We got up a little later today, as the bus did not come to pick us up until 8:30am. School started promptly at 9am so we were dressed up in our chef's finest this morning. Chef Piero (not Pietro-I was confused-what a surprise!) shied us two dishes this morning-"Ricotta Flan with Stewed Pancetta and Gorgonzola cream" and "Veal tenderloin with Porcini mushrooms". The fresh Porcini mushrooms are spectacular here! We only see them dried in America. Apparently they do not grow in the States, not sure why-although they grow wild here and are huge. It was a little confusing about what we were suppose to do, the chef did a little, then we did a little but we all managed to get out of sync! And let me tell you, induction cook tops take a LOT of getting used to!! Some of the ovens kept turning off all by themselves! All that said, these are probably dishes I would make again at home. What I wish they would teach us though, is plating techniques. Chef Piero's plates were magnificent although he has many years of practice. And even though we ate what we cooked for ourselves, they still fed us lunch! Although Cris had issues with their portion size or rather lack of "appropriate" portion size. We were served Veal Tartar ( raw minced veal with flavorings) topped with blanched baby artichokes, Creamed lentils topped with whole lentils topped with fried fish pieces and Panna Cotta (correctly cooked we were told).
We had about a half hour free so went to look around Torinese-the town the school is in. A quaint little town, although most of the businesses were closed for the lunch hours. Yes, I said hours, lol. They can be closed from 12 to 3 or 4pm for lunch!
At 2:15 we left on our field trip to the chocolate laboratory. It really is a small chocolate factory called Guido Castagna Ciocolata. It was about a half an hour's drive from school. Guido is a 36 year old man that has been an electrician and a pastry chef but has decided he enjoys making good quality chocolates! He showed us the bug pods the beans come in and when they are ripe, you can hear the cocoa beans move like a rattle inside the pod. The beans are removed and then shipped raw to each purveyor, who then roast their own beans. Roasting cocoa beans for a short times gives you a high acidity, low bitterness bean. Roasting the cocoa beans fir a long time gives you low acidity but makes them bitter. He let us open a roasted bean so we could taste them. They insides had a very mild, light chocolate flavor, somewhat surprising! Guido buys most of his beans from Mexico but gets them from any country that produces choice beans. He does however make sure the company he buys from does fair trade and is sustainable, which is nice. He would talk about several chocolate flavorings and then bring out samples, which of course we "must try"! He makes gianduia which is a chocolate hazelnut flavoring because
Piedmont is famous for their hazelnuts. They are harvested in September and used right away, although Guido does age his chocolate anywhere from two months to one year. Apparently it improves the flavor of the chocolate! We did have a chance to taste more chocolates and also to buy chocolates, which everyone did! It was a very pleasant afternoon!
Back at the hotel, I elected to have a quiet evening. Many if my classmates went downtown but Cris, Alta and I had a light dinner at the restaurant next door. It's early to bed for me tonight, we have two field trips tomorrow, no cooking, and we leave the hotel at 6am!! So....Buona Serra!
No comments:
Post a Comment