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Wait... Where are we now?

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It has sure been a while since my last post in the beautiful country of Italy! The last time I left you all we were enjoying our time at the winery in Puglia. The wine, food, and people were simply unforgettable. That was such an incredible experience that Logan and I will be forever grateful for. There have been so many times where we see something, hear something, or do something that reminds us of what we learned during those few months. Italy will always have a huge place in our heart and relationship, hopefully, we will be back!! If you have been wondering what we have been up to, with a few other social media posts here and there, I am here to clear the air and bridge any of the gaps!! Everything happened so quickly and I can not believe we graduated 8 months ago. I will preface this post by saying that I am excited to start blogging again, making this page more about daily life, recipes, and whatever else I decide to put in. If you have any creative ideas to share, please
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Antichi Sapori

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Logan and I were given another great opportunity to stage at a well-known restaurant about 20 minutes from the winery: Antichi Sapori . This experience was very different from Taverna Garibaldi , from the way the kitchen was run to the people in it.  Frist off, we pulled up to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere with 12 continuous years of being recommended by the Michelin Guide. For those of you reading, this is something that means a lot in the industry. The Michelin Guide has critics who come and critic everything at your restaurant from service to food and everything in between. They allocate one, two, or three stars to a restaurant, three being the best. Most of the best restaurants in the world have three stars. Being recommended means that the Michelin Guide went there, and feel they would recommend people to go there, they just are not high enough up for stars.  Anyways, we walked into the restaurant to a very surprised, and slightly unfriendly staff. I guess this can
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Taverna Garibaldi

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Logan and I were provided with the opportunity to travel to three different restaurants this week around Winery Tormaresca. Our first stop was Taverna Garibaldi , in the nearby village of Minervino Murge. This restaurant has a B&B attached to it and is where we stayed for the time we were not at the restaurant.  The chef and owner here is Michela Barletta, who welcomed us with open arms. In Italy, children begin learning English in Kindergarten and her son, who is just 13 years old, was our translator. Logan and I are a good team when speaking Italian as I often understand it, but he is better at answering. This village is about a 20-minute drive from any other village, therefore they have their own dialect and accent, so much so that Logan and I had major difficulties understanding and speaking to them. Thank goodness for her son! We worked here for 2 days, but Friday was more of an introduction to the kitchen, cooking different things for family meal. Here are a few of t
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Exploring the Vineyard

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Yesterday, we went into the fields to learn about the vineyard, something I had been looking forward to. In coming to a winery, I was more interested in the production of wine and the fields than in the cooking. I am happy to be in a kitchen some days, but I really enjoy learning about something I feel I do not know enough about. When in the associate's program at school, we had to take a 3-week wines class that really just touched the surface of the world of wine, but it was enough to interest me. This played into my decision into coming here to study for 3 weeks.  Right now is when the vines are pruned, as they will begin growing shortly. The red grapes are pruned to have 2 buds per branch, while the white, like Chardonnay, has 3 buds per branch. This is because the red grapes need a better quality to produce a richer wine, while the white is a little more about quantity and freshness.   This little red looking tie is to help with insects. The vineyard is totally or
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I Primi Giorni a Winery Tormaresca

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The First Few Days at Winery Tormaresca If you have been following our journey so far, you know that Logan and I began a mini "externship" last Wednesday. We chose to study at Winery Tormaresca located in Minervino Puglia. We are about three and a half hours from Ugento, where we studied for twelve weeks. Since being here, we have had one day of work, a snow day, and a weekend. Here is what we have experienced thus far:  On our first day, we worked in the kitchen on the estate for a banquet, hosting eight people. The chef, Laura, had us do a lot of different things from making focaccia to slicing potatoes. I started the day with making a focaccia that uses "burnt" flour; this is a flour turned to "ash" by baking it at a high temperature. It contributes a unique flavor to the focaccia unlike any other. I was very excited to make this as when we visited with our class about a month ago, we had this delicious focaccia. It is pretty simple to make a
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My Experience with The Italian Concentration in the Classroom

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Well, it is that time we were all nervous for - heading to our externships in Italy. Logan and I will be traveling to Winery Tomaresca, about 4 hours from here on Wednesday for three weeks. Then, on April 10th, we head to Rome for a day. On April 11th, we begin our flights home! Until then, I would like to continue sharing my experience in Italy with all of you, in more of a laid-back way, not every day, but at least weekly!  For this post, I would like the share with you my experience in the kitchen at the Castello and all the other things that came along with studying abroad here with the CIA. I want to start off by saying how grateful I feel for this experience, as I have been changed by it. Studying abroad really opens your eyes to the rest of the world and allows you to think about what you really want in life. This was important to me as graduation is coming up quickly at the end of July. I believe that I have made the most out of my experience here through my travels and ou
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Sono Italiana Lunch & Conclusion of Southern Cuisine

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Today we held our second lunch at the Castello for outside guests. This time, my group was in charge of the pass horderves and the appetizer. We decided to create the horderves based on the ideas of what we learned in class.  The first was a fried potato chip with a fava bean puree and fried artichoke. These 2 flavors go very well together and as a group, we felt it represented the top 3 things we felt was seen most in what we learned.  The second was called Sciatt, a fried buckwheat cheese ball. We changed the cheese because we felt the original did not melt well and that it did not have a strong flavor. We chose a cheese that was stronger and brought forward more flavor.  Our main appetizer represented the simple cuisine of Italy and the lightness of the dishes of Puglia. We had a poached sea bream on a garlic and sponsali (sort of green onion) puree, mussels, fresh veggies, dehydrated fish skin, and a parsley foam. This was a simple dish that was very delicate, but flavorful.
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