January 27, 2019

The last few days have been pretty low-key.  Well, except for the exam, that is!

Exam days were Wednesday and Thursday.  We were randomly assigned to one of three groups and scheduled for our exam on either Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, or Thursday afternoon.  Wednesday morning was free for all of us.

My exam was scheduled for Thursday morning so I had Wednesday free until a 4:30 PM lecture with Dr. Bill Schindler.  “Dr. Bill” took the salumi (charcuterie) course about three years ago and has since done some collaboration with Chef John.  Dr. Bill, an anthropologist, focuses on understanding human foodways from prehistory to modern times.  You can find out more about him here, and here and here.  He is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher.  I hope to spend some time with him at the Eastern Shore Food Lab.

With my exam scheduled for 8 AM on Thursday, I went to bed early on Wednesday.  I woke up at 3 AM and could not get back to sleep.  Other than not wanting to embarrass myself, I had nothing substantive riding on this exam.  I guess not being embarrassed is motivation enough.  I knew the exam would not really be about recipes.  It would be about technique and process.  That’s not something that can be learned in 10 days.  So, really, I’d been preparing for this exam since I started cooking at the age of 17.  I either had it or I didn’t.  Nonetheless, I have to admit I had performance anxiety.

I had to make Risotto alla Parmigiana (Parmesan cheese risotto), Scaloppine di Maiale con Salsa di Marsala (pork cutlets with Marsala sauce), Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (spaghetti with garlic and oil) and Dinner Rolls with Beet Powder (that turned them fuchsia).  In general, it was designed to be a low-pressure exam (RIGHT!) though there were a few things done to trip us up.  We all had to share pasta cooking water, which was bubbling away on the stove when we got to the kitchen.  The water, however, was not salted.  (Lesson:  taste EVERYTHING!!!)

I was the second one to start dinner rolls after finishing the other three dishes.  When I got to the pastry lab, I was told: “the ingredients are all over there [pointing].”  I started weighing out flour not noticing that another student had removed a second container of flour and put it on a different table (until that student brought it to my attention).  The two flours had different “W” values (a measure of the strength of the flour).  The recipe called for a particular W value, which could only be achieved by mixing the two flours in a precisely calculated ratio.  Although we had learned that flours could be combined to achieve the desired W value, all breads that were made until exam time used one specific flour of the desired W value so I wasn’t even thinking about the need to mix.  (Lesson:  read EVERYTHING!!!)

[Note: Flour sold in Italy is labeled with the W value.  This is not true in the United States.  After getting home I will need to source flour with known W values.  I’m not sure how that’s going to go.]

Having successfully salted the pasta water and calculated the correct ratio of flours, I felt like I had done a pretty good job on my first exam.  I had the afternoon off until the second session with Dr. Bill that evening.

Dr. Bill’s second session involved knapping stone to make sharp stone knives then using our stone knives to butcher a rabbit.  There were also lessons on starting fire using sticks and making rope from plant fiber.  Making a stone tool was essential since we had to have at least one to butcher our rabbit.  Starting a fire and making rope were not essential to the evening’s activities and I briefly assisted one other student with the (failed) fire thing before doing the rabbit thing.

Stone tools are incredibly sharp!  Sharper than my expensive Japanese ceramic knives.  They get dull quickly, though, and can only be sharpened by re-making the tool which I see as distinct disadvantages.  To be sure, if an incredibly sharp instrument is needed, a well-made stone tool will be sharper than any modern man-made knife.  Rarely, however, is that degree of sharpness needed for a cook.  In addition, stone tools often have several sharp sides so it’s quite easy to slice through fingers and hands while trying to cut something else.

Butchering the rabbit was a worthwhile experience and the knowledge gained is directly transferrable to doing so with a metal knife.  It is also a good prelude to butchering a pig which we do in the coming days as part of our week of salumi (charcuterie), otherwise known as dead animal week.  (Chef John turned the rabbits into a fabulous cacciatore for Saturday’s lunch.  The jus from the cacciatore was used as the main component of a quick sauce for incredibly delicious house-made pappardelle [made with 30% whole wheat flour] served as the first course before the rabbit.)

Friday was market day and we all went to the mercatino at 9 AM.  A side-trip to the kitchen/restaurant supply store scored me two large sauté pans perfect for finishing pasta in sauce and several plastic grates for drying pasta, draining cheese, curing meats, and glazing pastry.  I searched and searched Amazon and the Webstaurant store and could not find plastic grates (nor could I find the specific type of sauté pans that I bought, which are made in Italy).

I have now officially started my hoard of items to be brought back to the States.

A quick trip to the liquor store after the mercatino was unsuccessful in securing a bottle of bourbon.  They only had one, Rebel Yell, and it was €50!  I’ll stick with my Jim Beam at €13 until I find something better.  After the liquor store, and a quick side trip for Dr. Bill to buy a present for his wife, we went to a wine tasting.

Fabio, one of the owners of the Panino Lab (which I wrote about in a prior blog), is also a sommelier.  There is a room at the back of the Panino Lab set up for wine tasting.  We tasted four different, and excellent, Calabrian wines.  Fabio walked us through the tasting process and criteria with the first wine.  We then each had to evaluate the remaining three wines and discuss our thoughts.

This has re-kindled my longstanding desire to take the one-month sommelier training course at the Culinary Institute of America in California.  For now, I’ll settle for the wine tasting and pairing lessons that are part of this course.

Occasionally I can identify some of the different flavors in wine; things like ripe berries, leather, grapefruit, and vanilla, for example.  Whenever I do this, which isn’t often and is always in the context of being with a sommelier or wine aficionado who is doing the same thing, Frank (my husband…remember my husband…I haven’t mentioned him in a while) gets a very serious look on his face, tastes and swishes the wine, and then says something like: “Horses galloping through fields of clover” or “Ducks waddling down the hill in a rainstorm.”  So far, he hasn’t quite hit the flavor profile of any wine but sooner or later, who knows?

