Day 23 - Cooking Class with the Southerners - Part 1

Today was an early morning Saturday for us interns. Chef picked us up at our apartment at 7:35 am, we had a quick coffee at a gas station. And no, this is not your typical gas station coffee. Almost every gas station has a coffee/espresso bar in it along with a nice selection of pastries and sandwiches. Pretty interesting really. But the cappuccino I had was rather tasty after the addition of 2 sugar packets, yes Brian, I am drinking coffee regularly, usually in cappuccino form and once in a while an espresso. Considering when coming Italy even the smell of coffee made me want to gag a bit, this is a new thing.

Anyway, off the coffee rant. From here we went up to the restaurant, dropped off our stuff and met up with a contingent of students from the University of Alabama - Birmingham. 28 Southerners all in a row were going to be taking cooking classes from Chef today. But first, we hit the local market that happens twice a week. All sorts of fresh fruit and veg vendors. A cheese and meat truck, that’s right, a cheese and meat truck. Legs of prosciutto, wheels of cheese, baccala (salt cod), fresh buffalo mozzarella. Pretty much the greatest sight in Orvieto yet :) There was also a Porchetta truck. If you remember a week or so ago, the porchetta is what set the oven on fire at the restaurant last time. Well, Chef bought about 2 pounds of it to share with everyone right there on the street. So delicious!!! IT will be interesting to see how the one we make tonight turns out! After buying fresh cheese, veg, fruit, and the best pistachios I have ever eaten, it was off to open the restaurant and start the first cooking class. 14 students, 3 interns, 1 chef; yikes!

The morning class was pretty quiet, potentially because they were still sleeping or hungover. The menu consisted of: Individual foccaccia pizzas, Cauliflower veloutte with fresh buffalo mozzerella, Roast chicken with peppers and olives, salad, and Tiramisu.I helped two students with prepping the chicken, peppers, and chopping parsley. Some of the folks were really excited and others sort of tried to stay out of the fray. After showing a few tricks of slicing an onion to the crew, it was time to tackle the chicken legs, cutting the the leg away from the thigh. It was actually pretty funny to watch their faces as I put a raw leg on each of their cutting boards. But using the handy dandy trick from Chef Donna Kennedy, teaching them was a breeze. The chicken turned out pretty good, it was fall off the bone tender.

Francheso sliced into his thumb pretty good within the first 15 minutes of the class, so he was out of commission for a bit, but don’t worry, Tyler swooped in to help the twins out that Frankie was working with first. These boys were definitely trying to work any angle possible to hang with the ladies later in the evening.

Chef Kennedy’s Chicken Trick (Donna, you can use the slogan for future classes)

When cutting a chicken into 8 pieces, the leg quarters can sometimes be a little tricky. But this foolproof method will make you feel like a bona-fide butcher every time.

• Take the leg/thigh quarter and place it skin side down on your cutting board.
• If you need to, remove move any excess skin away from the meat/cutting side.
• With the leg portion in your left hand, hold it down towards you.
• You will see a white tissue line right where the leg and thigh bones meet.
• Take your knife and cut just to the left of this line.
• Presto Chango, 2 pieces, clearing both bones, no problemo!