool and Agelos stood behind the bar.  He offered us each a shot.  We accepted.  He poured one for himself too.  We talked about strategy for pairing cocktails with pizza and how to have a plan that could be finalized and executed within the allotted 10 minutes.

Tommy and I then went off to discuss how we were going to tackle the task, knowing what ingredients we had to work with at the bar but not knowing what we had to work with for the pizza.  We also decided that Tommy would make the cocktail and I would make the pizza.

We had a couple of free hours before we had to assemble at 5 to start the contest.  About 4:45 my husband, Frank, arrived with Great Aunt Fidalma and cousins Massimo and Francesca from Tuscany.  They had all met up at the airport in Lamezia and driven to the school together.

Chef John saw that they were well-fed with house-cured meats, small sandwiches and pizza while we had our contest.

Tommy and I had decided that our theme would be Southern Italian.  That meant we would do a spicy pizza based on whatever spicy ingredients were available (it was unthinkable that there wouldn’t be at least ONE spicy ingredient) and that our cocktail would have citrus for which Southern Italy is well known.

We were introduced to our basket of ingredients by Chef John.  We had Bomba Calabrese, pickled pepperoncini, thinly sliced scallions, pizza cheese, Pecorino Romano cheese, anchovies, and sgombro (mackerel) that had been delicately braised.  We also learned that the two minutes Chef John took to explain our ingredients were deducted from our 10-minute allotment.  We now had 8 minutes to make a pizza and a cocktail.

I was hoping for arugula and pepperoncino oil so that I could top the pizza with something fresh that would also scream Southern Italy but it wasn’t to be.

Tommy went off to make the cocktail: one part lemon syrup, one part Aperol, and two parts gin stirred with ice, poured into a large ice-filled wine glass, topped with prosecco, sprayed with lemon and orange oil from freshly cut peels, and garnished with basil.

For the pizza, I stirred Bomba Calabrese into the tomato puree to evenly disperse the heat.  I rolled out the crust, topped it with the sauce, pizza cheese (pasta filata) and a small amount of Pecorino.  Thinly sliced onions were the closest I was going to come to a vegetable so those got added.  When the pizza came out of the oven, I topped it with small bits of scombro for my best attempt at a delicate freshness.  I avoided the anchovies as being too strong and the pickled pepperoncini as being to acidic.

Although Tommy and I didn’t win, Chef John held up a slice of the pizza to display, describing it as a perfectly baked pizza (smile).  Many of the students came up to Tommy and told him that they could have drunk our cocktail “all night.”

When the contest was over, a few of the students baked pies that were shared but these still didn’t satisfy everyone’s hunger.  So, while Agelos set about making a dirty vodka martini for Frank, with the dirty part being a few drops of Bomba Calabrese oil and a few drops of rosemary-infused extra virgin olive oil floating on top, Chef Juan and Ryan set about making a kilo of spaghetti con aglio e olio.  It went so fast that a second kilo followed immediately behind!

When the evening was over, a few of us ended up in Agelos’ suite drinking and talking until 3 AM.  Agelos was still raring to go but the rest of us were anxious to get some sleep.

The next morning, I had breakfast with the relatives while Frank slept.  Not only was he time-shifted by 8 hours, he hadn’t slept for 40 hours before our 3 AM curfew!

Mid-morning we headed to Soverato Dolci for coffee and pastries before driving to Serra San Bruno in the mountains.  The museum was closed so we headed back down the mountain to “il mare” (the sea) where it was warmer.  We had a very nice lunch at La Cabana restaurant on the beach (literally) in Pietragrande, the beach town below the school.

After a few hours of down time we went to Al Fondaco for dinner.  Al Fondaco serves superbly prepared Calabrian food.  We ordered wine and antipasto to start since the server said that the antipasto was “abondante” (abundant).  It sure was.  Over the course of an hour we got plate after bowl after platter of food.  We did manage to order a few plates of pasta after the antipasto (and a second liter of wine) but anything more was unthinkable, except, of course espresso and an amaro.

We went to bed happy and full.  We also woke up happy and full!