After the wine tasting, we reconvened in the kitchen with chef togs for a lacto-fermentation lesson.  Dr. Bill decided to demonstrate rather than make it a hands-on session as planned.  He put up three or four different kinds of vegetables to ferment, including sauerkraut.

In the short break before dinner, I put my feet up and enjoyed a glass of bourbon!  The next day, Saturday, was our first completely free day since starting the course 13 days earlier!

January 25 , 2019

I haven’t had the sensation of hunger in days.  That doesn’t mean I’m not eating.  Everything must be tasted.  Raw ingredients are tasted before being used.  Food being prepared is tasted frequently during preparation.  The final product must be tasted before being served.  Food prepared by one of the Chefs is always tasted (or sometimes actually eaten in larger quantities) because it’s being prepared to demonstrate a particular dish or food product.

Weight gain is the side effect.  If one is eating when one is not hungry there is no alternative but to gain weight.

It’s that sacrifice one makes to achieve a goal.  In this instance, the goal is understanding and being able to prepare traditional Italian Regional Cuisine and then to be able to riff on that same cuisine to create new dishes.

One really can’t focus on the weight gain.  It goes with the territory.  Just like medical students, interns, and residents can’t focus on the excessive caffeine consumption needed to counteract the effects of not getting enough sleep.  It goes with the territory, or at least it used to.  (Don’t get me started about the negative educational consequences of substantially reduced work hours for medical professionals in training!  The change was meant to address a perceived problem and created unintended consequences.)

Yesterday we went to Sicily for the day, to see another part of Italy and to taste different food.  We left the hotel at 6:00 AM.  At 6:15 we were at Soverato Dolci for an Italian breakfast: coffee and pastry.  Chef John recommended the Cornetti (croissants) because they were made in house which, he said, was often not the case.  He told me I should have “several.”  I heeded part of his advice and had a Cornetto, but just one.  I chose a Cornetto ai Noci (with walnuts).  I thought it might have ground walnuts on the inside but instead it had a luscious warm creamy walnut filling that started running down my chin.  Someone else had a pistachio cornetto and it had the same type of filling.  A doppio caffè (double espresso) rounded out my breakfast.

We were back on the bus at 6:45 bound for Reggio Calabria and the ferry to Sicily.  The bus pulled onto the ferry at 9:55 AM.  It was a short ride on a beautiful new ferry.  We got off the bus and headed to the café on the ferry.  At 10:05 we were chowing down on Arancini the size of my fist.  They probably provided enough calories for an entire day.

We were back on the bus at 10:20 and at 10:30 the bus drove off the ferry in Messina.  We headed for Taormina, reaching there at 11:15.  There is also a train to Taormina.  The train drives from Calabria right onto a special ferry (one with train tracks, of course) and drives off after reaching Sicily continuing on its way!  One never gets off the train.

After a couple of group pictures in Taormina we were on our own until 12:50 (theoretically), at which time we were to meet for lunch.  Seven of us headed for the Amphitheater.  It was built by the Greeks in the 3rd century BCE and subsequently expanded by the Romans.

We headed back to our meeting place a little late but before we got there, we saw another part of our group sitting outside a bar with a round of Aperol Spritzes at 1:00 PM.  Mariana, Chef Juan’s wife, was with the group.  Already late for lunch, Mariana managed to massage lunch plans and we all got a round of Aperol Spritzes before making it to the restaurant (some of us with Aperol Spritzes in styrofoam cups) at 1:30.  Here we were, in one of the most heavily touristed (and therefore expensive) towns in Italy, a town that has been a tourist destination since Roman times, and an Aperol Spritz cost only €6.50!  Bowls of nibbles came to the table free of charge.

Lunch started with individual antipasto plates of three cured meats, three cheeses, caponata, fried eggplant, and olives.  The first course was Pasta alla Norma.  The second course consisted of veal rolls stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, rolled in bread crumbs and gently sautéed.  These were served with mashed potatoes.  Desert was tiramisu and gelato.  An amaro and coffee followed.

We rolled out of the restaurant at 3:30 and had another hour to explore the town before boarding the bus for the return trip.  Siesta wasn’t quite over, typically lasting from 1:00 to 4:00 (or 5:00 – hey, this is Southern Italy, after all!) so many of the shops were still closed.

Taormina is known for ceramics and I wanted to purchase something.  The one shop that I was able to get into had many items that were unpriced making it difficult to shop.  As I was about to ask prices, I spied a platter that was priced at €1500.00.  Based on this, I decided there was no need to ask pricing for items that, at best, would have been totally unnecessary impulse purchases.  Besides, I suspect I’ll head back to Sicily in the near future, at a time when I won’t be bringing a steamer trunk full of kitchen equipment home with me!

We were back on the bus at 4:30 heading for the port in Messina.  Before reaching the ferry dock though, the bus made a stop.  Juan disappeared and then reappeared with bags full of cannoli!!!  It was the first food I’ve refused since the program began.  Once on the ferry, nobody got off the bus except one smoker who needed his fix.

Back at the school, not one of us wanted dinner.  We all headed to our rooms.  Exams were scheduled to start the next day and 1/3 of the class had to take a practical exam, the contents of which were not divulged.  I was scheduled in the second group, with my exam a day later.

