What's cooking! This morning we took our cooking class in Florence, in the Center of Tuscany. Very well done class. I think everyone in our class learned plenty plus we had a great meal bearing the fruits of our labor. We were in a small group of 9, so a rather intimate group, all very interesting people. A couple from New Zealand, two ladies from Leads, England, two sisters originally from Cuba, now in Miami and Utah, a gal from California currently hiking around Europe as well as us two.
We first met the tour company reps at a pre-arranged Piazza. From there we were then taken to meet our chef/ instructor, Francesco. Francesco is a passionate and knowledgable young man who has tremendous skills and was able to convey his knowledge very well.
Close to where we met, there is a huge market that opens about 5:00AM so all of the locale establishments can buy their fresh meats, cheeses and vegetables to prepare for today's faire. It's all organic and local. The smells were wonderful! Mushrooms, carrots, fruit. Amazing smells.
Our chef gave us an in depth tour, letting us know what a commercial chef would go through every day, looking for particular qualities in what they were buying.
We learn some things about fish and octopus, about different meats and talked quite a bit about steaks from two different types of cows that they raise locally. We did have samples of black and white truffles as well as olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
We walked a bit to the cooking school and began preparing our meal.
Our menu:
Tomato Bruschette
Fresh Egg Pasta with Ortolana Sauce
Polpettone Al. Forno
and Panna Cotta with Strawberry Sauce for desert.
Excellent meal and a great experience. Our dinning room was the 600 year old cellar of the building. Things concluded around 3:00 so Janet and I took a stroll around Florence and did a little window shopping.
By around 5:00, we found ourselves standing in front of a small Irish Pub that we had discovered the previous night. The World Cup USA vs Germany would be starting in about an hour. After watching the US loose, we called it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment