Cutting the cheese

No, not farting you dirty minded people. Actually we made cheese this week, we made mozzarella and ricotta. Both were very easy to make and throughout the day we tried all sorts of Italian cheeses. The mozzarella balls we marinated in olive oil and herbs for a couple of days in the fridge and finally brought them out today and they were delicious. The ricotta we made into a dessert cheese. First of all to make ricotta all you do is take some whole milk and boil it with citric acid and some salt until the whey seperates from the curd. Strain it through cheese cloth and let it hang to let the moisture drip out. Then mix the curd with heavy cream. We then added honey and cinnamon, mixed it up, plated it and drizzled with honey and dusted with a little cinnamon to top it off. Yes, it was excellent and if it had been a cooking challenge we would have won.

The last two days we have been doing antipasti, vegetable yesterday and seafood antipasti today. Both were very good, however i prefer the seafood antipasti we made today. We made Tartara di tonno (tuna tartar), Sopressata di polpo (octopus terrine), and Crudi di pesce (basically raw fish garnished however you like). We also shuked some oysters and clams and dressed those up a bit as well and served them. Are octopus is marinating over night so i will let you know how that tastes after tomorrow. The rest of the dishes were very good, if you like raw fish, my favorite was the Crudi di pesce. I took some mackeral and sliced it thin, a grapefruit supreme, and some parsley and rosemary for decoration and drizzeled some lemon infused olive oil over top and a dash of sea salt. Excellent! (see pic at top)

Last night my mom was in town for business and so we went out to eat. We went to Salumaria Rossi which is owned by the Dean of my program Cesere Casella. It is a small place on the upper west side and is half restaurant, half deli selling fine italian salami's, chesses, and breads. It is an excellent little place and i highly recommend it to anyone making a trip to nyc. Also i am going to try and intern there over the next month to get some real experience in the kitchen!

As always if anyone wants recipes just let me know or if you have any questions please ask. Til next time...

Ciao

Chef Demonstration

Another good day of classes...I know some more Italian...Io sono ragazzo americano e studente dell' accademio culinario italiano. Just a little something for you and hopefully more to come.

But on to the exciting part of the day. There was a guest chef demonstration at the school today and the guest chefs were the Lee Brother's. Famous for their mail order catalogue for broiled peanuts and other fine southern food products. They also have two cookbooks out: Their first, The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and just released Simple Fresh Southern. Also have done travel and food writings for the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, and Martha Stewart Living. It was a great demo and they explained how they got started in cooking and a mail order food service to now having two cookbooks and being on Foodnetwork and the Today Show. They cooked three of their recipes for us which were all very good. The first was their cabbage and lime salad with roasted peanuts. Second they served us collard greens with poblano chiles and chorizo which was excellent and i am not a big fan of collard greens but these were excellent. Finally we had braised oxtails with simple grits. Another excellent dish, the meat just fell off the bone and was so savory and flavorful and went great with the grits.

If anyone wants the recipes I can email them to you. Also some pictures were added and i will continue to update them.

Ciao!

Buongiorno!!

First day of class is in the books. Unfortunately there was no cooking and thus no cooking challenges, just reading, studying, and reciting Italian. We did get to have lunch at the school which was prepared by students who are in the French program. It was pretty good for a buffet type meal. Our first day in the kitchen will be on wednesday.

I guess the exciting thing that happened today was taking the wrong train this morning and going the wrong direction. Thankfully i was still on time for class and i learned a little bit more about the city. I figure the best way to get to know the city is to get lost because then you never know what you might stumble upon.

Going to post pictures soon!

New York, New York

Well I am finally here, actually got here on monday but in any case i am here. I have to admit i was a bit nervous sunday night but the last three days here in the city i have realized i had nothing to be nervous about, i love the city and know this was definitely the right move.

Thankfully the weather has been great and i have been able to go all around the city walking around and familarizing myself with the city. My apartment is in a great location in Brooklyn Heights with all these small tree lined streets and old brick buildings. Three blocks down is the Brooklyn Heights promenade which overlooks the East River and looks over to the Financial district of downtown Manhattan. Great views of the city, statue of liberty, and brooklyn bridge.

With the beautiful weather i have run into central park each day and found a new route each day, not too bad for a park in the middle of a city full of steel and concrete. And for those of you in colorado you will be glad to know that i have found my new "fontenaro" which is the bridle path and "running track" around jackie o res in the middle of central park. I imagine i will do most of my workouts there.

That's it for now, i have orientation tomorrow afternoon then classes start monday morning!

The beginning of a new adventure

I am starting on an exciting new journey into the culinary arts. This blog will be used to keep everyone updated on the exciting new things i am doing. I will post recipes, pictures, activities, and what ever else comes across my mind.

First I will let everyone know that I will be attending the French Culinary Institute in New York City and will be enrolled in their Italian Culinary Academy course. This course involves spending time in nyc as well as Parma, Italy. Very much looking forward to both nyc and Italy.

I start March 15th in nyc but am spending some time at home in Michigan right now, so, when i get to new york more posts will follow.