As you may recall, I promised in my last post to describe what we did in the Pastry Lab the day before we went to Sicily.  Here’s the rundown of what Chef Juan demonstrated:

1. Strawberry Coulis
2. Pan di Spagna (subsequently cut into Savoiardi)
3. Masa Chabon (chocolate coating)
4. Mascarpone Cream (for Tiramisu) starting with the preparation of Pâte à Bombe
5. Salsa al Caffè (coffee sauce)
6. Tempered Chocolate
7. White Chocolate Lace
8. Tiramisu
9. Strawberry Spumone

Chef John kept feeding us during the day we spent in the Pastry Lab with Chef Juan.  At 10:30 AM small plates of bagna cauda and a bread roll flavored with cuttlefish ink appeared.  At 11:50 he sent in seared swordfish with caponata, capers, and a roasted black olive crumble.  At 1:30 we got bollito di maiale with polenta and little cubes of aspic made from a chicken demi.  There was to be one more dish arriving that somehow didn’t.  There were no complaints when it didn’t arrive.

We finished in the Pastry Lab at 4:00 I managed to get in a good walk before pizza making (and the next round of eating) started at 6:00 PM.

Thursday was the first of two exam days.  It was, mercifully, a free day until 4:30 for those of us who were not scheduled for exams.  At 4:30 we had a lecture by Dr. Bill Schindler, an anthropologist and fascinating speaker.  He spoke about our dietary history.  He plans on being here for two more days.  It will be very interesting to see what he presents us.

January 22, 2019

Friday was market day.  The mercatino (little market) in Soverato, about 15 minutes from the school, is truly compact but the quality and variety of the products on offer are amazing.  We bought lots of produce and fish for the school.  Many of us also bought things for ourselves.  Outings to the markedt are planned for almost every Friday.

I bought ricotta infornata, little cylinders of fresh sheep’s milk ricotta that had been baked.  The ricotta was made by the vendor using milk from her own sheep.  She also baked the cheese herself.

After the market we went to a restaurant/kitchen supply store.  A number of students needed chef coats so it was a logical stop.  I looked at the other items on offer and made mental notes about the prices of items that I need…ok “want” not “need!”  Some of the items are not available in the States, like a deep sauté pan with a wicked curve, perfect for finishing pasta in a sauce.  I see two of these in my future.  Other items can be had in the States on the web, like silicone molds and a chitarra for pasta, but being able to see and touch them makes a big difference.  I suspect I’ll be visiting this store most Fridays when we go to the market.

We got back about 1:30 and had lunch.  The first course was a trifecta of braised mackerel, crisped sous vide octopus with cannellini bean puree, and shrimp crudo (made with gamberi rossi) accompanied by a hazelnut puree.  This was followed by a Panzanella (bread and tomato salad) that was made the previous day.

After lunch we went to the Pastry Lab to roll out dough for Pizza Fritta.  Pizza Fritta is deep-fried pizza dough (very thin at the school though sometimes overly thick in restaurants) with an array of toppings that usually includes tomato sauce, fior di latte, and extra-virgin olive oil among others.

Chef made a Nutella knock-off that was way better than the real thing.  It was just a mixture of about 40% melted milk chocolate and 60% roasted pureed hazelnuts with a pinch of salt.  This was used to make a sweet Pizza Fritta along with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar.  Tasting everything is a necessity!

We had a few free hours before we had to show up in the room with the wood-burning pizza oven to try our hands at making pizza.  I opted for topping mine with ‘nduja, buffalo mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil and oregano in addition to a bit of tomato sauce and “pizza cheese.”  It was quite the hit, with Chef Juan and two of the other staff reaching for pieces as soon as I cut it.

After everyone had made at least one pizza each, I suggested that we have a pizza play-off pitting Chef Juan against Mariana (his wife) and Ryan against Erlyn.  Ryan and Erlyn are two of the kitchen assistants.  The winner of each round was to be pitted against the other.  Folks started to go to bed early and although we had the first two rounds, we never got to the finals.  This was probably a good thing given that the judging was quite variable.

During pizza making and eating, Ryan was our DJ, playing current international songs but then veering into Italian ones.  L’Italiano is one of my favorites but I couldn’t explain it enough for Ryan to recognize it.  I played it for him the next day.  It has since been added to his playlist which makes me quite happy.

Saturday morning was very busy with prep: chopping, slicing, dicing, gutting and cleaning.  I think I am now an expert at cleaning anchovies having done many dozen (twist off the head and pull carefully to remove the guts while still attached to the head; use a finger to open the fish along the belly; peel out the spine; separate the filets; remove the dorsal fin from one of the filets; remove any remaining pectoral and ventral fins; rinse in 3.5% salt water; line up in a tray; repeat.)

We also had to lollipop frogs’ legs which is kind of like making drumettes from chicken wings.  We also had to tunnel-bone quail which entails removing all bones except the furthest bones in the wings and legs without cutting the skin or making any incisions.  One goes through the neck and body cavity openings that are already present in the butchered quail.  The same technique can be applied to any bird.  I think it’s a great skill to have but I can’t imagine when I’ll tunnel-bone any fowl unless I decide to get into the Turducken business!

All this took 4 ½ hours in the kitchen before our first break.

In the afternoon we were shown the preparation of and tasted (*)

1. *Pasta alla Vongole made with Pasta alla Chitarra con Scorza di Arancia (Pasta with Clams made with Orange Zest Pasta cut on the Chitarra
2. Rana Pescatrice (monkfish cooked in fumetino—a fragrant stock) [we ate this a day later]
3. *Orecchiette con Rapa e Salsiccia (Orecchiette Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage)
4. Ossobuco (we ate this another day)
5. *Gnocchi Sardi con Salsa alla Erbe (Saffron gnocchi with a bacon, tomato and herb sauce)

Sometime during the afternoon Chef made pistachio gelato for everyone.  We have an entire week coming up where we learn to make gelato!!

For dinner five of us made sandwiches and salad for the group.  The sandwiches were focaccia with cooked ham, salami, buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, salt, and olive oil.  Dessert was puff pastry stuffed with pastry cream and topped with white chocolate ganache.

