Easter Weekend

So as im learning slowly but surely one of the great perks of being a culinary student is that everyone can cook ( for the most part =P) so holidays like easter are wonderful! There were about 13 of us who stayed in Colorno for the weekend and we all cooked something for easter and had a delicious meal. Shannon and I made lamb, ( she stuffed her half, and i just roasted mine) and I made a deconstruction of eggplant parm and tirimisu. It was all decent. Pati made vegetables like four different ways, very delish and very colorful, matt made stuffed mushrooms and lasagna and coldcut bread. simone made risotto and i forget what else was there but it was all yum. Christina ( my older sister for those of you who dont know) came from Rome for the weekend with francesco. We had a great time. it was nice to see her considering I hadnt seen her since Christmas ( its just too long) They got here late friday (its a 5 hour drive from rome) so we just hung out and chitchatted, saturday we went to the market in Parma which was interesting considering there are two markets and we couldnt find the one we needed and every person we asked told us something different. We found it with about 20 minutes to spare. And we basically spent those 20 minutes talking to the man who sold us the lamb.. who reminded me of my poppy. We brought some proscuitto di parma and some parmagiana cheese.. cause i mean were in parma so we might as well. I made christina and francesco shrimp ravioli for dinner which were okay.. they liked them but i feel like they could've been better lol. I loveee making ravioli.. i cant believe i ever bought them. So yea all in all the weekend was great. We had monday off and it was beautiful out so matt and i walked basically alll around Colorno.. seriously gorgeous weather. School today was decent were doing the emilio romana region ( which is the region in which i reside) So we had history and then a chef demo. the demo was okay.. i tried eel for the first time.. it was okay. its a very fatty fish so it doesnt have that fresh seafood taste that i like. but it was something new.. i also tried rabbit.. which i didnt love it has a fake gamey texture if that makes any sense. And we also had lamb, which next to goose is probably the best meat ive ever had. So yea schools pretty awesome. my chef is awesome. and so are the su chefs..so yea.. everythings peachy! tomorrow we have a full day of kitchen.. so i plan on getting my ass kicked.. because thats basically what im here for =) and! we get to make ravioli tomorrow .. so naturally im in my glory. i think thats all i have for now. i will hopefully be posting pictures on facebook later cause i dont know how to post pictures on here.. but yea look out for those cause they'll be up soon! and now. i have to go cut shannons hair.. because apparently im qualified for that. wish me luck! Ciao bellas =)

Update

Okay, so since i basically suck at blogging and keeping up with this lovely blog that i created and told no one about I'm going to update you on the past two weeks, and then hopefully it will be easier for me to maintain this lol. The first week was a bit hectic, the kitchen was absolute hell. Very different from new york. the chef has no mercy lol.. if it sucks, he tells you, and thats that. But i like him anyway.We are only in the kitchen two days out of the week, which kinda sucks, but whatever. The other time is spent in italian, history, wine tasting, and guest chef demos. its all awesome. The history teacher is mindnumbingly dull, and he looks and sounds like austin powers, but the material is somewhat interesting so its not a complete bore. My italian teacher speaks better English than the entire class put together (in reference to grammer and what not) so thats an interesting sich. I feel like i can really learn a lot from her but i need to just start speaking italian if i'm ever going to learn it. wine tasting is cool we taste wines from whichever two regions were studying for the week, and we compare like how the same grapes grown in different places taste differently and produce a different product. Yesterday was our first field trip. We went to piemonte. First stop was the only town in all of italy with no bar. so we couldnt get coffee, and then we went to a rice field.. or as i like to call a ricery. I did not know there was so mcuh information about freakin rice. We were there for like.. three hours. Some of it was very interesting, most of it i will never remember and most likely never use. but either way it was an experience. (pictures soon to come). We also got a like.. five course meal at the ricery. first spec with parmagiana .. pepers w a tuna sauce (not good) and another mean which i can only think of the american way of saying it.. so i'll write that.. svooyaled.. sound it out lol.. then we got an articoke tart.. and a broccoli tart.. both were decent.. the for what i thought was the main course we got asparagus risotto.. needless to say i was more than stuffed by the time that came..and what do ya know.. but there was another course of mushroom risotto.. i mean i know we were at a riceary but cummon two plates of risotto! and then we got dessert.. a rice cookie.. and an apricot tart.. (both tasted and looked like pepperidge farm lol.. but yea that was good.. it was a nice day all together. The we left the ricery.. which btw was def used as an underground concentration camp at one point.. and we wernt to a winery. Whcih was awesome. Absolutely gorgeous. its pretty self explanitory nd i'll post pics from that too.. but yea it was a great first two weeks. christina is here now and actually on her way to pick me up. we have to go to the market in parma to get our easter lamb!! i'll try to keep of top of this but the days are hectic! Buona pasqua! ttys =)

