As I was waiting to be picked up at the train station in Brescia a sudden panic eveloped me. I had arrange this trip on line without knowing anyone invovled. Melina Puntoriero was in Austrailia, the courses were in Italy, I was in the United States. What... if... no one... comes. What would I do? This review is to assure you that someone will come pick you up and you will have the most intense instruction of a life time from some of the most generous and well known chefs in Italy. Not personalites or "famous names" but real hard working restaurant and bakery owning chefs. This is not vacation play but a learning experience that will greatly enhance your professional life. While a hobbiest would certainly enjoy the experience, I think this course is for the serious chef. If I could afford to do it, I would send every chef I have in my restaurant to these classes. In fact in 2014 I did just that, one of my chefs took the one week, let's do it all class. It's eye opening. American Italian cooking is not at all the same thing as he learned.
I took two weeks. The bread class and the pasta class. Mastro Fabio Bertolli was so generous with his time he even took us to his bakery and invited us to lunch at his home. Unfortunately I became very sick with strep throat and missed some of my classes. Melina ensured that a doctor came to see me at the hotel and I was able to obtain antibiotics. This is to tell you that you are in caring hands and everything is done for you to be comfortable. I was so sick I don't remember a whole lot from the class except that we made massive amounts of every kind of bread imaginable. You should know baker's percentages and the metric system before you go. I think every kitchen ought to be metric anyway because it is so much easier to scale recipe. Base 16 American system is impossible. So study up on that before you arrive to conserve time. A week is very short when there is so much to learn.
Manuelina Culinary classes are held at Cast Alimenti - Italy's premiere culinary school. It's equivalent to our CIA. It is equipped with the very latest in Italian culinary technolgy. I have never seen such advanced equipment other than at SIGEP. The school partners with the best manufacturers in Italy so the students work with the lasted advancements. While I was there the Italian pastry team was preparing for competition at SIGEP so we got to taste their chocolates and watch ice carving and more. Classes there are held in Italian only. Our classes were taught in English or translated by Melina. We ate lunch at the school which was a buffet of what the students made in class that day. You will not go hungry! In fact I think this is the first time in my life I was never hungry and considered not eating period. Between tasting what you make, outtings, lunches, the meal plan, you will go home with very tight clothes. So my advise it to learn to graze as hard as that may be to do because everything is tempting and delicious.
The pasta class was a lot of fun for me, partly because I felt better and because I make the pasta at my restaurant. Walter Zanoni is an amazing pasta master. He makes everything look easy. He is one of those chefs who keeps no secrets and shares all of his knowledge with his students and peers. We covered 40 or 50 different kinds of pasta. You can see our pasta boards. The students from Cast Almenti came to critic our work. They come from all over Italy so they all wondered why we had not done a specific pasta from their region. We only had time to cover 7 degrees of Italian pasta geometry! There is far more to pasta than rigatoni or tortaloni.
Included are several important outtings. We visited Beppe Maffioli's ristorante, Carlo Magno. It is historic and beautiful. He treated us to a private tour, an amazing four course dinner paired with local wines, and gifted us with a book of recipes and poetry. Maestro Beppe is also a dedicated teacher at Cast Alimenti. All of the teachers there are passionate about their food and their students lives. Manuelina Culinary is an opportunity for an English speaker to touch the hem of these masters of Italian cuisine.
