Regional Cooking of Europe - Italy

This is Mookie. One morning chef came in the kitchen and told us all that he had an epiphany during the night and dubbed Ron , which is his birth name, Mookie. No one has called him Ron since. He says he is over 18 but I've yet to see his drivers licence. In fact now that I think about it, I have never seen him drive. Mookie challenges me to no end. If he isn't sticking a hand in one of my pictures thinking it is funny for the 100th time then he is scooping or shoveling, depending on the dish, food into his mouth in a way that would make any mother cringe. I tell him it's not so cute anymore but he's dead set on eating like it's his first meal in weeks. Maybe months. It's amazing the amount of food this little sprite can put away.

Mookie wrapped up the unit on Italy with some Sicilian fare. He marinated some olives with peppers, red onions, cauliflower, and carrots, then grilled some swordfish which he served with a sauce of fresh mint , capers, lemon juice and parsley that he had made earlier. A bit short of a demonstration though the fish was very tasty. The olive mixture was also quite nice and would get even better as it marinated.






To the rescue Chef Doug, who is the pastry and Baking Chef that is in the kitchen next door. (Remember, serious but with laughing eyes-a little mysterious?)

Chef Doug gave us a lesson on how to cook the perfect pizza. He had made the dough the night before and had it all ready for us to create our own personal pizza's.
We had a whole
smorgasbord of toppings to choose from and after assembling our pizza we baked them in Chef Doug's ovens to achieve a perfect crust. It was great pizza. It's amazing what the right oven can do.


The taste made me yearn for Italy.



It was a wonderful end to a busy week. A Friday pizza day. After class a few of us went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I still managed to find room for popcorn.


Goodnight.