Italia: Day 14
This was the day I most anticipated, the day of the Tuscan cooking class.
Our understanding was that the class would be a two-day affair but, upon arrival, it had shrunk to a one-day affair or, more specifically, a one-afternoon affair. Actually, it had shriveled to a part-of-one-afternoon affair, leaving the morning and early afternoon free.
What to do? Well, since the CFO was in painting class in the morning, I hiked along the old roads to the nearby villages of Boggia and Stigliano.
Quaint little Boggia had, at best, a dozen dwellings and dirt streets.
Stigliano, somewhat larger, is trying to establish itself as a get-away resort.
On the way back to Montestigliano I found a walled cemetery with a little chapel at the edge of the woods.
A little crowded, it is still in active use.
Back at Montestigliano, I visited the somewhat bigger (and private) chapel there with seating for eight.
The relics of four saints are located on the altar in the little glassed containers.
Here's the skull of St. Bonæ. (The top of the skull is pointed toward you and the face looks toward the ceiling.) The other three relics were the skull of St. Saluatæ, an arm bone from St. Angeli and a leg bone from St. Fidelis. Yes, it is almost certain that the builder of the chapel lost his head and paid an arm and a leg for them.
Little did I suspect that all this morbidity was a mere preamble for the cooking class in the afternoon.
The "chef" turned out to be, not a Tuscan with great experience in regional cooking, but an English shrew who had lived there less than a decade. Indeed, I want my instructor's cultural biases to authentic cultural biases.
In "class" we basically watched her prep the evening meal for two hours. We chopped some celery, turned the pasta machine crank, assembled a ravioli or two and that was about it. We could have learned more in ten minutes by watching the Food Network on television ... for free.
She didn't know the difference between semolina and durum flour. (Both are made of durum wheat but semolina has a courser grind than the flour.)
She told us that porcini mushrooms could only be grown in Italy. (They are grown worldwide and, in fact, the ones she was using were from Romania.)
She told us that pasta dough made with eggs could only be use to make ravioli. (Yet she made linguine with the leftover dough.)
When asked why she was removing the nutritious skin from carrots and potatoes, she replied "Well, they have bean in the earth, haven't they?"
Oh, boy!
We demanded our money back and went to dinner that evening at a nice family-owned restaurant in nearby Orgia.
Indeed, the "cooking class" was the single disappointment of my entire sojourn in Italy.
Bummer.
Our understanding was that the class would be a two-day affair but, upon arrival, it had shrunk to a one-day affair or, more specifically, a one-afternoon affair. Actually, it had shriveled to a part-of-one-afternoon affair, leaving the morning and early afternoon free.
What to do? Well, since the CFO was in painting class in the morning, I hiked along the old roads to the nearby villages of Boggia and Stigliano.
Quaint little Boggia had, at best, a dozen dwellings and dirt streets.
Stigliano, somewhat larger, is trying to establish itself as a get-away resort.
On the way back to Montestigliano I found a walled cemetery with a little chapel at the edge of the woods.
A little crowded, it is still in active use.
Back at Montestigliano, I visited the somewhat bigger (and private) chapel there with seating for eight.
The relics of four saints are located on the altar in the little glassed containers.
Here's the skull of St. Bonæ. (The top of the skull is pointed toward you and the face looks toward the ceiling.) The other three relics were the skull of St. Saluatæ, an arm bone from St. Angeli and a leg bone from St. Fidelis. Yes, it is almost certain that the builder of the chapel lost his head and paid an arm and a leg for them.
Little did I suspect that all this morbidity was a mere preamble for the cooking class in the afternoon.
The "chef" turned out to be, not a Tuscan with great experience in regional cooking, but an English shrew who had lived there less than a decade. Indeed, I want my instructor's cultural biases to authentic cultural biases.
In "class" we basically watched her prep the evening meal for two hours. We chopped some celery, turned the pasta machine crank, assembled a ravioli or two and that was about it. We could have learned more in ten minutes by watching the Food Network on television ... for free.
She didn't know the difference between semolina and durum flour. (Both are made of durum wheat but semolina has a courser grind than the flour.)
She told us that porcini mushrooms could only be grown in Italy. (They are grown worldwide and, in fact, the ones she was using were from Romania.)
She told us that pasta dough made with eggs could only be use to make ravioli. (Yet she made linguine with the leftover dough.)
When asked why she was removing the nutritious skin from carrots and potatoes, she replied "Well, they have bean in the earth, haven't they?"
Oh, boy!
We demanded our money back and went to dinner that evening at a nice family-owned restaurant in nearby Orgia.
Indeed, the "cooking class" was the single disappointment of my entire sojourn in Italy.
Bummer.
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