Holiday Weekend

So this was my first Holiday away from the family and friends and i'm still getting over it. I know its only 4 months over here and I have the rest of my life to spend with them but I still miss them all.

So Friday was a lack-luster day being as we were closed for the Friday/Saturday holiday. We spent the beginning of the day doing a bit of prep for Sundays party and the rest was spent just relaxing and talking online with friends home from college and family. Around 22:00 Ant and I went out for some food and Christmas eve partying to celebrate the holiday and that was a good way to get the mind off of everyone back home. Were making some solid relationships with the town folk, I mean who doesn't want to be friends with someone who doesn't speak you language, agrees with everything you say, and drinks? I'm just saying I'd be friends with them. But all that aside its helping us become for familiar with the town and with the language by trying to converse so its really a win win. Saturday was a lot of the same but instead of going out we had dinner with Peppe, we had bacala lasagna and baked baramundi (and yes chef jack I cleaned it all by myself.) It was good to have a sit down family style dinner, make it easier to deal with missing the real deal. But as the life story goes Party Hard, Work Harder. Sunday we had a party of 120 and had no problems at all. Its really starting to get good when everyone know exactly what they have to do the moment we step into the kitchen, no more charades, I mean weve been here for a month now we should have the ability to. Right?

All in all it was a good holiday even without the friends and family. And we are now half way through our stay in Italy.
Scary thought.

Pace&Amore
-R

Just isnt really the same...

...This time of the year/trip really makes you remember how much you miss all your friends and family.

Thats me. (Photo Cred. AJR)

So this whole week we have been without reservation but we have a party coming in on the 26th so we've been steadily prepping all week for that. With the free time Anthony and I had the chance to go to Foggia and do a little Christmas shopping for ourselves. He ended up buying a new guitar because he's having withdrawals from not playing. There's just something about waking up, looking out the window to this small Italian town, eating breakfast, and listing to the subtle tunes of an acoustic guitar that just seems to fit nicely. I bout a few little things for myself, mainly a new jacket so I don't stand out like a sore thumb over here, as much. We also happened to run into a older man at a gelateria in Foggia that owns a very high end clothing store. His name, Anthony Lucian Rinaldi. Were finding numerous copies of our lovable Ant and each one with there own story, he starting to become a nice conversation piece. We also got to go and finally see one of the windmills, that are scattered around this area, up close. Now let me be the first to say that if you ever see one of these and get the opportunity to see it up close, go. It was...an experience, to see something that large moving in perfect harmony. Definitely got you thinking.

But in all a good week and now for the lonely holiday weekend.

Missing everyone back home.
Pace&Amore
-R

Feels like home

Nothing like a 24hr weekend to make you feel like your back in the states.

"Experiences"

 

So this weekend was as busy as I imagined it would be and seeing as it is December not all the cooks were here Ant and I were given a bit more to do, which is no problem with us. Saturday was the busier of the two days even tho is had less people, just alot of special orders and allergies that needed to be taken care of but no harm done, you get used to making sure everyone gets exactly what they need. We spent the entire time both days in the restaurant instead of the bigger banquet hall, a bit more congested in the kitchen but communication between cooks and waitresses was a lot smoother. And speaking of communication its been roughly a month but im just about fluent with in kitchen lingo as to who needs what or when something needs to get done. Still can't carry a conversation though but hey Rome wasn't built in a day. If I could make one thing clear to all students reading this or any person thinking of visiting the country, learn the language...seriously. Take it from a person who didn't, it sucks, you'll be a 100% better off meeting people and talking to people if you do. But then again Anthony and I have had a good time "Trying" to talk with the cooks and waitresses so there are different "experiences" either way, but id learn at least half if I could.



But anyway to the services, you're better off finding out on your own over here anyway, its more fun that way. Saturday as stated was "busier" as stated for a few reasons: There were more people, there were more send backs per allergies and don't wants, but mainly we were all out of rhythm. Not cooking mass food like this for a whole week will throw most off but the best recover fast. Not so say were the best but we wernt thrown through to much of a loop that Saturday. We had to get pointed in the right direction a few times regarding what needed to be done and such but nothing to serious. We pushed out the whole service without any major issues, all 9 courses. So when Sunday rolled around we were smooth sailing, every one knew what to do, we all remembered what went where and who did what and like a well oiled machine we rolled through service. A big part help was the fact that were not only learning more Italian but the cooks are picking up some English as well so meeting half way really keeps things moving. No standing around playing charades for 10 minutes trying to figure out who hid the olive oil. And as for the desserts I made on Friday they got cranked out, all 140 plates of them, on Sunday. And just a note for thought: When you're making espresso...make sure the coffee is tightly secure, don't want that bad boy blowing off and burning your hand...

