HANDS-ON
ITALIAN COOKING WITH CLASS
BY
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 4, 2017)
The
last thing I wanted to do during my brief stay in Italy over the holidays was
attend an Italian cooking class. First off, I’m not domestic and although I’m
not bad making my steamed sikumu wiki, I prefer not to cook.
I grew
up feeling women spend far too much of their precious time in the kitchen and
often with little gratitude or appreciation expressed. It’s supposedly taken
for granted that ‘women’s place’ is in the kitchen. But I’m afraid I don’t care
to be taken for granted by anyone..
But
since I was in Italy and there was one visiting family member who was super
keen to attend that Italian cooking class, I figured ‘when in Rome (or Italy
generally), do as the Romans (the Italians) do.
It was
a pleasant surprise to discover that I wasn’t merely attending a boring class
about how to make pasta and pizza. I was actually going on a delicious
adventure.
First,
we had to get to the class by climbing a steep mountain. Fortunately, we were
in a car with heaps of horse power, and not on foot. But still, the winding road
was a single lane (although meant to be a dual-carriage way), and it seriously
snaked its way uphill amidst a thick forest of trees that were swiftly losing
their leaves due to the cold weather that hits northern Italy during December.
Anyway,
when we finally reached the remote village ‘via dell’Angelo’ and saw the chef’s
unassuming house, the scene didn’t look promising. But then as soon as we
walked through the front door of Trattoria All’Angelo and met our jolly Italian
Chef Mauro Canaglia and his charming American wife Bari, both dressed in white
aprons, the cozy warmth of the solid wooden floors, walls, raftered ceiling and
wood-burning stoves quickly restored my hope that our journey might be fun and
perhaps even enlightening.
Having
held these cooking classes for 21 years, the couple is a seasoned team who insists
the four-course meal be made by the guests, under his careful tutelage, of
course.
Starting
off our morning with a classic cappuccino, espresso or macchiato and a slice of
his homemade 7-whole grain bread slathered with sweet apricot jam, all 20 of us
guests were then given an apron and a printed booklet filled with recipes for
each of the four courses we would prepare for our amazing meal.
As wine
is cheaper than water in Italy, after each course was made, we all got to sit
down and savor our culinary success with a glass of red or white wine (or
sparkling water in my case).
The
first course was a pumpkin strudel which we all got involved in making, either rolling
the dough, spicing up the fresh pumpkin or just munching the little nibbles (with
more wine) that were brought out by the chef after he’d assigned duties to
everyone.
It was
the sweet savory flavor of the strudel that got everyone’s mouthwatering for
more. So we were keen to get back to work preparing the pasta for second course
at the same time as some of us prepared course number three, the yummy meatloaf.
But
frankly what I was waiting for was the creamy, chocolatey desert that we
learned is an Italian classic called tiramisu.
First,
we got out the eggs, divided the whites from the yokes. Then, we whipped the
yokes till they were fluffy (our chef having all the best and most modern
equipment). After that we whipped the eye whites until they too were creamy,
light and fluffy. Then he had a special way of gently mixing them together,
after which we began to make layers: first came the sweetened fluffy stuff;
then came the sweet cookie that had been dipped in freshly made coffee mixed
with a touch of sweet liquor; after that came another layer of fluffy stuff and
finally each dish was sprinkled with dark chocolate slivers.
The
tiramisu was amazing and by then all the guests had gotten to know each other
quite well, having shared not just a sumptuous meal but the cooking of it as
well.
Plus
Bari and Mauro were such warm friendly people they were happy to tell us their
back story, even how he’d studied culinary science for five years before
starting work in several 5-star hotels in Europe and Canada.
But
then his Canadian company sent him to Saint Petersburg, Florida where Bari was waitressing
to help cover her university school fees.
‘We met
and a year later, we were married,” said Mari who had always wanted to start a
business. So they decided to return to his homeland of northern Italy.
“I gave
him 6 months to find a restaurant that had the most potential where we could
both work,” she said adding “My only condition was he find a place near his
family since we had two small children and I wanted family support.”
That’s
exactly what they did. Initially, their clientele was only Italians; but then
one day in the late 90s an American marketer came and took a class. He loved
the course and quickly sent word back to Americans living nearby, and since
then, they’ve been their main visitors; although ever since they got a website
(www.tratorria-all-angelo.
) their business has gone global.
One
thing that’s really charming about Mauro’s classes is that in addition to his
being a master chef and engaging teacher, he’s encyclopedic about Italian
cooking, history and culture, so it was hard for us to leave after our meal
since the couple had wonderful stories to share.
So I’ve
revised my view of cooking classes, especially the Italian one that’s both a
rustic restaurant and cooking school called Trattoria All’Angelo in northern
ltaly.
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