After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday the 17th we drove to Soverato and walked the lungomare (walkway along the sea); what Italians would call la passagiata.  Since it was Sunday, lots of folks were doing the same.  We had lunch at a small restaurant in Soverato followed by pastry and coffee at Soverato Dolci.

We drove to Lamezia and had an unremarkable drive through the old part of town before heading to the airport and saying goodbye to Zia Fidalma, Massimo and Francesca.

There were a few of us at the school for dinner.  Chef John had prepared an amazing dinner of ricotta gnocchi with spicy sausage in tomato sauce followed by a shredded cabbage salad which was followed by beautifully sautéed pork medallions with a rich sauce (I’m ashamed to say I don’t remember what the vegetable was!).  For dessert we had a caramelized ricotta cheesecake with rum-soaked raisins.

After breakfast the next morning, Frank and I set off for our adventure in Matera, an adventure that started in the servants’ quarters of a palazzo in Piazza Duomo.  Before that, however, we had some really good sandwiches at an AutoGrill on the Autostrada.  The quality of the food in Italy is amazing.  Here we were, essentially at a place to grab a quick bite at a highway rest stop and the sandwiches were memorable!  The gas station attendant also ran a small shop selling Calabrian food products.  Seasonal and regional are BIG concepts in Italian food.

Matera is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It has a long (and at times disturbing) history.  I won’t try to recap Matera’s history here since that is better covered by travel books and websites.  But I will say that it is worth every minute of a long visit.  I’m sorry that we’re only here for two days.

While here, we’ve been trying to eat local food.  The area is famous for peppers that are fried until crispy and dark in spots.  Interestingly, they are not at all spicy but they are very flavorful.  As Chef John says, “If it doesn’t taste yummy it’s worthless.”

February 15, 2019

Conserve Week (aka Dead Vegetable Week) began on Saturday February 9th.  It was a jam-packed week of brewing beer, fermenting apple cider, distilling spirits, mixology and preserving by drying, salting, smoking, pickling, packing in oil (sott’olio), packing in vinegar (sott’aceto)  But first it began with a brief critique by the Chefs of our menu execution from earlier that week.  Comments to the whole class were general.  Comments to the two groups were more specific.  Individual comments were provided if requested.

I requested, and a day or two later Chef and I retired to a corner of the adjacent restaurant during a non-service time.  He looked at me with this “why are we here” look.  I reminded him that I was coming to see if he had any feedback about my performance.  He looked at me and said, “You, no!”  We then went on to chat about other food-related topics, like what I wanted to do in the culinary world.

I owe a debt of gratitude to David Locke and Bill Forte, chefs I work with at the annual Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival who convinced me that I would hold my own against others with professional culinary training and that I shouldn’t spend time in a course that taught basics.  Their advice was to dive into a specialized course that focused on what I wanted to learn, hence my time at the Italian Culinary Institute.

The first day of Dead Vegetable Week was pretty low key and consisted of fermentation and distillation in order for us to learn the basics.  It was really an introduction that served the purpose of showing that making beer and wine and distilling alcohol are actually quite easy but can contribute immeasurably to the uniqueness of one’s cuisine.

We started to ferment two types of beer:  ale and pils.  We also started to ferment apple cider.  The process is similar to fermenting grapes to make wine.  Since this is not the season to make wine apple cider is the stand-in.  We also put up a wild ferment of fruit peelings and cores and other bits without the addition of packaged yeast.

We used a small copper still to distill a grain-based ferment (beer) and a fruit-based ferment (wine).  Honestly, beer was a pain.  With only 4.2% alcohol and a very small still, it was not realistic to distill enough to do anything substantive.  Distilling wine, with an alcohol content three times that of beer, was definitely more satisfactory.

To make the product useful, even as the base for extracting essential oils from citrus peels and other fruits, the alcohol would need to be distilled at least twice more.  Nonetheless, the experience of actually distilling showed how manageable and effective the process could be.  Updates on our ferments will continue for weeks until we’re ready to bottle them.  As for the distillate, I’m not sure what will become of it.

Conserve week got into full swing on Sunday the 10th.  Before work started on vegetables, however, Chef John felt the need to demonstrate several dishes.  We had three plates of pasta before 2 PM.  Each of the dishes had copious (and I mean copious) amounts of rendered pork fat from either guanciale or speck.