Sunday was another busy day.  We observed chef prepare three types of risotto, each of which we ate prior to 10:30 AM(!):

1. Risotto alla Milanese (saffron risotto)
2. Risotto alla Parmigiana con Porri e Aceto Balsamico (Parmesan cheese risotto with sautéed leeks and balsamic vinegar)
3. Risotto Nero al Mare (cuttlefish ink risotto with seafood)

Chef’s technique is a little different from mine and I will need to try it his way.  He does not stir when the wine is added, preferring to let it evaporate undisturbed.  He keeps more liquid in the rice during cooking than I do.  At the end, he adds cheese and butter, as I do, but his butter is frozen and he uses a classic French technique to “fluff up” the risotto.  I don’t fluff my risotto but I guess I’ll learn!

The Ossobuco from the previous day was finished and served with the Risotto alla Milanese, sprinkled with Gremolata (finely minced garlic, parsley, and lemon zest).

Chef started to marinate the dozens and dozens of anchovies that we had cleaned the previous day.  We also tested a portion of baccala (salted cod) that had been soaking for a few days to see if it was ready to cook but it was still too salty so it went back in the fridge under water.

Chef pan-roasted broccoli florets that had been briefly blanched.  They were later turned into a simple sauce for mafalde pasta that we had for lunch.

The afternoon saw the preparation of:

1. Italian meringue (which is different from both French meringue and Swiss meringue)
2. Caramel sauce
3. Pâte à Bombe (a beaten egg yolk and hot syrup base for many desserts)
4. Glassa Nera (glassy candy coating)
5. Tiramisu (both in a large dish and in a martini glass, which was very cool)

In the afternoon we got to be hands-on again, pulling mozzarella this time.  The mozzarella is aging under fresh water as I write this and will ultimately be put in salt water for a day or so before being used.

All day Monday was spent in the Pastry Lab watching Chef Juan demonstrate the preparation of a number of fundamental pastry-making components (like a fruit coulis and tempered chocolate) followed by the creation of Spumone (not like the American spumoni) and a different variation on Tiramisu.  On Monday evening we had our third pizza session since Friday!  This one involved the use of the electric pizza oven.

It pretty much followed the format of the wood-oven pizza session with each of us making one pizza and sharing, followed by a few additional ones.

I chose to make pizza with ‘nduja, a fried egg, fresh pepperoncino and pepperoncino oil in addition to a little tomato sauce and pizza cheese (as it is called here).  The pizza sat on the table too long as the oven needed to be cleaned so it stuck when getting it on the peel.  Rather than pitch it, Chef Chris made it into a large dumpling-shaped calzone.  It was a big hit.  One of my classmates named it Il Mostro, The Monster.  Chef Juan thought it was the perfect breakfast!

I made another one that did not stick to the peel and came out of the oven flat.  It was equally good but, interestingly, somewhat different in taste and texture having been baked flat as opposed to closed.

In my next post, I’ll describe what we did in the Pastry Lab before the Pizza session as well as talk about our trip to Sicily.

Ciao a tutti!

January 19, 2019

Tuesday was pasta day.  Wednesday was bread day.  This being Calabria, seafood was included on both days.

On Thursday, January 17th, we did a bit of food production in the morning then cooking demonstrations in the afternoon. It appears that we will do much more hands-on cooking in the coming weeks.

On the morning of the 17th we split into two groups .  One group made pasta and the other  made bread. Given the amount of bread and pasta we consume as a group this is going to be a regular occurrence.

Although I feel that I have a lot to learn about making both pasta and bread, I chose pasta because I feel less confident in making it than I do bread. Jumping right in seemed like the best way to tackle my uncertainty.

Most people in the pasta group were told to make plain pasta. Two of us were told to make pasta with orange zest and two with truffles.

I made a batch (about 14 ounces) of plain egg pasta. It was supposed to be truffle pasta but there were no directions given about when to put the truffles in. Besides, the truffles weren’t even out. Before I started making pasta I had to cut a mess of carrots into brunoise—about 1/8 inch dice—so I was coming to pasta-making late in the game and assumed the lack of truffles meant that they went in at the end. So, I just went ahead and made the pasta assuming that if truffles needed to be added first they would have been provided. I figured I would add the shaved truffles at the end. Duh! Pasta dough is pretty firm so I should have realized that this wouldn’t work.

The pasta dough came together quite well. The whole process was easier than when I did it two days previously, which seemed like a win to me even though it wasn’t the truffle pasta it was supposed to be. Armed with instructions this time, I set about making a second batch with the truffles mixed into the flour at the beginning. I absently mindedly started adding the eggs to the flour before adding the truffles then stopped myself. Chef just scooped some of the flour out of the bowl and told me to mix the truffles into that then put it back in the original bowl and continue.

While I was grating truffles on a Microplane, with my back turned, someone decided to grab my bowl of flour and use it to dust the table where they were rolling out pasta. That should never have happened as the school insists on using coarser semolina for dusting work surfaces, not finely ground flour. Besides, the flour was on my table.

There’s no way to recover from this since the flour needs to be weighed out precisely so that batch of pasta went in the trash!

I repeated the process a third time and got it right! I cleaned up my station while the pasta was resting then rolled and cut a sample for chef to taste at his request. The instructions I received were to bring a little salted water to the boil, cook the pasta and give it to him. The only other batch of student-made pasta that got tested was cooked personally by Chef.

