Just over five years ago I decided my life needed a change of scenery. From my very secure and predictable desk job at an aviation company on a fateful day I drafted up a resignation letter, dated, signed then delivered it to my unsuspecting manager. I can still see the look on his face, which alone was enough for me to have ditched the job. Three months later I’m sitting in coach seat on my way to the Mother Land (a good portion of my family hails from southern Italy) for my 9 month culinary journey.
It was a bit crazy, I didn’t really have a plan – other than the contact I had made at small farm in the Tuscan country side, trading my labor for a room and rustic country food. From there I made other contacts and soon found myself working in the kitchen of small family-run trattoria in a charming village in the south of Tuscany, not far from Lazio. It was here, Trattoria Taverna Etrusca that I learned to cook with fire. Which brings me to pizza. The chef from whom I was learning hailed from the south of Italy, in the Campania region – known specifically as the birthplace of pizza. Dominico bestowed on me the virtues, the art of pizza making and his cherished dough recipe for pizza. When I think back to when I first conceived of living in Italy – little did I know that I would end up owning a pizzeria.
While I went the more circuitous route of learning the trade – you can experience the art of pizza making in one fun-filled evening. We will be hosting and teaching a pizza class in March:
The date: Thursday March 21, 2013
The time: 6 – 9:30pm
The place: Cook Street school of Culinary Arts
The link: http://tinyurl.com/CookStreetPizza
You will learn how to make authentic, Napolitan style wood fired pizza at the Cook Street school of Culinary Arts from the ground up. The class includes learning how to make pizza dough, hand stretch mozzarella, hand stretching pizza dough, topping and finally baking your pizza in the wood-fired oven. If you’ve ever wanted to own a wood fired oven – or if you are just a pizza freak – this is the class for you!
