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Cooking Class!!!
Sadly, our cooking class came to an end this week with a final cooking exam over what we had learned. From our first day of cooking till now I have learned tons about Italian Cooking and preparing food in general It all started with our first day of class when we met our instructor Christina Bowerman who is the head chef and owner of Glass Restaurant in Trastevere. We had four hands-on cooking classes with her during our time here.
In our first class we picked our cooking partners for the semester and we received our “fancy” GLUB aprons so we could feel like real cooks. I partnered with Jess which is awesome and I think we will have a lot of fun cooking together. Christina told us about herself, her qualifications, and her cooking and work experience. Then she started teaching us about the different types of pasta and risotto. We learned that cooking good risotto is more than a recipe it is a technique that involves seasoning throughout the cooking time so the rice soaks up the flavor and constantly stirring to prevent it from getting overcooked. I am not used to eating pasta that is suppose to be a little firm so it was hard to tell when it was done. Our risotto turned out really pretty good, I liked it a lot, minus the texture wasnt right. I think Jess and I worked well together. We made sure we both got to try to do everything and we had good teamwork especially when it came to one of us constantly stirring while the other to added the broth.
Next we cooked carbonara which I thought was much easier to make. We cooked the bacon in oil while the pasta was cooking in water. When it was almost done we needed to mix the egg and cheese mixture. When the pasta was done we coated it with the egg and cheese mixture. I never would have thought that the proper way to cook carbonara was to poor the raw egg and cheese on the pasta and the heat from the pasta is what cooks it. Seasoning to taste was probably the most challenging part of cooking the carbonara because I am never sure exactly what to add and how much to achieve the right flavor. In the end our carbonara turned out pretty good. We both liked it better than the carbonara they had served us at the welcome dinner. I am not a huge fan of carbonara in general though because I don’t really like the taste of eggs.
In our next cooking class, the focus was veal and mackerel. The class was in the morning and it started off with us leaving our cooking location to walk through a down pour to the fresh fish market. I thought it was really cool that Christina took us there because I had never been to a fresh fish market and it was an interesting sight. I had never noticed all the different types of fish there were to eat. Our class was quite surprised to see just how fresh the fish were. So fresh that some of them were still flopping around you can’t beat that in terms of freshness. The market also had other types of meat available there, fruit, and vegetables. It was a lot bigger than I had imagined it to be.
After Christina had purchased the veal and mackerel we needed for the day we headed back to our cooking area in Termini. For me the most interesting part of the class was learning how to fillet a fish. I don’t really have any experience in cooking with fish so learning how to fillet one for cooking was definitely helpful. Another key thing I learned about cooking fish was to make sure you cook it scale side down. The recipes for the veal and mackerel were both pretty easy. The only part Jess and I really had trouble with was knowing when it was done cooking. I tried both of ours and thought they were pretty good. I was really surprised by the taste of the mackerel because I had expected it to have more of a fishy flavor.
Our third cooking classes focus was on desserts. We prepared tiramisu and pastry cream. Jess was unable to come to class today because she was having her arm checked out by a doctor so I partnered up with Krista. I was really excited about this class because I absolutely love tiramisu. We started the tiramisu by mixing egg yolk , sugar, and marsala in a bowl that was placed in boiling water. It was very important when doing this to make sure you constantly whisked otherwise the eggs would start clumping and cooking. Another key part of making the tiramisu was to make sure that you just dipped not soaked your lady fingers in the coffee mixture otherwise the flavor would be overpowering. Unfortunately neither Krista nor I were going directly home after class so that we could put our tiramisu in the refrigerator. As a result, we never were able to try it but I did get to try some of the other groups at school and it was delicious. I can only imagine ours would have turned out just as good. The pastry cream was super easy. We just measured out ingredients, put them in a pot on low heat, and had to make sure we whisked the entire time to keep the cream clump free. It tasted super good though. Man do I love my sweets!
Our last class was held at Glass. Christina had a guest speaker come in to talk to us about pizza. The speaker filled us in on the history of pizza making and the techniques involved. He also talked to us about the ingredients used in pizza and which ingredients should be used in what combinations to produce the best pizza. During class we kept hearing a man screaming something in Italian. Christina informed us that it was a knife sharpener who rides around on his bike yelling that he is coming so people know to bring their knifes out to him if they want them sharpened. Yet another unique thing to know about Italy.
After the speaker finished lecturing we went into the kitchen where he showed us how to cut dough and properly form it into loafs of bread. About half the class was able to try doing this. Our speaker was really funny and he would add sound affects while people were trying to cut the dough. They had a pizza cooking while we were being taught so afterwards we were able to try it and it was delicious! We also got to try the bread loafs people had made. They were pretty darn good. You got to love fresh baked bread.
Our final class was our cooking exam. We were asked to prepare risotto and pastry cream. It was pretty nerve racking because Federico was walking around with a notebook making comments and we had to bring our dish up to present to a “panel” of judges. It was a lot of fun though and it felt like we were on a cooking show. Jess and I started by cutting up our vegetables to boil to make our broth. Since the vegetables have to boil for a long time we measured everything we needed for risotto and put it off to the side so we could start our pastry cream.
We added everything and began whisking it to thicken it. When we thought it was thick enough we started brainstorming on how to present it. Christina said our pastry cream turned out really good because it was very smooth. To create a dessert we put a layer of lady fingers and then dumped half of our pastry cream (vanilla flavored) over it. Then we added another layer of lady fingers and dumped the rest of our pastry cream over it (chocolate flavored). It looked so good with the contrasting colors we wanted to dig in but had to refrain and bring it up to be judged.
We returned to our work area and returned our focus to our risotto. Jess and I worked well together to make sure one of us was constantly stirring while the other added the broth. We made sure to keep on adding salt throughout the entire cooking time since to make sure the rice had enough time to soak up the flavor. We also tried to make sure we added our ingredients like the saffron early enough that the rice could soak up the flavor. We had problems telling exactly when it was done but we did our best. When it was all done we brought it up to the judges an went to clean up our work station.
After every one had turned in their dishes the judges were ready to give their results. Much to our disappointment ours did not place in the top 3 for desserts. We thought it tasted awesome and looked really cool. Our risotto however tied another team for first. We did not have the texture right but the judges all agreed ours tasted phenomenal. We were both pretty excited about that news.
The cooking classes were one of my favorite parts of the entire program. My only complaint about it would be that there weren’t enough of them. I enjoyed every class we had and learned how to cook something new or a new technique in every single class. I can’t wait to go home and try preparing some of these recipes for my family and friends.
