FOOD FEST!

So today I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon cooking with an Italian chef and professor in the fall here in Roma. The goal was to experience a multi course Italian meal and understand the social atmosphere of the traditional Italian meal.

Here we go.

So we arrived and spend the first hour or so starting the cooking, Robert (the chef) knew a lot about the history of Italian cooking and what makes it so good. Just to get some of it out of the way...

Italy until the 1860's was divided into a series of city-states (Lazio, Tuscany, Lombadry...) When Vitorrio Emanuelle conquered them all they became one unified nation, the first time since Antiquity. However in the 1500 years in between these city-states developed as their own countries, they had their own form of Italian dialect, their own cultural aspects, and their own food. Which is why there is no "Italian food", its specific to the region. For example, the best pizza is found in Napoli where it evolved, or the best fish is from the Amalfi coast or Venezia. Unlike America (though its moving in that direction) Italy does not produce food for quantity, but instead for quality. In short, food here kicks American foods ass. Which to a large extent is why Italian food is better, because of the quality of the primary ingredients and the use of lots of fresh herbs and spices (previously only used for the upper class). With that said, lets begin the meal!

here are the herbs

The first course was a potato and goat cheese terrine served on a bed of greens mixed with a balsamic vinegar dressing (best part of the dinner!). This course was made by thinly slicing potatoes and baking them quickly, then they were folded into a Terrine (porcelain dish that is rectangular) with goat cheese added in every few layers.

first course!

The second course was a omlette which was more onion than egg. The onions were carmelized and the egg was cooked slowly with a lot of sage and parsley (mmmmm).

omlette!

The third course was a ravioli made from scratch (which we helped with). Stuffed inside the ravioli was ground up mushrooms and thyme. Served with a heavy cream sauce.

mmmmmm

The fourth course was guinea fowl (this chicken was described as chicken that was way better than chicken). This was cooked with sage, shallots, rosemary, thyme, and had a meat coating on top similar to bacon (but not smoked). It was served with oil cooked potatoes and a pear sauce.

fourth course!

The final course was a sort of cream cheese blended in with chocolate and rum, served with blueberries.

dessert!

Of course we drank about a bottle of wine each and finished with a shot of Rum or Limoncello.



And that is an Italian meal!

This is how we looked afterwards....