I cooked a few mouthfuls of pasta, tossed it with extra-virgin olive oil and a dash of pepper and gave it to him. The texture was perfect but the final product was too salty. It gnawed at me all day because I cook pasta about five times per week and never over-salt it. I chalked it up to using a very small quantity of water and not eyeballing the salt correctly. Later, however, I looked at the ingredients of the fresh pasta that I make at home as well as the brand of dry pasta that I use most frequently. The fresh pasta has about 1/6 the salt of the school’s recipe. The dry pasta has no salt. My salted water compensates for this paucity of salt. Clearly, I will need to use much less salt when making pasta using the school’s recipe.

Cutting the pasta was interesting. It was rolled using a manual pasta machine. Chef wanted it to be rolled on the finest setting, which is almost thin enough to see through. He then wanted it cut on the wider setting of a chitarra. I had heard about, but never used, a chitarra.

Chitarra means guitar in Italian. The device is a wooden frame strung with real guitar strings. Most modern ones are strung for two different widths depending on which side of the device is used.

One lays the pasta sheet on top of the strings and rolls, carefully, with a rolling pin to cut through the pasta sheet. It’s really nifty. I think it’s a lot more fun than cutting the pasta with a pasta machine.

Chef also insists that long pasta, such as the tagliatelle I was making, be cut to “regulation” size. Regulation size is 25 centimeters, or just under 10 inches. After sectioning a sheet of pasta, any piece not regulation size is made into something else like maltagliati, literally “badly cut” pasta.

The afternoon was crammed full of Chef demonstrating different dishes, sometimes three at a time!

That afternoon saw the preparation of the following dishes. Asterisks (*) mean we also ate the dish.

1. *Smoked sweet peppers (used for a salsina)
2. Duck bacon (the initial stages)
3. *Parsley oil
4. *Pan-seared orate (a type of sea bass) served on a bed of potato puree with smoked pepper salsina and parsley oil
5. *Crispy chicken skin (like chicharrones made with chicken skin)
6. Panzanella
7. Caponata
8. *Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
9. Mackerel cooked in vinegar and water with onions (Sgombro)
10. *Roasted eggplant spread
11. Reduced chicken stock (similar to chicken demi-glace)
12. Octopus to be cooked sous vide
13. Marinated pork fillet
14. Bagna cauda

To tide us over to dinner we had grilled cheese (fontina) sandwiches with porcini mushrooms topped with mayonnaise and some crispy chicken skin.

We ended the day with a trip to MOPS a brasserie and birrateca in Catanzaro Lido for Apericena. The word apericena is a mash up of aperitivo (aperitif) and cena (dinner). At an apericena you buy your drinks but food comes out, usually in smaller portions, from which one can make dinner. I had Jack Daniels for €5 a shot. Not a bad price! Later in the evening I heard from Chef Juan that they have some very good bourbons.  They’re on my list for next time.  This is clearly a place to return to!

For those of you who are following the food that is made and consumed each day, here’s the rundown of what we and/or Chef made and ate (*) on January 15th:

1. Northern Italian pasta dough made into:
   • Tagliolini
   • Tagliatelle
   • Farfalle
   • Croxetti
   • *Fornarina
   • Tortellini
   • Agnolotti
   • Capeletti
2. Northern Italian spinach pasta dough
3. Northern Italian beet pasta dough
4. Chlorophyll extracted from spinach for coloring food
5. Meat stuffing for pasta
6. Ricotta stuffing for pasta
7. Mussels to be put into pasta the next day
8. *Gnocchi Napoli with tomato sauce, baked and topped with fiore di latte, basil and garlic oil
9. Salsa Napoli
10. Individual lasagna made in ramekins:
    • Seafood
    • Lamb ragu and wild artichokes
    • Bolognese

Here’s what we made and/or ate (*) on January 16th:

1. Garganelli
2. Specialty rolls:
   • *Cuttlefish ink
   • Walnut and raisin
   • *Sausage and sweet pepper
3. Pasta alla chitarra
4. Focaccia
   • Plain
   • Pepperoncino
   • Rosemary
   • Garlic
   • Pugliese (topped with crushed tomatoes, anchovies, black olives and oregano)
   • Stuffed with tomatoes, anchovies, black olives and oregano
5. Cibatta
   • Plain
   • Whole wheat
6. Honey bread
7. Biga (a starter for yeast-raised products)
8. *Pasta al Scoglio (Pasta from the reef) made with previously prepared mussels and cuttlefish with shrimp added and the cuttlefish ink pasta we made previously

For lunch we were served polenta with pulled braised pork, Parmesan fonduta, black truffle and crispy fried carrots and leeks followed by fish poached in fish stock with chlorophyll (to make it green) and topped with a tomato relish. Dessert was amaretto gelato with crushed almonds on top.

For dinner we were served broccoli soup accompanied by the sausage and pepper rolls followed by lasagna with lamb ragu.

January 16, 2019

The average student gains five pounds (or is it five kilos?) during the three-month “Master of Italian Cuisine” course.  At least that’s what I’ve been told.

It’s not hard to believe.

Our first day in the classroom was Sunday, January 13th and I had barely digested the previous evening’s meal from Al Fondaco.  I was so wound up—and so overly full—from the meal that I couldn’t even get into bed till 1:30 AM.

I groaned when my alarm went off at 7:30.  I groggily hauled myself out of bed and made what has become my daily pilgrimage to Orlando for espresso.

After my second espresso doppio I felt a bit more revived.  Class started at 9:00.

Whereas the first day was lecture combined with tasting foundational components of regional Italian cuisine, the second day was spent in the kitchen watching Chef prepare basic foods—and of course tasting them, with one exception.  Because we ran out of time before tasting olive oils on the first day, we began the day by tasting 8 Italian extra-virgin olive oils from Liguria, Veneto, Garda, Siena, Chianti, Puglia, and two from Sicily.  To make a point, Chef also had us taste “olive oil,” a chemically extracted oil with no olive flavor but a distinct chemical bite.

