Piemonte

Over the last few weeks, I have taken my final stage of the year (to Piemonte) and completed my classroom hours. Piemonte is a region in the far northwestern corner of Italy. Torino is the largest city and the whole region has quite a lot of French influence. Apart from this, it is one of my favorite regions. It is renowned for its wine, including Barolo, Barbaresco, Moscato d'Asti, and many others. It is also the capital of the white truffle, Italian rice production, and home to many wonderful gastronomic traditions. My class traveled there for 4 days...needless to say we ate and drank very well! As the grape harvest season is here, we passed kilometers and kilometers of huge green vines loaded with beautiful, deep purple grapes. At the end of the stage, we atended the annual Slow Food Cheese Festical in Bra, where the Slow Food headquarters are located.

We ate a lot of cheese on this trip. Almost every meal replaced the meat course with a cheese plate.

At the cheese festival, I took a seminar on American Cheese and Beer. It made me proub to be an American...we are producing some GOOD cheeses

Hobnobbing with Carlo Petrini and other Slow Food big wigs.

Our visit to Aquerello Rice included a tour of the very well preserved barracks that the migrant rice workers used in the past. Primarily women worked the rice fields who came from the south every year for about 6 weeks.

I don't want to eat rice again for a LONG time. We were served nothing but rice for 3 meals in a row. Here is a sampling of 3 different varieties, served with what else but rice beer.

Osteria Francescana

Chef Massimo Bottura explaining his creations

This past weekend, I experienced perhaps the most interesting meal of my life so far. An example of the main strength of the university- CONNECTIONS- my colleagues and I enjoyed a private lunch at a restaurant ranking 13th in the world on the Pellegrino list. Chef Massimo Bottura, who visited the school in July, opened his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, exclusively for us. We enjoyed a 10 course meal with 3 wines, and were given explanations by the chef for each dish. We were 11 in number, there were 6 waitstaff. The meal was followed by a Bottura led tour of the restaurant, including his own private office and experimental kitchen. Though I have certainly read and studied it, this was my first actual encounter with molecular gastronomy (a growing movement which combines food memories and cool science to create mind blowing, convention altering dishes.) I will NEVER forget this meal!

The unassuming entrance...they were waiting for us at the door when we got out of the taxi.

Bring it on! Myself, Morimi, and Mandy waiting for the show to begin.

Interpretation of a Mortadella panino (or Bologna Sandwich). Mortadella mouse, gnoccho bread, powdered pistachios.

Foie Gras popsicle, coated with caramelized hazelnuts and almonds, with a 40 yr. old apple balsamic vinegar filling.

"Earth", lots of braised leeks, porcini, and truffles.

Parmigiano 5 ages, 5 ways.


Pasta e Fagioli

Ravioli filled with Lambrusco steamed cotecchino and black lentils.


Veal cheek with jus, over potatoes, with clorophyll on the plate.

"Garden," a surprising, yet aptly named sweet and sour vegetable palate cleanser.

Chocolate-Cherry explosion

Deconstructed Zuppa Inglese, a popular trifle dessert from the area.


And of course coffee to end the meal with petits fours

I say tomato...

Parma, roughly sharing a latitude with the state of Maine, has a much later growing season than what I'm accustomed to at home in Houston. While this time of year, the tomato plants in Houston are on their last leg, the tomatoes here are in the prime of their lives. Surprisingly, Parma is the Italian capital of industrial tomato production, with the headquarters of the leading company being only a 10 minute drive from my front door step. A few days ago we went on a tomato stage, a day of two extremes. In the morning we stopped at Stuard, an organization devoted to preserving both ancient and modern seed varieties. We were given free grazing privileges in their experimental tomato fields, or rather, during the field lecture, the more horticulturally inclined of us wandered off to explore, taste, and gather. I filled my bag, which I had brought in hope of this chance, to the brim with all sorts of interesting tomatoes mostly for the purpose of collecting the seeds. This was the exciting part of the day for me.
In the afternoon, we visited the aforementioned industrial processing company. The only comment I have about this is that I will now do everything in my power to never have to eat a canned or processed tomato ever again...

My field selections, hopefully none of which are hybrids!

The space-saving, less smelly method of preserving tomato seeds involves scooping them out and fermenting them in jars.

I had to improvise by cutting off the tops of water bottles to use as fermenting vessels. Now I wait for yeasts and bacteria to do their magic!