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| Francesco, our instructor |
You can drop-out of language school, but that doesn't mean you should stop going to SCHOOL and stop LEARNING, right? Well, that's exactly what I did last Friday night. I went back to school, but this time, it was cooking school. And what a treat is was!
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| Maria from Montreal, and me, at In Tavola |
My friend Maria asked me if I wanted to take a cooking class at "In Tavola", a cooking school in Oltrarno, the other side of the river, a stone's throw from
Palazzo Pitti. With nothing better to do on a very cold Friday night I said "sure" and off we went. We were greeted by Fabrizio, the owner, offered a glass of wine (naturally) and then we met our tutor for the evening, Francesco. Francesco was everything you'd ever want in a cooking instructor: young, handsome, knowledgeable, multilingual, skilled in the kitchen, patient, and with a good sense of humour. The task for the next 3 hours or so was to prepare a 5 course meal.
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| Maria, making crepes; Francesco cooking the eggplant |
The menu was as follows: homemade crostini toscani, spaghetti in a simple tomatoe sauce, crepes with spinach and ricotta filling, pork roast stuffed with zucchini and wrapped in fried eggplant, and panna cotta with chocolate sauce. We started with the panna cotta then worked our way back, often making two things at once.
Another class was happening at the same time as ours, but in a separate kitchen. Towards the end of the evening, when everything was done, we all sat together and sampled our meals. The other class consisted of a unilingual Japanese woman, and a mother and daughter duo from Perth, Australia. They reminded me a bit of "Kath & Kim" but with a bit more money and a lot more class. They were on a 6-week 'round the world tour, and Firenze was their last stop.
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| The Other Class, and the communal table |
As we got talking and the wine kicked in, it turns out they had been to THE MALL the previous day, where they were in Italian designer fashion discount shopping heaven. Seems the daughter had a bit of a shoe fetish as she had purchased 22 pairs of shoes on their trip and a separate suitcase to lug them all home. She was very proud to show-off her new Valentino boots, which had many sparkely-bits on the heel - very fashionable in this part of the world at the moment.
But back to cooking and the food. The food was delicious, plentiful, and Francesco's skill as a chef was evident in the meticulous presentation of each course. But 5 courses is a lot to eat in 45 minutes so we were stuffed by the end of the evening. No doggie bags were offered or asked for, and I suspect the other employees of the school eat very well indeed. A delicious experience from start to finish.