The pasta dishes included Pasta alla Gricia, Pasta all’Amatriciana, and Linguine with Caramelized Onions and Speck (a non-traditional, but very yummy, dish created by Chef John).

In between the pasta dishes, Chef demonstrated how to make Vegetable Demi.  A demi-glace is a French preparation that is a highly concentrated stock made in a very prescribed way.  Chef doesn’t use the term demi-glace, just demi, as he doesn’t make “real” French demi-glace.  His highly concentrated stocks, however, add a tremendous amount of flavor to dishes.  In addition to the concentrated stock itself, Chef refines the fat from the each demi and uses it enhance dishes in place of butter or extra-virgin olive oil.

We got lessons in cleaning artichokes and making meatballs, starting giardiniera, butchering salmon (OK, so there are a few non-vegetables included in Dead Vegetable Week), curing salmon, curing and smoking salmon bellies to make salmon bacon, making salmon jerky, stuffing and conserving hot peppers, pickling apples, roasting tomatoes, making and conserving apple marmalade and mostarda as well as cooking and conserving pleurotus mushrooms (a luscious mushroom variety that takes hours to cook but ends up meaty and tender).

Lunch was Chef John’s “very bastardized” Risotto alla Fiorentina.  It contained all the ingredients in a traditional risotto alla Fiorentina (gizzards, chicken livers and tomato sauce) but with a great deal more finesse and technique.

On the 11th we started Bomba Calabrese, a spicy conserve of finely diced eggplant, onions, sweet peppers and hot peppers preserved under oil.  The eggplant is peeled, thinly sliced, heavily salted and allowed to drain for a day.  It is then cut in small dice, rinsed in boiling white wine vinegar, then pressed through a grape press to remove as much liquid as possible.  When squeezing the second batch, Gerard, turned the crank one half-turn too far and eggplant cubes went shooting out of the top of the press and stuck to the ceiling!  There was no way Chef could say that we did not adequately squeeze the eggplant.

We also learned the calculations for sugar syrups as well as chef’s method for cooking dried beans (similar to mine) and then finishing them for a dish (removing them from the cooking liquid, cooking them until they dry out to create fond on the bottom of a pot then returning the cooking liquid and simmering briefly to release the fond and flavor the broth… not like mine!).  There was also the making of a smoked pepper puree, candied pepperoncini (hot peppers), balsamic-vinegar cured onions, and spicy eggplant under oil to be served as an antipasto.

Chef demonstrated other conserves that were not traditional, like zucchini bacon (if you’ve been reading these posts, you’ve probably noticed that Chef has a “thing” for baconizing anything that can be baconized), sun-dried tomato conserve, scallion sauce and pickled potatoes.  There was also pickled zucchini, pickled arugula (which seemed a lot like leftover salad), salmon jerky, and “veggie ‘nduja” (basically another variant on eggplant, sweet peppers, hot peppers and extra-virgin olive oil.

We wrapped up the day with our first session on Mixology.  Our mixology instructor is Evangelos Triantafyllopoulos (Agelos)  from Athens.  He is truly a gifted mixologist and an owner of the White Monkey Bar in Athens.  He is certainly a fun-loving jocular person who has the perfect persona to be a bartender but he is also a very serious, driven and hard-working person below that persona.

We learned his method (and several recipes for) making flavored syrups—and very creative ones at that—using sous vide.  (Yet another reason I am happy I bought a sous vide set up last year!)  He then demonstrated (and we tasted) a whole series of classic cocktails plus twists on them.

The morning of the 12th we went to an agritourismo nearby.  It’s owned by the same folks who own the Panino Lab where we’ve had lunch and also a wine tasting.  We picked oranges, lemons and mandarins—hundreds upon hundreds of them.  Really, probably thousands of them!

After a brief stop at the supermarket, we were back at the Italian Culinary Institute processing citrus.  I was initially on washing duty with a couple of other students.  This took a couple of hours.  After that, I joined everyone else who was zesting, peeling, and supreme-cutting the citrus.  After a quick lunch of cavatelli with scallion sauce simmered with simple tomato sauce we were back to processing citrus for a short while.

