Teachers

Well, I was hoping to be able to catch up and finish talking about our adventures in Israel before moving on to the other countries, but now I realize that isn't going to happen.  Maybe, if we get creative, we can include some flashbacks, where appropriate.

We have discovered (or, rather, rediscovered again) the value of a good teacher.  When you find someone who is really good at what they do, really enjoys sharing what they know and is really good at communicating it, it is a can't miss combination.  Our most recent example of this was an absolutely fantastic experience we had yesterday.  Of course everyone has heard about the great food in Italy, so we decided to see if there were any cooking classes around.  Dara, working her magic on the internet, found one just down the street from our apartment.  Five hours in a real restaurant kitchen cooking and eating a 4 course meal.  We were all very excited! 

We walked into the restaurant at 10:00 and were warmly greeted by Erica, a nice American woman.  "Hey, wait a second," we all thought.  "This isn't what we bargained for."  She seemed to read our thoughts (or had gotten these thoughts often enough from other customers) that she quickly reassured us that the chef was Italian, back in the kitchen getting everything ready.  Over the next few minutes, the rest of the students arrived -- a family of 4 from Chicago (the kids were in their 20's), a young couple on their honeymoon from Wales, a lady from Chicago and Erica's mother -- 12 in all.

After a brief introduction from Erica, we met Andrea (Ahn-dray-ah), the chef, and got to work.  It was great!  We all took turns doing different jobs as Andrea explained about traditional Roman foods and recipes, the different foods we'd be using, preparation tips and more.  As the sign of a great teacher, he made sure that not only was everyone able to do it, but everyone felt that it was something that they would be able to do again on their own (whether that is the case or not remains to be seen...).

Due to cooking times involved, we started making the desert first -- individual chocolate lava cakes.  While Ari and I weighed and melted the chocolate and the butter, Dara and Ellie cracked and separated the eggs and we were off.  The kitchen was tiny -- I'd say it was designed for 3 people.  How they run a whole restaurant out of it, I'll never know.  Even in the tight quarters, we were all able to work -- the rest of the people in the class were very nice and were great with the kids.  Of course, Ellie and Ari weren't shy about rolling up their sleeves and getting their aprons dirty (they gave us all the standard issue black aprons, naturally).

I'd say the toughest course to make was the appetizer -- fried/steamed whole artichokes.  Given a choice, artichokes certainly is not something that any of us would have chosen to make and eat.  The hard part was cleaning the artichokes -- peeling off the out leaves, stripping the stems then carving them just right with the tip of the knife.  After we had them just right, we stuffed the Roman mint and garlic into the tops, browned the tops in olive oil and set them on the stove to steam.  Rather than keeping you in suspense, I'll tell you know that they were delicious.  I guess I have only tasted artichokes that are in salads and never really liked them.  But these were great -- stem and all.

The messiest course to make was the saltimbocco (translated literally: jumps in your mouth).  Andrea explained to us the differences between different types of meat (veal, old veal and steak) and prosciutto.  He had just the right type of meat (old veal, meaning the cow was between 12 and 16 month old), prosciutto and cheese (edam) thinly sliced and ready for us.  We cut them into bite-sized pieces, stacked them just right, folded them just right, added a leaf of fresh sage and held it all together with a toothpick.

The course that was the most fun to make was the pasta.  If you've never made fresh pasta before, it seemed incredibly easy and it was the most fun you can have in a kitchen without a fuzzy-pumper barber shop.

We prepared all the food first, and since most things only took a few minutes to cook (the exception being the artichokes) sat down for lunch and just went back into the kitchen to finalize each course just before eating it.  During the whole time, Andrea kept up with an informative and entertaining discourse about the different foods and preparations.  Either Andrea was a great teacher, or it was surprisingly easy.  Now Ellie keeps asking us when we can cook again.

Next, I'll be writing about some other great teachers we've found along the way so far.

Delicious local foods to be used in our lesson.  Le Fate, the restaurant where we cooked, is a zero-kilometer restaurant, meaning that they use exclusively local products bought directly from the producers.  You can find Le Fate in tripadvisor and at www.lefaterestaurant.it

Here's Ellie cracking the eggs to be used for our pasta.  Note the beautiful, bright orange color of the yokes.  Andrea taught us that this was because the chickens that laid the eggs are fed a higher quality feed of wheat, instead of the typical corn and/or grass.

Here, Ari and Ellie are breaking up the basil.  Andrea taught us not to cut the basil with a knife since it will oxidize and turn brown. 

Here's Noelle filling the tin-foil cups with the chocolate lava cake batter.  There's even a reason why Andrea uses these cups, instead of china ramekins, to cook the desserts:  he mentioned that the "real" dishes would get too hot and the batter would keep cooking too long, leaving you with no lava in your lava cakes...and that would be very sad.

Here, Rachel, Joel, Ellie and Ari work on peeling and chopping the tomatoes for our sauce.

Ellie's perfect bite-sized saltimbocca - once cooked, you just pop them in your mouth.  Yum!

Here, Rachel and Adam, the newlyweds from Wales, stir the delicious tomato sauce that also had some sauteed red onion, a little eggplant, and a little olive oil in it.

These beautiful purple artichokes are just in season.  In fact, we were the first class to get to use them this year. 

There was a very specific way to clean and carve the artichokes in preparation for cooking.  Using only the very tip of your knife, you work your way around the artichoke cutting one leaf deep as you spiral around.  After carving the artichoke, you must rub the stem and top with a half of a lemon to make sure it doesn't turn brown.  Then, put it in a bowl of lemon water.

Ari and Ellie ended up being pros at carving artichokes...of course!

Andrea made sure Ellie carved her artichoke correctly... and joked around with her too.  At one point, he schemed with Ellie when he felt one of our other classmate's, Ashley's, aprons was too clean.  He distracted Ashley while Ellie walked over and "accidentally" tripped and threw flour onto her apron.  Very cute.

After sauteing the artichokes, they were put in a pot, stem up, to cook for a while...the pot was filled with a layer of olive oil, and then water to make sure they didn't burn.

Ari is whisking the eggs in a "bowl" of flour.  The trick is to use your wrist to whisk and to make sure air is put into the batter.  You slowly add the flour from the "bowl" as you go.

Here's Mark kneading the dough...it wasn't really very hard.  In fact, the dough was a beautiful bright color (because of the eggs) and very soft.  Andrea pointed out that no matter how much we kneaded the dough, it couldn't be ruined (unlike cookie dough that includes butter)...only adding too much flour would ruin the pasta dough.

Beautiful pasta...

Ellie and Ari putting their dough through the pasta machine

Here are Andrea and Erica plating the desserts...they were definitely soft and delicious inside.  The key - use only the best quality chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa (75+%)

Presentation is everything.  As Andrea drilled into our heads - we first eat with our eyes, and then with our mouths...the food MUST look good.