Today’s discussion of regional Italian cooking takes us through Tuscany (capital: Florence). Along with Piedmont, Tuscany is recognized as being a prime region for wine making, producing many famous wines such as Chianti and Brunello. The region is also quite well known for it’s production of olive oil, chestnuts, and a special breed of cattle, [...]
Posts under ‘Culinary School’
Week 33, Day 1: Italian 5
The region of Emilia-Romagna (capital: Bologna) lies directly south of Lombardy and Veneto. According to our chef instructor, this part of Italy is well known for being the largest pasta producer in the whole country. The region is also well known for its abundant pasture land, thus enabling the production of many different forms of [...]
Week 32, Day 2: Italian 4
Today in class we covered Veneto (capital: Venice). For class purposes, we subdivide Veneto into 3 further regions: Venezia Euganea (aka Veneto…which is kind of confusing, I admit) to the South and home of Venice and Treviso, Venezia Giula (aka Friulia) to the East and home of Trieste, and finally Tridentina to the West, which [...]
Week 32, Day 1: Italian 3
Today we covered the region of Liguria (capital city: Genoa), located just below the region of Piedmont. It is a small region, but the only one to include both the alps and the coast. Liguria is often referred to as the ‘riviera’ of Italy due to it’s expansive coastline and handsome scenery, making for a [...]
Week 31, Day 2: Italian 2
Today we covered the region of Lombardy (capital city: Milan), directly to the east of Piedmont. It is the most populated region in Italy and also considered to be one of the richest provinces in all of Europe. Rice is a very important crop throughout all of northern Italy and in some places, is actually [...]
Week 31, Day 1: Italian 1
For 2 days a week over the next 6 weeks, we will be covering regional Italian cooking in great detail. On each day, we’ll learn about the specialties and characteristics of a specific region, beginning here with Piedmont, which is located in the Northwest corner of the country. The name Piedmont roughly translates to ‘foot [...]
Week 30, Day 1: Fusion 2
The home stretch is here! After enjoying more than a month off, the final 6 weeks of class begin tomorrow. After these classes, I have final exams and then I am officially done with my culinary school program. Pretty crazy stuff…it has really flown by. As I was preparing my camera to be called into [...]
Week 29, Day 2: Fusion 1
In class, we defined Fusion cuisine as “the combining of ingredients, techniques and presentations of different ethnic cultures for the purposes of creating a unified dish”. When you think about it, a lot of modern-day restaurants feature dishes in the fusion style, combining in the same dish many different tastes and flavors that until fairly [...]
Week 29, Day 1: Asian 3
Unlike the cuisines of China, Thailand, Vietnam and India discussed in previous weeks, Japanese cuisine has been relatively uninfluenced by neighboring countries. Japanese cuisine is recognized for meticulous preparation and presentation; food should be both pleasing to the palate as well as the eye. Great attention is paid to both the colors and textures of [...]
Week 28, Day 2: American 4
Our four week foray into the world of American cuisine concludes with a quick overview of Southwestern (Texas, Arizona and New Mexico) and Californian cuisine, with extra emphasis on the Southwest. Not surprising, due to their close proximity to the border, we see a lot of Mexican influence on the cuisines of these states. Corn [...]