Chef demonstrated how to candy orange peel (well, really, just the first day of a three-day process) and made a batch of orange marmalade.  Chef whipped up a batch of orecchiette with pancetta and rapini to feed us again, just a few hours after lunch.

We were then turned over to Agelos for more mixology.  This included making foams, infusing spirits with the flavors of fat (like bacon and pancetta), and making cold infusions of spirits and fruits and other aromatics.  He also did a neat trick of infusing spirits with citrus zest almost instantaneously using a carbon dioxide cartridge and beverage carbonator.

Agelos then made (and we drank) another whole series of classic cocktails plus twists on the cocktails.  Bourbon featured prominently in these cocktails, and Agelos knew of my love of Bourbon, so I frequently got a whole drink for myself rather than one to share among others in the class.  I have to say that pancetta-infused bourbon, a little simple syrup, coffee bitters and a lemon zest garnish makes a mighty tasty “twist” on an Old Fashioned!  I’m looking forward to repeating this with bacon-infused bourbon when I get back to the States.

After mixology class, a handful of us went back to the kitchen for an hour and a half before dinner to help process more citrus.  As it turned out, staff worked on citrus all day, every day, for the rest of the week!

Because we had been making sugar syrups of different concentrations for both conserves and mixology, Chef Juan ended the day with a brief lecture on the formula for creating a solution with any desired sugar content regardless of the sugar content of the starting solution.  For example, you would add less sugar to fruit juice than to coffee to get a solution with the same amount of sugar.  While this is important for conserves and mixology, it is critical for gelato (which has its own week in the near future).

The formula is:  X = (P_F x S_O) – Z_O / 1-P_F .

February 14th started out with an excursion.  On the way to the bus we were met by Chef Juan handing out heart-shaped chocolate candy to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Once on the bus, we headed to Tutto Calabria, a local artisanal producer of pepper products.  Calabria is known for its peppers, both hot and sweet.

Tutto Calabria has been around since 1970, having been started by the father of the three siblings who now run the company.  Although Tutto Calabria products are exported to the States, only a limited number of items from their line are available.  I bought a few jars of hot pepper products that I have never seen in the States.

We came back and had lunch (cacio e pepe followed by meatballs in tomato sauce).  After a short break we were back to mixology with Agelos.  He made some sours (including one that started with hazelnut gelato) and a blazer (a cocktail set on fire as it is poured back and forth between the two parts of the shaker).  He ended the lesson with a variety of martinis.

His dirty martini is made with a little oil floating on top rather than olive juice.  He made two, one with rosemary infused olive oil and one with oil from Bomba Calabrese (a hot pepper conserve we made in house) and a garlic and bay leaf infused extra virgin olive oil.  He called this the Steak Dirty Martini since it would pair perfectly with a steak.  His Breakfast Martini was similar to a Cosmo but included orange marmalade instead of pomegranate.  His Breakfast Tequila Martini was the best Margarita I’ve ever had.  In addition to marmalade in the mix, and a bit of salt on the rim, he put freshly ground black pepper on top.  We ended the session with an Espresso Martini garnished with coffee beans and topped with a few drops of coffee bitters.

After another brief break, we were back for a food and cocktail pairing from 5:30 to 6:30.  Four different foods were paired with four different cocktails.  All of the combinations were very good but, honestly, I was at my limit of caloric intake for the day.  The school made arrangements to take everyone out to dinner at 8:30 in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Unable to eat or drink anything else, I decided not to go.  It was the first school-sponsored activity that I missed since I arrived.  (Admittedly, I cut out early on some of the evenings that involved beer pong and blackouts but I was there for the beginning of all of them!).

Today wraps up cocktails and the majority of conserves, though we will make a few from time-to-time as other products come into season.  We’ll either see, do, or hear about the final steps on a number of the products that were started this week.  We’ll do a round of baking with new products we haven’t made before.  This evening ends with a pizza party, but not just any pizza party, it’s a contest of sort.  You’ll hear all about it in the next blog post.

February 11, 2019

“You look like a priest.”

