Modena, Italy

the Acetaia Malpighi where the products that the acetaia has taken care to produce in a traditional manner for decades will be shown. There will be an explanation of the main rules for producing the best traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena and finally, there will be an opportunity to taste the products and to buy the products in our show room.

Parma, Italy

the “Salumificio La Perla”, in Langhirano, where for over twenty years the Lanfranchi family has been committed to the production of the famous “Prosciutto di Parma”, a product which is unique for its naturalness and the inimitable sweetness, worldwide known and beloved.
The Prosciutto di Parma is a 100% natural and healthy product, quite fat free, rich of proteins and with a low percentage of cholesterol. In few words: an authentic warranty. The rigorous quality control of every production stage together with the meticulous attention in the choice of the meat and the experience of the tradition make of Salumificio la Perla one of the main producers of this wonderful territorial delicacy, famous all over the world for its rosy color and its delicate aroma. A real “masterpiece” in the gastronomy branch.
After the visit of the factory, there will be a lunch based on home-made delicacies.

Parma, Italy

The first stop will be at the small family-run dairy farm Stocchi, near Parma. Here, the casaro Andrea will lead the students through all the steps of the production - elaboration, maturation, heat branding, and sealing of Parmigiano-Reggiano (also known as Parmesan cheese). This is a hard granular cheese with a long and natural maturation. It’s a highly concentrated cheese and contains only 30% water and 70% nutrients. This means that Parmigiano-Reggiano is very rich in protein, vitamin and mineral. The tour will end with the tasting of this inimitable “King of the cheeses”.

Week 2 Culinary Lab

This is all the food I made this week in Culinary lab! The first picture is potato Gnocchi with fresh pesto sauce and pork filet!  The second own is fresh tomato sauce with orechiette pasta and spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli with walnut sauce.  The third picture is risotto with Bresaola and Bitto cheese and rabbit leg!  The fourth and fifth picture is Jumbo shrimp and lard on toast with fresh sliced salad and beef with eggplants and grilled tomatos.  The last picture is cheese gnocchi roman style, spinach balls and fried shrimp on top of a tomato, garlic, basil sauce!  This week was very busy, hot and fun!  I loved making all the food even though it was hard and time consuming!  We only have 3 more days of cooking before our final next week! Then it is on to wine lab for the last 3 weeks!  I leave For Parma and Modena Saturday morning at 4:30 am and will be back late Saturday night!  We are going to see where parmigiano reggiano is made and from!  We get to test out a lot of food and explore the city!  I worked this past Wednesday again and loved it! I was working more in the front of the house this time, serving food and drinks and bussing!  I also got to bartend for a few hours which was fun!  The Gelato Festival of Florence is currently going on right by my apartment! It is 5 days long!  They have free gelato, gelato cocktails and live music all day and night!  We usually go to it everday after school for some free gelato!  The weather has been super hot here! It has been between 90-95 degrees!! My roommates and I layed out on thursday for about 30 minutes until we died of  heat hahah! Guess i will be staying in the air conditioned places!! 

Cinque Terre

On sunday we spent the day at Cinque Terre! We hiked, trained and boated through the 5 towns!  It was incredible! We had time to eat, shop and swim!

Lardaria

After the marble mountains, we drove down a little ways and took a visit to the Lard factory...it was very interesting to say the least hahaha!  We saw were lard was made and got to try it!  The group picture is the view from the top of the mountains!

Carrara-Marble Mountains

This past Saturday we took a bus to a small town called Carrara.  We drove up to the top of the Marble Mountains.  From there we took small vans inside the mountains where it was around 30 degrees.  Inside were marble scultptures.  The pictures wiith the helmets on are all inside the mountain for safety reasons.  It was incredible to see so much marble and to be so high up on the mountain and to look over the entire city of Carrara.

Apicuis Lab pictures

Here is pictures of us in lab cooking!  The group one is all the WSU student's I came with along with our professor in the middle! There is 32 of us and we do everything together! We are the only one's in all of our classes and work together! I love everyone in my group and we all get along very well! 

Culinary food lab

Here are some of the dishes I made this week in my food lab!  We have it monday-friday for 2 hours!  We have to make a full meal everytime and present it to the master chef to be graded!  When we are finished with our meals we get to eat and enjoy them!  Some things we have made are: vanilla gelato with strawberrys, fried duck, liver hearts, cheese puffs, homemade noodles with Fettuchinne sauce, sliced potatoes, risotto and beef with artichokes.  We work in groups of 2 or 3 each day with the same partners!