10 years, Toscana Mia Cooking school is now really 10 years old.
Today we have an another Half Day Cooking class but it’s like the first time. We are waiting for our students here in Chianti, tomorrow will be here and in Florence.
We are fixing the last ingredients in our kitchen while waiting for 7 students: different ages, different nationalities, they are staying in hotel, B&B and agriturismo. Always maximum 10 persons so all of them will have the possibility of cooking, and asking questions. Only sometimes we have organized large groups, :people who already know each other ,related by family or work.
Today’s lesson is in the morning and now at 9:30 they’re all here: oh no, two of them are late, we’ll wait sipping a cappuccino.
Then aprons, a look at the recipes and off to cut with the mezzaluna, stir, turn the wooden spoon while chatting about cooking, our countries and lifestyles.
We teach Italian cooking, we like immersing ourselves into this way of cooking . Italian food is nice, cooking Italian is a pleasure, not a competition, pure flavor: the important thing is the final taste .Recipes do not have to be complicated but the fresh,organic ingredients have to be well chosen. Techniques are not complex, but require patience and love.
Menu of the day: two students have requested fresh pasta, one of them absolutely no veal, a young lady insisted for a tiramisu better than what she has tasted till now…. and then a Traditional Italian Menu: Black Olives Crostini, Tagliatelle with Mushroom White sauce, Oven bell peppers / capsicums, Turkey in Milk, Tiramisu.
You might ask: How is it that you like being every day in the kitchen? Have you really been there for the last 10 years? Yes, we like to cook: today a menu, tomorrow another one. Today we have to put together a menu for vegetarian and not vegetarian, tomorrow for gluten free and not gluten free, the day after cooking with children and the other day a group of young chefs looking for something more complicate .
To organize a class we experiment recipes, we keep update with new ingredients and tools, we slightly change traditional ones so that they can become dishes you’ll recreate in your own kitchen . On the other hand you cannot imagine how many things we have learned in recent years meeting people from all over the world :you come to meet locals but it is as if all the locals of the world were here..
Then we all eat together, sitting around table , taking our time as the Italians say “ a tavola non si invecchia mai” “at the table,people do not age ”.
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