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.

February 3, 2019

The pig arrived on Sunday in the back of a van (well, actually it was a pig and a half).

The pigs were raised by a local family that also has a restaurant.  They were fed restaurant scraps (really good food) and finished with hazelnuts and chestnuts for the last three weeks or so.  Hazelnuts and chestnuts are plentiful here.

Each half-pig weighed about 165 pounds.  Getting to the school from the nearest access point for a vehicle involves at least one staircase.  Getting a 165-pound side of pig down a staircase is a group effort requiring strength and coordination.

The pigs went into our walk-in cooler to await class on Monday.

In addition to the 13 of us who are on this three-month odyssey of Italian Regional Cuisine, we were joined by 5 additional students for Pig Week.  We refer to them as the Pig People.  Apparently, we will also be joined by Gelato People, Conserve People, and Cheese People for a week each, during the remaining 10 weeks.  That leaves about seven weeks where it’s just the 13 of us.  I don’t think we’re joined by any Alcohol People for our week of mixology and distilling.

On Monday, January 28th, Chef John demonstrated how to butcher a pig into the primal cuts for processing into traditional Italian salumi (plus discussing a few variations on the cuts based on the objectives of the person doing the butchering).  Afterwards the other two half-pigs were brought into the kitchen for us to butcher.  I have three pages of (sometimes cryptic) notes on how Chef butchered the pig.

But first, of course, we had to taste.  We tasted at least seven different cured meats, all but one of them made at the school.

After being butchered into primal cuts, several large cuts were salted as part of the initial cure.  These included:

1. Pancetta Rotolo (rolled pancetta)
2. Pancetta Tesa (flat pancetta)
3. (American) Bacon
4. Capocollo

Chef wanted to completely disinfect the kitchen so we didn’t prepare dinner that evening.  Instead we went to La Tavernetta, the restaurant in the hotel on the same property as the school, for dinner.  It was a special event with one table full of local chefs and us at another table.  The meal was intended to highlight three versions of a local stewed trip dish, Morzello di Catanzaro, each flavored with a different hot pepper.  The first course, was an ‘nduja-stuffed potato puree on top of caciocavallo fonduta.  Then came three courses of stewed trip served inside of bread.  After the second, Mariana asked that we just get the stew, minus the bread, for the third round as the bread was not getting eaten (much of the tripe was not getting eaten either but that’s a different matter).  The meal finished with pistachio gelato on crème anglaise, topped with melted chocolate.

On Tuesday, we continued with making:

1. Franken-Fileto [see below]
2. Guanciale (cured pork jowl)
3. Porchetta [see below]
4. Pickled Pork (like corned beef but made with pork)
5. Lardo (a yummy slab of cured pork fat—similar to salt pork but better—not to be confused with rendered “lard” which is called strutto in Italian)
6. Prosciuttino (similar to prosciutto but smaller as the weather in Calabria is not conducive to curing an entire ham)
7. Speck
8. Tonno del Chianti

Butchering a pig for Italian Artisan Salumi (salumi is the Italian word that is equivalent to the French word charcuterie) creates a whole new perspective.  In the States, cuts like the loin and tenderloin are among the most expensive.  When purchasing a whole pig, every part of the pig costs as much as every other.  The most valuable cuts for curing are not the loin and tenderloin because they are too lean.  Much of those cuts ended up being made into sausage!

One of the tenderloins was turned into a Frankenstein version of a cured meat (Franken-Fileto).  The loin was carefully butterflied and topped with a layer of fatback that was pounded thin.  The combination, about 80% tenderloin and 20% fat, was salted for curing, tightly rolled in plastic wrap for shape, and hung in the refrigerator for 48 hours before being, unwrapped, tied and hung in the hanging room.

Traditional Porchetta is made from a whole suckling pig with the bones removed.  Porchetta-style roasts abound in Italy.  The one we made consisted of a slab of pork belly (the cut from which bacon and pancetta are made) rolled around the loin, tied, and roasted for hours.  Traditional seasonings include garlic, rosemary and fennel.  Chef opted to slater the meat, before rolling, with a massive quantity of pureed truffles.  [We have consumed an obscene quantity of fresh truffles since starting this course.]  The Porchetta went into the fridge to be pulled out for dinner on Wednesday.

Chef got creative and demonstrated the production of Rabbit Porchetta using 20 rabbit bellies and rabbit fat (remember the rabbits we butchered with stone knives?).  The Rabbit-chetta was cooked sous vide, then chilled, smoked, and brushed with maple syrup (OK, so it’s not Italian but it was good!)  He also made a Lamb-chetta from four lamb bellies that ended up being served as a snack of Lamb and Eggs a few days later.

Dinner was at a local pizzeria as the kitchen, once again, needed to be sanitized.

Wednesday started with a lecture on the science of meat curing by Chef Juan.  Other than herbs and spices for flavoring, the only product used at the school to cure meat is salt.  Absolutely no nitrates or nitrites are added.

The previous days as we were butchering the pigs, anything not destined for a specific purpose was put into one of two piles labelled Bollito #1 and Bollito #2.  Bollito simply means boiled.  Bollito #1 contained bones (like ribs) with some meat attached.  Bollito #2 contained all the other bits and pieces (specks of meat, gristle, silver skin, fat that wasn’t good for sausage making, etc.).  These were all soaked for a day in cold water in the fridge and then boiled…and boiled…and boiled.  The head and ears were also boiled.

