Fun in the Kitchen!

Last night in the kitchen was really, really fun! It was different because there were only two students. I think they paid extra to have private instruction. So it was just me, Luisa, and this couple from Argentina. Luisa was really excited as we were getting ready because she thought we'd get done early, which is always nice.The couple already spoke Italian really well, plus their Spanish helped, so I didn't need to translate into English for them and we just spoke in Italian most of the time.

Things didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped, though. There was a miscommunication and no one told Luisa that the lady, Miriam, can't eat cream. The menu was already written up and we had everything ready. Unfortunately the appetizer had a cream base, the pasta had a cream sauce, and the dessert was panna cotta (cooked cream). It was awful, pretty much everything had cream in it! Luisa had to do lots of improvisation and she did marvelously. She's brilliant! We put more eggs into the appetizer to substitute for the cream. It was an asparagus and cheese gelatin-type thing served with grissini (they're kind of like the Italian equivalent of french fries...sort of). For the pasta Luisa threw together a tomato, olive, onion, garlic, mint sauce. It was very good and served over fresh-made fettuccini. The second course was veal cooked with finely chopped carrot, onion, celery, and garlic. And red wine...it cooks out, don't worry. The dessert was the toughest. Luisa asked if she could substitute caramel for cream but they told us that they don't eat sweets. So Luisa had to come up with something compltelely different. She had them make a crust, this really good vanilla filling, and then she topped it with fresh berries. The couple had also requested focaccia bread. I was really excited about that because I love focaccia and had never seen it made before.

It's kind of nice having only two students as opposed to the usual 15-20. There isn't as much to make so it's more laid back in that respect. But the down side is that it takes a lot longer. When we have big groups everyone is working on something at the same time so the food gets done simultaneously. With Miriam and Carlo, though, they made everything themselves, one thing at a time. So it took a really long time. Plus Luisa had had to completely change a lot of the menu. She was really irked. She was always smiling and sweet to them but then she'd mutter things in Italian under her breath about how we were going to be there till midnight, etc. Usually there are at least three of us to help with instruction and cleaning, but last night it was just Luisa and me. So we were really busy the entire time. Usually the students start eating their appetizers at about 7:30. Last night it was 8:30 by the time we finally started getting the plates ready.

Luisa and I were so tired and as we were cutting the focaccia bread she told me I couldn't eat any. When I asked her why she looked really serious and said, "C'e caffe'!" (there's coffee) We both started laughing really hard. She thought she was so funny. She got all read in the face because she was laughing so hard. Then she said, "No, no c'e vino!" (no, no there's wine!) She thought that was even funnier. On Tuesday night, for the first time, we had cooked with coffee. As we were getting everything set up I saw coffee in the recipe but I didn't say anything because this dessert was kind of complicated and I didn't want to have her doing something completely separate for me even though it looked really good. It had white chocolate. It wasn't until half way through the meal that Letizia, one of the teachers that helps in the kitchen. remembered that I don't drink coffee. Luisa couldn't believe it. She knows I don't drink wine because they have it every night and I don't take any. So now she delights in making fun of me for it. It's so funny. After the focaccia bread, everything had coffee and wine in it. And she thought it was so funny every time. But it's okay, she redeemed herself by giving me an extra piece of the dessert and putting an extra raspberry on it because she knows they're my favorite.