Christmas is a week away now and ill be stoked if I get to learn how to slaughter an animal for Christmas, Just Saying.

Pace&Amore
-R

Like summer vacation...

...Remember way back when summer vacation really was time off. Before you had a job that you still had to work, were talking way back. Back when you would wake up and have no idea what day it was but you knew you were gonna have a good time regardless, Okay now imagine you're in Italy. Yeah that's about what i'm going through.

Raw tomatoes, arugula, and mozzarella.

So Wednesday night after our fall out party Me, Anthony, and a few of the cooks went out to see what was alive in the town. This would have been extremely helpful about a moth earlier but hey better late than never, right? Well we now know where the market is, the pharmacy, the best pizza shoppe, and all the bars...We started off by getting dropped off in the middle of main street, we then took a short walk to the pizza shoppe. (Now here's where I feel like I was getting played by some Italians) "Supposedly" This pizza shoppe got voted 2nd best in Europe two years ago, now I'm not going to sit here and call people liars, but im not sold just yet. Anyway we had a few rounds and some extremely good pizza so no real complaints. After that we left and hit the bar next door meeting more of the locals, making friends the whole way. Now what better way to start a friendship than over a few rounds of shots? The best part, they bought them all, so being the friendly American I'm not going to say no. After that we hit another bar to continue the bonding process, and let me tell you we bonded well. We ended up making it home but not until we made solid friends around the town, so all in all a well spent night.

Drying.

Thursday was a quiet day, no parties planned so we did a little prep for the big weekend coming. Today on the other hand was a different story, we prepped the whole day. We have 200 people parties on Saturday and Sunday so this is where the syaing "Its not the hours you put in but what you put in your hours" comes into play. We were in the kitchen from 8 until 17 doing as much as we could. I was assigned to prep the dessert for the next two days. I made 4 kilograms of sweet dough, 2 of which were flattened out like linguine, folded like a half pipe, pinched about an inch apart then rolled around, dried out, and finally fried, did around 300 of them. To me it was a fancier fried dough with a much better dough but there was a real Italian name for it, sadly can't think of it. The other 2 kilos were rolled out into logs about a quarter inch thick, sliced about 1/8 inch wide, I did about 600 of these little guys, they too were fried after drying slightly. Ant was helping prep all of the main courses, and we knocked out a good amount of food but we'll still be busy as all hell tomorrow.

So this will probably be the last post until Monday. I'll let you know how it goes.

'Tis the season...

10 Days 'till Christmas...

So the past few days have been without major parties so there really is no need to re-hash something ive told you a few times already. We've spent the majority of the time on Zullo grounds too due to the weather factor here. Its started to drop a few Celsius and snow almost daily, even though none of it is sticking, but between that and the wind chill being around 40+Mph there really is nothing we can do outside in such a southern town. So we wait untill those big parties to stretch our culinary legs here at the compound.

Prepping liver for the soufrette.

So tonight we had a party scheduled for 19:00, one of the sous chefs parents and family, only about 10 people but were always eager to cook around here when we can. This party was a bit different than most because usually we start at 9 and then serve at 14:00 but Peppe made an exception for this party because of the family aspect. also because it was a family party the menu was a bit changed, not a large but a bit more intricate. We had some of the freshest mozzarella I've ever tasted at the party, it was milked and curdled that day (hopefully we'll be able to do that while were here) We also had shocked fennel heads stuffed with bacalao, bread and cheese, they were then bake as a whole. We also made another pot of soufrette to serve as a main dish, fresh organ meat from a lamb slaughtered earlier this week. All of that among other things were all prepped and ready to go untill about 18:50 when we got a phone call saying there was so much snow in Foggia that the party wouldent be able to make it to dinner. So the food that wasent cooked yet was wrapped and the rest was served to the staff. It sounds like a bit of a wasted day but its the life of a cook, you gotta roll with the punches. But the night isnt a loss, were going out with the other chefs for some beer and pizza later, good bonding time even if we dont speak the same language. Its gonna be fun.


