Day 11
Today’s class was on lipids, fats, and oils – and McDonald’s hamburgers (see https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/happy-meal-art-project for more info!) Brian and I had lunch at Il Bottegone (adjacent to the Duomo) since I needed to get back to campus for cooking class at 3 pm and pop-in to the Apple store for a stylus so I can use my iPad as a whiteboard – I need board space! My students were graciously treated to a class on cheesemaking by the chefs at FUA Culinary Arts program (Chefs Victoria and Kenneth). They prepared fresh ricotta cheese (though it wasn’t finished by the time we left at 5:30 pm, Victoria told us she will salt it for us in the next day and bring it to class for us to taste!) They spent the rest of the time preparing gnocchi – two kinds – traditional gnocchi with goat cheese and potato gnocchi for our vegetarian/lactose sensitive members. Check out the pictures – the students did EVERYTHING! including setting the table. Lastly, two students were in charge of preparing sage for warming in olive oil (yay! we talked about blooming spices today and the students were delighted we actually did it here!) which was drizzled over the gnocchi before serving. It was wonderful! Chef Kenneth (originally from Colorado, now living in Florence) gave our students valuable information about where to get the best food and gelato – what a treat.