“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”― Alan W. Watts
TV shows, magazine talk about the past year that with the pandemic made our lives change. Then we start thinking of what they say and what the situation is, think of what changed for you in the past year.As a typical Italian I would say” Oh mamma mia “. For sure many things changed , many ways of behaving, thinking, working .
For me ,last March the big change was not having the possibility of shaking hands or hugging. Then use of mask, and work: for a person who doesn’t like so much photos, it was strange ,starting with Youtube videos, Udemy videos.
Then the new adventure with Virtual cooking classes on Zoom and taking part in the Amazon Explore adventure.
Thinking of all of these new experiences, are they so negative? No, everything new gives you the strength to change something in your life: timetable, life organization.
The way of teaching has changed but giving us the opportunity to learn something new.
The biggest difference is that teaching at home we already had all the tools and ingredients to realize our menus. Speaking of typical Italian cuisine, it has always been a matter of presenting what in our country is traditional, cooked for… let us say centuries. Working remotely, we had the opportunity to better understand the differences: different tools and not always availability of some ingredients. So now we can give more precise suggestions on how to change the recipe, which other tools or ingredients to use to cook, anyway, a real Italian dish.
Another big difference is the way of measuring ingredients, not limited to the fact that we are used to the metric system but also that by cooking in person we have always been able to use expressions typical of Italian cuisine: a pinch of salt, two fingers of bacon, a little oil.
And now we know what all our expressions refer to, how much teaspoon or ounces.
We have not to forget that teaching Italian Cooking virtually adds the opportunity to teach more people, because not everyone can travel to Italy -not only in this year -but in general.
And then the possibility of cooking also winter foods, like soups or cabbage dishes. Before most of our guests were with us in Spring, Summer, beginning of the Fall. Now we have been cooking virtually during Wintertime, so different dishes. Great. We have so many recipes to share and finally we can do it.
Absolutely the most beautiful experience from this change: having people who meet us several times. Whole families cooking together with us, friends from distant countries. One day we cook pasta with meat, one day gnocchi and cake, in short, we see each other more times, we know each other more and more, we meet families, we can joke and talk quietly during lessons. It’s like establishing a community, at a time when you can’t meet others, at a time when it’s so difficult to keep in touch with old friends, we’re managing to create a cooking- together- community around the world.
Thank you all!
Toscana Mia Blog 