First day at Alma

NO ONE was on time! I dont know what the deal with Italians are but they don't have a care in the world when it comes to punctuality. The weather was gross and we had to stand outside in the rain until Francesca.. (the person hired by FCI to work at Alma) strolled in 40 minutes late. anywho it was a typical orientation, lots of sitting around, lots of boring information. The school however is gorgeous! I cant wait for a nice sunny day to take some pictures.

The layout of the program is as follows we have school every day. two days a week we have guest chefs that come from the two regions we are studying. We also have italian two mornings a week..(at 8 am!.. yikes!) and then we have history two days a week.. which is taught by a british man who resembles austin powers, maybe just with better teeth. and then there is wine tasting. Which is really interesting.. and the teacher is awesome.. the only problem with the wine sich is that it is at 9 am.. i know italians like their wine but thats a bit extreme, no?

The first day in the kitchen was absolute hell. We began the day tasting wine from the regions Liguria and Sardegna.

First day in Italy

We got to Milan at around 7:30 in the morning. We took an hour bus ride to the center of milan and then sat there for 9 or 10 hours because apparently sunday in italy is like... a nonexistant day and i don't think they could get the shuttle (that we ordered and paid for in advance lol) to pick us up before 1 (which is actually 2 pmish) so if you can imagine we had quite the commute lol.. we walked amount Milan for a little while, got some food..NOTHING WAS OPEN.. so i got a mozzarella e pomodoro calazone... shocking i know. so different from my diet in NY lol.. anywho it was rainy and disgusting so we ended up passing out in a hotel lobby for a little bit..when the bus finally arrived we got on it and passed out there lol.. it was a two hour trip from the milano center to our school in parma. We got our keys and settled into our appts. Everything is really nice. the kitchen is fully stocked with all the appliances we could need.. dishwasher included..(how great!) the bathroom however does not have toilet paper. i suppose thats because they have a badey ( spelling??).. but yea thats that lol.. um what else? Oh! we settled into our appts and then went for dinner. we met these kids who are in the class ahead of us so they showed us the area a bit.. its a very small town and everything is basically on one street.. but its nice.. Dinner was interesting.. we traveled half way around the world to order what was basically a chicken mcnugget (gross!) at an irish pub... irony at its finest lol.. either way we had a good time at the bar. The people in my program are great (there are 19 of us), just a generally great group of people! Im so excited to be here!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello all! I promised a blog, and here it is. The purpose of my blog is too keep you posted on my culinary adventures. In order to do so I think I should tell you about the program I am enrolled in. The french culinary school (NYC) is partnered with their sister school (Alma) which is located in the small town of Colorno, Parma. Which is located in the tuscany region. The program is thirty weeks in total and is broken down into three parts, approximately ten weeks each. The first part which I have already completed took place at the French Culinary Institute (FCI) in NYC. In short that part of the program was the easier part. We learned basic cooking techniques and traditional dishes, and basically worked to acquire the first building blocks of our culinary journey. The second portion of the program, which I am currently one week into, takes place at Alma in Colorno. This blog will be primarily about my experience at Alma, and in the last phase of the program. The last phase is an internship at a michelin star restaurant somewhere in Italy. I will also try to post some pictures, but as most of you probably know, I don't typically keep up with my pictures. There is however one album on Facebook with a few shots of my school, and our first few nights out on the town. Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments as I am writing this blog as a way to keep in touch with all of you wonderful people at home =)