I heard those exact words three times during my first week at the Italian Culinary Institute.  The first time was from Chef John.  The second time was from Chef Juan.  The third time was from another student.

Although the design of my chef’s coats is the standard shape, the collar of this particular coat has a slightly more relaxed and lower cut.  That means my undershirt shows through the notch in the collar of my chef’s coat.  The dark gray coat, coupled with a white undershirt, looks very much like the Roman collar worn by priests…that and the fact that I’m in a Catholic country.

Being the psychiatrist in the room, especially a psychiatrist who reminds people of priests, has its moments.  Mostly, I focus on cooking and don’t deal with the reality of my prior career.  It’s actually quite fascinating to be a student again, and turn my day-to-day experiences over to a crew of people who are consummate experts in their fields.  The content of what I did before is really not relevant.  In this context I am a student and my goal is to soak in as much information as I can.

The major task of this past week was to develop and execute a menu as part of a team.  Our class of 13 was divided into two groups.  My group of seven was assigned lunch and the group of six was assigned dinner.  Since the lunch group had slightly less time than the dinner group (at least theoretically) the extra person in our group made sense.

Menu planning started on Saturday, February 2, 2019.  After being randomly assigned to groups by pulling numbers out of a metaphoric hat, we went off to develop a menu concept.

The parameters were basic.  The menu had to include a trio of antipasti, an Antipasto Tris.  This was to be followed by a first course, or Primo Piatto, in Italian.  In an Italian meal a primo is either pasta, risotto or a soup.  The next course was another Primo, which is not part of the typical sequence of an Italian meal though could happen for a special occasion.  After our second Primo we were to make a Secondo Tris.  A Secondo in an Italian meal is the “protein,” either meat, fish or poultry.  To complicate it, once again, it was to be a Secondo Tris with three different dishes on the plate, accompanied by a Contorno.  A Contorno is a “side dish.”  The meal was to end with a Dessert Tris…you got it, three different desserts on the same plate.  We had to present four different breads, one with the Antipasto, one with the Secondo, and two on the table.  Luckily the wine pairings were handled (this time) by the chefs at the Institute.

Our team was instructed to cook Northern Italian food.  The other team got Southern Italian.  We spent Saturday afternoon working out a proposed menu.  Our initial menu was this:

Antipasto Tris
Bruschetta con Zucchine Sott’Aceto
Fiori di Zucca Fritti
Rotolino di Zucchine con Ricotta

Primo Piatto #1
Risotto alla Parmigiana con Frico e Aceto Balsamico

Primo Piatto #2
Farfalle ai Funghi e Gnepita

Secondo Piatto Tris e Contorno
Tartare di Manzo
Bistecca alla Griglia
Manzo in Umido con Olive Nere
Cannellini alla Toscana
Paninetti con Rosmarino

Dolce Tris
Pera Affogata nel Vino Rosso con Crumble di Castagne
Torta di Mele e Castagne
Pannacotta di Castagne

Sul Tavolo
Grissini
Ciabatta

Sunday was a free day.  I had work to do so I stayed at the school but everybody else went on day trips.  I had the washing machine to myself!!  We all share a washing machine so this was a big advantage.  The other interesting twist was that Chef John insisted that they would make lunch for me even though I repeatedly said I’d be happy to cook for myself.  I am in a large suite with a kitchen.

Cooking for myself was a non-starter with Chef John so I enjoyed a relaxing day of work and laundry punctuated by lunch.  I was told we would all have lunch in the kitchen.  The crew, including Chef John, Chef Juan, Chef Chris, Ryan and Erlyn (the kitchen assistants), Mariana (Chef Juan’s wife and the overall coordinator of the program), and at least one of the dishwashers, if not others, works every day.  That means they cook every day.  It didn’t seem strange that I would join them in the Kitchen for a meal.

At 1 PM, I walked from my suite to the school.   Upon entering the front room which is set up as a bar (both espresso and alcohol) with a counter and two bistro tables, I noticed that one of the bistro tables was set for two.  I was not eating in the kitchen.  The chefs had prepared a meal for me and I was dining with Mariana.