Here’s how the day went.  Asterisks (*) mean that we tasted the dish as well (please excuse the English and Italian mash-up, it’s kind of how it goes in the kitchen here).

1.      *Simple tomato sauce (this was put into many dishes)

2.      Anchovy garlic paste

3.      *Cotechino on warm bread with a fried egg, spicy mayonnaise (maionese di bomba), and taleggio

4.      *Risotto alla Parmigiana con tartufo bianco (risotto with parmigiano cheese and white truffles)

5.      Salsa verde

6.      Ragu di agnello (lamb ragu)

7.      Salted egg yolks (tuorli di uova sotto sale)

8.      *Spaghetti alla puttanesca

9.      Ragu di sepia (cuttlefish sauce)

10.  *Garlic oil (this is also a component part of many dishes)

11.  Trifulata (truffle sauce)

12.  *Lupara (rigatoni with sausage, tomato sauce, and hot red pepper).  [The dish is from Naples.  It contains rigatoni which remind Italians of the short-barreled eight-gauge shot gun used in Naples.  Enough said!]

13.  *Scallopine di maiale (pork scallopine) with Marsala, served with shaved lardo (salt pork)

14.  Peperonata

15.  Bollito di maiale

16.  Ragu Bolognese

17.  *Seared cubes of mortadella served with bruschetta topped with Bomba alla Calabrese (spicy conserved vegetable spread)  [Just in case we were hungry!]

18.  *Trofie pasta with lemon, olives, shrimp and bottarga (this dish is referred to as “Profuma di Mare” [perfume of the sea]  by the staff)

19.  *Vin santo and cantucci (biscotti)

The last task of the cooking day was to start dinner for the group.  The main part of the meal was Pollo alla Romana (Chicken Roman Style).  It’s a simple but delicious dish of chicken cooked with sweet peppers and tomato puree then finished in the oven with grated Pecorino Romano on top.  We prepared about 50 chicken thighs since they are the best cut for braising.  I got to prepare half of them!

After class Mariana and Chef Juan helped me complete the paperwork that I needed to submit in order to schedule an appointment to finalize my visa.  The difficult part was completing the multi-page 178-section questionnaire for which there were three separate instruction manuals!  Luckily most of the 178 questions did not need to be answered but it took Juan (a former attorney before he became a chef) to understand the nuances.

Mariana and I then went on a journey.  The first stop was to a tobacco shop (seriously) to buy the €16 stamp that needed to be affixed to the paperwork.  Then we went to a shop selling magazines and office supplies to have copies made of all the documents I had been given by the Consulate General in Los Angeles (in case the originals went missing on their way to the Questura) as well as my ENTIRE passport.  The Italians are serious.

Every page of my passport needed to be photocopied including all the blank ones and the outside cover.  The woman at the shop kept looking at me and indicating that it seemed foolish to photocopy blank pages.  I couldn’t really disagree but those were the directions.  Mariana just threw her hands up and the woman continued photocopying, making a very neat booklet, all stapled together.  This only cost €4 which was worth the amusement value of seeing an Italian criticize Italian government bureaucracy.

Once the photocopying was done, I could complete the question on the form where I had to indicate how many additional sheets I was submitting.  Since the shopkeeper photocopied my passport double-sided, she and Mariana had a discussion about whether the correct number was the number of pages or the number of sheets.  Both agreed it was physical pages.

The next stop was to a photo shop to get 4 passport photos.  This was quick and efficient and only cost €7, about half the cost of 2 photos at Walgreens.  Then we were off to the post office to submit the paperwork.  Yep!  The Post Office is the intermediary but first I needed more Euros since the fees could only be paid in cash.

Unfortunately, the ATM in the lobby of the post office was out of service but there was one down the street.  Neither my ATM card, nor Mariana’s would get the automatic door to open.  Luckily it only took a few minutes for someone to come by with an ATM card that would open the door.

With €200 in my pocket we went to the post office.  Once inside, Mariana said I could fill in the date on the application form.  Juan had cautioned not to do this until I was certain that I would be submitting the documents.  Apparently, any error invalidates the documents and requires a whole new packet to be completed.

A few minutes later, Mariana and I were in front of the clerk who set about reviewing everything.  She calculated the fee to be €100.42.  I handed her €101.  She gave me back a few coins then handed me €30.  Apparently, the fee is divided into two parts.  €70.42 goes with the application and €30 goes on the envelope as postage.  REALLY?  €30 for postage!

A few minutes later I handed her back the €30 for the postage.  I’m not really sure why she couldn’t have kept it in the first place, especially since she quoted me the full amount at the outset.  Mariana was familiar with this process.  When the €30 was put in front of me, Mariana said to “leave it” because I would be “giving it back” in a few moments.

We walked out of the post office less than 15 minutes after we had entered and I had an appointment on February 4, 2019 at 9:00 to go to the police station to start the next step in the process.  Mind you, I already have a visa in my passport from the Consulate General in Los Angeles.  All of this is just the process of “registering” with the Questura!

I walked to dinner with a glass of bourbon in my hand, the first since getting to Italy, celebrating having negotiated just a tiny bit of the Italian bureaucracy.

One of these days, I’ll tell you the story of actually getting the visa in Los Angeles—a saga that stretched across several months and two continents!

Ciao for now.

January 13, 2019

It’s close to 11:30 PM on Saturday, January 12th as I’m starting to write this post.  I finished my first Calabria Dispatch a few hours ago.  At the time, I planned to start Dispatch #2 after dinner with the goal of finishing and posting it on the 13th.

That’s still the plan but this evening has put a sharp turn in my planned story line about massive food consumption.  Stick with me and you’ll see why.

Last time I stopped my tale at 2:00 PM on Thursday, January 10th.  We had just gotten back from lunch and started in the kitchen.