Bones with meat attached (like ribs), from Bollito #1, were served with some broth, salsa verde, and bread as a snack!  The fat skimmed off the top of all the bollito pots was turned into strutto (lard).  Bits of meat from the head were turned into ‘nduja or coppa di testa (head cheese).  Any remaining bits became frischilimiti.  The broth was concentrated to make gelatin.

Frischilimiti (all those tiny bits of cooked pork) were crisped in a sauté pan with lard (of course, being pig week), eggs were nestled on top and when appropriately cooked, served as a morning snack with cotechino and bread.

The rest of Wednesday was devoted to seasoning batches of meat for our cured salami and fresh sausage.  The cured salami included:

1. Salsiccia (which is cured and not served fresh)
2. Sopressata
3. Salame Napoli
4. Salame Brianza
5. Salame Gentile
6. Ciauscolo
7. Salame Milano
8. Salame Fabriano
9. Salame Felino
10. Strolghino
11. Lucanica
12. Salame di Mugnano
13. Tartufo
14. Cotechino

After those were made, the 18 of us were set free to each make a fresh sausage of our choosing.  Mine was 75% lean pork and 25% fat, seasoned with hot red Calabrian pepper, sweet red Calabrian pepper, coarsely ground black pepper, fennel seed, garlic, and red wine.

Making salami is serious business.  There is no approximating the proportion of fat and lean.  When butchering we separated completely the meat and fat.  These were then recombined in specific proportions based on the requirements of each recipe.

Thursday started off with Chef continuing the bacon that had been salted three days earlier.  The salt and sweet mixture (different for each) was washed off with some sort of alcohol.  The one cured with salt and brown sugar was washed in Jack Daniels, smoked over chestnut wood, then glazed with maple syrup.  The salt and white sugar one was rinsed with Amaretto, smoked over pistachio shells, and glazed with a concentrated coffee syrup.  The salt and honey cured one was rinsed in brandy, smoked over chestnut wood, and glazed with honey.  Each was put in the fridge where they would stay, uncovered, for about a week to allow the glaze to crystallize.  At that point they could be used or vacuum packed and kept in the fridge for up to six months.

The speck was rinsed in grappa, coated with finely ground black pepper, smoked, then put in netting to be hung and aged before use.

On the spur of the moment, mid-morning, Chef took some of the concentrated liquid from Bollito #2, mixed it with orange-zest-infused 97.5% alcohol and some sugar, to make “Jello” shots.  These went in the fridge and appeared at dinner on Saturday.

Chef then made Tonno del Chianti which means Tuna from Chianti.  It is a well-known and beloved pork product that resembles oil-packed tuna.  When butchering the pigs, we carefully removed the flap meat.  This was boiled in a mixture of half vinegar and half water abundantly flavored with onions and bay leaves until fork tender then cooled in the cooking liquid.  It was packed into jars with seasonings and either covered with extra-virgin olive oil or the cooking liquid and processed in a boiling water bath.  We tasted some Tonno del Chianti from the previous production.  I am most definitely making this stuff!!!

The rest of the day was spent stuffing all the salami and our personal sausages.  The ground pork that was left after each of us took our portion for sausage the previous day had been seasoned for soppressata; nearly 20 pounds of it!  A few of us assisted Maria, one of the dishwashers, stuff it into large intestine, as is traditional.  Although Maria’s job is to wash everything and keep the kitchen tidy, she is an expert at curing meat.  A warm, caring and wonderful person she feels like a grandmother though she’s a decade younger than I am.  Apparently, she and her sister kill, butcher, and cure four pigs every year—all within about a week!  I cannot imagine how they do this.  It took four days for 18 of us, not counting staff, to do a pig and a half.

We went to the hanging room to hang the meats that were ready.  Some need to be kept under refrigeration or cured at a warmer temperature before hanging.  Cured meats are given a light smoking two or three times a day for the first four days, or so, after hanging.  They do not taste smoky but the smoke acts as another preservative.

Friday morning we went to the mercatino.  Friday afternoon saw the production of Coppa di Testa (head cheese) and ‘Nduja.  We tasted several different versions of head cheese made a few weeks earlier, all were very good and quite different from anything I’ve had in the States.  The best thing made with all the “bits” was ‘nduja.  ‘Nduja is a spicy, spreadable salame.  Chef’s version is approximately 1/3 cooked meat (mostly from the head), 1/3 raw fatback, and 1/3 Calabrian red chile (both a “paste” that resembles tomato paste as well as dried in powdered form).  Everything is stuffed into a casing and hung to age.

Chef Juan made blood sausage and bratwurst.  Neither was particularly Italian, though Italians do make blood sausages.  Both were great.  The blood sausage was revelatory!  With the main part of class over for the day, several of us stuck around to complete “maintenance” of salumi that had been started earlier in the week.

That evening dinner consisted of all fresh the sausages that we had made, expertly grilled by Chef Juan, and an array of accompaniments.

With Pig Week over, Menu Planning and Execution, our next adventure, was scheduled to start on Saturday at 11 AM.