As each course came out, Chef John appeared to describe it.  The first course was Fusilloni (large fusilli) with a sauce of ‘nduja and tomato.  The ‘nduja was made that morning, specifically for lunch.  Chef said he knew I like ‘nduja.

The next course was a bright salad with orange.

Following that was braised pickled pork made in the style of corned beef.  This was something that had been started during the just-ended “Pig Week.” Small bread rolls rounded out the meal.

The rest of Sunday passed in bliss.  Monday morning was my scheduled appointment at the Questura to register my residence in Italy.  It was also the morning when my team was scheduled to present our proposed menu to Chef.  The appointment went well.  The fingerprinting part was actually fun.  The two guys doing the fingerprinting were surprised I was a student (I assume due to my age) but, once they heard what I was studying and where the school was located, the whole event became quite jocular.  One of the guys had gotten married at the hotel on the property shared with the school.  That became the focus of conversation.

I got back to the school half-an-hour into the scheduled meeting with Chef to discuss our proposed menu.  Much of the menu had gotten nixed by Chef, though a few dishes remained.  The rest of the day was spent in meetings with Chef, interspersed with team meetings where we tried to integrate Chef’s recommendations to refine our menu.

The menu we ended up with was:

Antipasto Tris
Fiore di Zucca Crudo con Insalata di Zucchine
Fiore di Zucca Fritti con Caviale
Fiore di Zucca al Forno con Ricotta, Bottarga e Zafferano
Paninetti con Olive

Primo Piatto #1
Risotto ai Funghi Porcini con Aceto Balsamico

Primo Piatto #2
Pappardelle con Ragu del Coniglio

Secondo Piatto Tris e Contorno Tris (Crudo, Cotto, Stracotto)
Tartare di Manzo con Broccoli Crudo
Bistecca alla Griglia
Rotolo di Manzo con Prosciutto, Lardo di Colonnata, e Funghi Selvatici
Broccoli Saltati
Broccoli Brasati
Paninetti con Rosmarino

Dolce Tris
Pera Affogagta nel Vino Rosso con Panna e Nocciole
Tiramisu alle Nocciole
Gianduja Caldo

Sul Tavolo
Focaccia al Parmigiano
Ciabatta

We started prepping for our meal on Tuesday morning.  We also had to prepare lunch for everyone that day.  The other group of students did the same on Tuesday afternoon and prepared dinner for everyone.

Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday.

Thursday was the big day.  We had to prepare and serve our meal to ten people, the other six students and four faculty.  I’ve never really had the experience of just cooking.  It’s always been cooking and trying to spend time with guests.  This was different.  As stressful as I thought it would be, since we had to get each course out on time and many of them had to be prepared at the last minute, it wasn’t.  Just being able to concentrate on preparing the food perfectly and on time was actually a Zen-like experience.

That evening, after the other group finished dinner service, limoncello shots came out.  Things went downhill from there.  I went to bed at a respectable hour but apparently the evening involved beer pong, blackouts, conga dancing, and passing out.  The whole party got shut down when Mariana discovered four people in the school dancing in the conga line who were not from the school.

Friday was very subdued and consisted of our usual market visit followed by a tour of the fourth largest coffee roaster in Italy (Guglielmo) then a free afternoon before dinner.  After weeks of attempts, the barber finally made it.  Three of us got haircuts.  Things are different in Italy.  The little white paper “collar” is made of a crepe-paper-like substance rather than the thin tissue paper used in the States.  It also has an adhesive and therefore sticks to itself.  The stretchy quality of the paper coupled with the adhesive means it produces a pretty good seal around one’s neck.  After the cape was put on, the crepe paper was turned over it creating a neat edge.

My cut used a combination of an electric clipper on the sides and scissors on the top.  A straight razor, with a disposable blade, was used to trim the periphery: sideburns, neck, temples as well as removing some little fuzzy hairs on my forehead.  I’ve never had THAT done before.  I think he did a great job and the whole thing, including the house call, cost just €15!

After the haircuts, a few of us worked with Chef Juan on dinner of grilled burgers (pork, not beef–this is Italy after all and Pig Week had just ended!) and various side dishes.  Everyone went to bed early.  The next phase of our education was scheduled to begin the following morning:  Dead Vegetable Week.