From 2:00 to 5:00 one cured meat product after another was inaugurated in the kitchen.  These included three types of pancetta, proscuittino, cotechino (which I prepared and wrote about in my first blog of the new year), zampone, duck prosciutto, rabbit and duck liver paté, cured rabbit leg, bratwurst and kielbasa (yes, I know this is a course on Italian cuisine), and on and on.

Each of the ground meat products was subjected to testing, meaning a portion was cooked, divided up and passed around the room for all to taste.  We discussed what adjustments needed to be made to the seasonings.  Often a second round of testing ensued before the mixture was declared perfect and put in casings.

Cotechino was among the most challenging to test because it contains about 30% pork skin.  Pork skin requires hours of cooking, even when ground finely, to be palatable.  The texture of the quickly-cooked cotechino resembled ground up hockey pucks.  We knew this would be the case.  The point was to taste for the perfect balance of seasonings, not the texture of the finished product.

Half the cotechino mixture was made into a fat sausage (cotechino) and half was stuffed into a pig’s trotter to make zampone.  Zampone means trotter.  Zampa means paw.  Zampa also happens to be my mother-in-law’s maiden name.

At 5:00 we took a break and were served platter upon platter of cured meat products, such as head cheese, that had been made in the previous few days along with enough wine to wash it all down.  For good measure, bowls of pasta carbonara were brought out.  Round about this time, those folks who had succumbed to Mariana’s encouragement to have two panini at the Panino Lab at lunchtime were regretting their decisions.

We resumed around 5:30, marching down to the curing room where meats were hung to cure.  It was absolutely fascinating to me to see Chef Juan light olive branches to lightly smoke all the meat products.  He said that in Calabria it is traditional to smoke all aged cured meat products for an hour twice a day for four days.  Never in my life had I heard this.  It certainly does not appear in any of the tomes on salumi that I have read!  This is a topic that I need to explore further in the coming weeks.

In addition, though not strange to me, is that the Institute only uses salt to cure its meat products.  In the States we would call these “uncured” because we use the term “cured” to mean that preservatives such as sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite have been added as well, ignoring the fact that salt is, itself, a “cure.”  Curing with salt alone is generally believed to be too risky for the home cook.  Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are much more effective antibacterial agents than salt alone.  They also help meat to maintain a more attractive reddish color.

We went back to the kitchen and continued with meat production until shortly after 9:00 PM, at which time we were told to prepare for dinner!  Mind you, we had already had a stupid amount of food for the day.  Dinner consisted of pounds and pounds of fresh sausages that had been prepared over the previous days, salad and bread all lubricated with the ever-present wine.  We ended with gelato and cake.

The previous night, Chef Juan had announced at the end of dinner that if we had brought any “gastric protectant” with us (i.e. some sort of antacid or acid blocker) we should start taking it that night in preparation for “massive eating” the next day.  He did not exaggerate.

I’ve read many articles about chefs who travel to experience local cuisine to develop new ideas for their restaurants.  The stories always involve eating the same stupid amount of food, if not more.  There’s really no way to taste food without swallowing it and one bite is often not enough to fully appreciate the taste and texture.  In the cooking profession, eating is research, and the more research one does, the better.  Periodic over-indulging goes with the territory.

Friday the 11th was a relatively mellow day.  The few remaining outgoing students and the few incoming students who had arrived were invited to lunch at La Tavernetta, the restaurant at Baia dell’Est, the hotel at which we’re staying.  Lunch started with two gorgeous crustaceans, langoustine tails, I think, but also possibly a species that doesn’t get exported.  They were wrapped with cooked angel hair pasta and flash fried to crisp the pasta and cook the seafood.  It was a brilliant preparation.  There was also a portion of monkfish wrapped in seaweed and cooked.  Next was seafood ravioli in a light tomato sauce.  The meal ended with deconstructed cannoli and Amaro del Capo, one of scores (probably really hundreds) of amari made throughout Italy.

For dinner, the ever-growing group of incoming students went to the pizzeria from my first night (the one with the automatic defibrillator).  I had Pizza Diavola.  Sliced fresh hot peppers were strewn on the pizza before baking.  I confirmed that the fat in cheese is a perfect vehicle for capsaicin.  Every bite of pizza was searing in spiciness, even if that particular bite didn’t contain an actual slice of hot pepper.

Saturday the 12th was another easygoing day.  Lunch again was at La Tavernetta.  We started with an exquisite stew of miniscule octopus and tomato served with simple grilled bread.  It reminded me of the way my family prepares baccala, only more refined in taste.  The next course was a fish fillet rolled around and in seasoned breadcrumbs and sautéed.  It was served on a puddle of golden sauce made from pureed potatoes.

We were hypothesizing about the source of the yellow; turmeric or saffron, perhaps.  (When you’re with a bunch of food-obsessed people, every dish gets dissected and analyzed.)  We were assured by Orlando (our waiter…and the morning barista) that the sauce contained neither and that the yellow color came from the potatoes and bread.  To be truthful, the bread on the table had a golden hue but none of us could comprehend how the sauce could be so rich in color without some ingredient with a substantial depth of color.  The mystery remains to be solved.

Dessert was gelato or at least I think it was.  My brain was starting to shut down at this point.  We finished the meal with another local amaro, Amaro Silano.

I went for a long walk after lunch.  That, coupled with not having eaten the last two bites of my fish, made me feel virtuous and ready for the official welcome dinner at Al Fondaco.  It is a rustic restaurant but one of the most perfectly maintained facilities I’ve seen in Italy.  The same attention to detail was lavished on the food which was beyond compare…and all of it local.  But if Thursday was a day of stupidly “massive eating,” I have no words to describe this meal.

We toasted with an Italian sparkling wine then each of us got a plate of cured meats, cheeses and pickled eggplant, all made in house, accompanied by an onion jam and fruit conserve.  Jugs of local red wine were put out and then the tables were littered with antipasti; so many that I can’t remember them all.  They included stuffed eggplant, stuffed zucchini, suppli, savory fried dough, meatballs with large amounts of pecorino cheese in them, stuffed tomatoes, braised individual artichoke leaves with a meat topping and cheese gratin, meat croquettes and pork saltimbocca to, quite literally, name just a few.  There was still silverware left on the table so we knew more was coming.

Two pasta courses followed.  One that I would call strozzapreti but that’s not the Calabrese name, served in a veal ragu.  The other was zucchini and pecorino ravioli in a light tomato sauce.  Next came porchetta with a salad to lighten things up!  Dessert consisted of a fresh cheese with a sweet syrup, tiramisu, sliced fresh fruit, walnuts, local mandarin oranges and, interestingly enough, lupini.  I’ve only ever had lupini served as an antipasto or as part of a casual lunch.  These were not as salty as I am accustomed to and went quite well with the remainder of the dessert course.  We ended with limoncello, Amaro del Capo and espresso.

We were all subdued on the drive back to the hotel.  Nearly comatose is probably a better description.  Luckily, I continued to take my Pepcid after Chef Juan’s injunction a few nights earlier.

I wish I could say that I would be able to forego food for a few days but I know that won’t be possible.  We report to the kitchen at 9:00 on Sunday in chef’s attire.

And so it begins…

January 12, 2019

I arrived on January 8th.  It was 29 hours door-to-door: Santa Fe to Albuquerque to Dallas to London to Rome to Lamezia Terme to Località Caminia in the town of Stalettì.

The trip was totally uneventful except for a few moments of anxiety near the end.  Although the flight from Rome to Lamezia Terme was full, there were only about 10 of us who checked bags.  Standing around the baggage carousel, one by one the others peeled off.  I was the lone passenger left standing in an empty terminal except for the very concerned airport official who only spoke Italian.  She kept disappearing, apparently to see if there were other bags being unloaded.   Each time, she came back looking more dire.

Finally, my bags appeared.  I was relieved.  So, obviously, was the airport official!

I exited baggage claim prepared to discover that my driver had left, thinking I hadn’t made the flight.  Luckily, he was there and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The ride to the hotel, Baia dell’Est, was just under 45 minutes.  I arrived at 7:20 PM and was met by Mariana, who manages logistics for the Italian Culinary Institute.  She took me to my room, showed me the bottles of water and wine the school had left for me in case I needed reviving after my journey, and told me that she was taking the current group of students, attending a five-day course on making salumi, to dinner at 7:50 if I wanted to join them.

I tore through my suitcases, flinging clothes everywhere, to find the bits I needed to make a coherent outfit.  I jumped in the shower, dressed, and was ready to go at 7:45.  I’m not quite sure how I managed that.

We piled into a mini-bus and went to Il Ghittone, a local pizzeria.  Juan, Mariana’s husband and second-in-command chef at the Institute, said the tradition was to order beer, fried potatoes, and pizza.  Absorbing the flavors of Italy is a big part of the total immersion experience of this three-month culinary expedition, so I was not about to argue with tradition even if beer isn’t one of my favorite beverages.  Fried potatoes and pizza, on the other hand, are a completely different story!

The menu consisted of four pages of Calabrian-style pizza, plus two pages of other stuff that I didn’t bother reviewing.  We were here to eat pizza, after all!  In addition, there was a separate menu of Roman-style pizza which Juan suggested we not order simply because he thought we should taste the hyper-local food.  I was more than happy to oblige, ordering Pizza Calabrese with tomato sauce, mozzarella, schiacciata, ‘nduja, and black olives (with pits).

Schiacciata (meaning “squashed”) is similar to sopressata, but weighed down during curing to make it flat.  ‘Nduja, a spreadable salame that has been a favorite of mine since I discovered it several years ago, can contain up to 50% Calabrian chile peppers!

I also requested pepperoncino, hoping to get the minced, salted, and oil-packed Calabrian peppers that I had on my last visit to Calabria.  The waiter, clearly pleased that someone had asked for pepperoncino, brought two bowls.  They were sliced fresh pepperoncini, however.  Nonetheless, I made a substantial dent in them.

We lingered at the restaurant for more than two hours.  Getting back to the hotel around 10:30, I had no choice but to put everything away since my clothes were strewn on the bed and all around the room from my frantic pre-dinner quest for sartorial appropriateness.  Sleep came at about 12:30 AM.

At 7:30 the next morning, I was at La Tavernetta, the restaurant at Baia dell’Est, for breakfast.  Orlando, the barista, revived me with four double espressos!!!

With my class not scheduled to start until the evening of January 12th, I spent the morning responding to email and other tasks.  I had lunch with the “Salumi Students” at the school.  The afternoon became a jet-lagged blur after the effect of Orlando’s espresso wore off.  I think I napped, but I know I appeared at the school for a simple dinner of chicken, cauliflower with cream sauce, and salad.

Wine!  Did I mention wine?  Bottomless bottles accompany all meals (well, not really breakfast, though I think if one asked, it would appear!).

On January 10th the Salumi Students did an outing to a local mercato in Catanzaro Lido followed by a trip to a kitchen/restaurant supply store.  I was invited to accompany them.  Afterwards, we had lunch at the “Panino Lab” where one designs one’s own sandwich which is then made to order.  I really liked my choice (semolina ciabatta, schiacciata, pecorino fresco, n’duja, and arugula) so much that I can’t wait to go back!

We arrived back at the school at 1:30 and convened in the kitchen at 2:00.  Chef John Nocita, who runs the school, invited me to participate.

Stay tuned for the next installment.