Hopefully later this week or the next we'll be able to learn how to slaughter an animal, that would be a story for the kids.

Pace&Amore
-R

Everyone can stay busy when its busy...

One of my bosses told me: "I don't care what you do when were busy as much as I care what you do when were slow."

So Peppe Zullos is closed for the entire month of December to the public but we still do constant private parties, but even with those a few times a week its still easy to get ahead of yourself and find your self looking for something else to do. When were not doing private parties we still cook on a regular basis for the staff themselves so its no real complete down-time. Make Sense? And even if were not cooking with Peppe he always has us out with one of his employees learning something different about restaurant life or slow foods itself.

1997 wine with our dinner.

Today we had a small party, roughly 15 people, it gave us a good opportunity to see every food. Start to finish, and inside and out how its made, most of the time we were off starting other things, making it easy to miss a step or two, but we got to push out all 8 courses slowly for a change and "imparere"   We started out with a basic fresh mozzarella and prosciutto on a bed of borage, followed by arugula and caciocavallo wrapped in sliced pancetta. We then served fried borage with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese and a Cantalini bean soup with potato and spinach. For pasta we served oricette with tomatoes and diced pancetta.
The main course consisted of the famous veal lasgana and roasted potates but also with baked chicken. For dessert we served the deseret platter and then we served a slice of blueberry pie, a bit out of the ordinary but delicious all the same. once service was finished we got to eat a little bit of everything for our meal, we were luckey enough to have a 14year old bottle of wine with dinner, just because.


the business is getting a bit busier in the next coming weeks seeing as Christmas is approaching, and the restaurant is opening back up in January so we'll be back in the full swing of things soon enough.



Pace&Amore
-R

Imparare...

So its either one of two extremes here, either we have nothing serious to do or were putting in a 15 hour day.



Photocredit goes to Rinadli. He's always got a good eye.



Monday was one of those quite days, we had no work of any kind planned, seeing as were closed tuesday, so we took the oppertunity to see the entire town. We eneded up walking around almost out of town, meeting some locals, and getting some absoluetly beautiful shots of the town. Its always fun to explore a new place and new things, try and find the smallerst spots and the biggest views. It was about an 3 hour walk around the town, and we covered most of it, but we'll most likely end up doing it again...just to find more.



That homade dream.



On tuesday even though we were closed we still did some solid work and learned a bunch. We went to the Zullo complex farm with Biaggio the farmer. He was showing us all the animals that he had to tend to Pigs, Chickens, Ducks, Guinea fowl, 2 Horses, Sheep, and 2 dogs. A good sized fam and we learned what each animal was fed, for a kid whos never been on a farm in his life I was learning a bunch. We also hit the field and picked some fresh veg for the party we had to host tomorow. No mind you neither of us had EVER done anything like this so we were completely stoked to be fully emerssed in something like this not to mention this was the living definiton of slow food, from the garden to the table. We then took the days grab, also including fresh eggs, and headed back to the casa to make a fresh lunch for our selves. After that we hit the kitchen and started prepping for the upcoming party. That night we made dinner with Peppe and a few of his friends with more fresh food, 2 day old lamb gizzards. Now I havent the slighest idea as how to spell it but it was a dish that my grandmother would make for thanksgiving using the kidneys and heart of the turkey, We did same except with lamb sized portions. I know some of you right now are shuttering but hear me out, you sautee the gizzards with onion untill soft, add tomato sauce, kantalini beans, some balsamic vinegar. Fantastico. That with a bottle or two of wine deff made me feel like I was home again.

Fish platter consisting of octopus, mussels, shrimp, and cold poached fish.
 120 count.

Today we had a 120 person party, not exactly what it was for but theres really no complaints as long as were cooking. We did the routine like before, up at 8:30, espresso, kitchen mass prep, lunch, reasturaunt, small prep, joke around, assemble massive amount of food to be sent out in a ridiculous pace, send out massive amounts of food at a ridiculous pace, breathe, espresso, assemble desserts to be sent out at a ridiculous pace, send out desserts at a ridiculous pace, food, esspresso, clean, beer, relax. Its a rough life but you get used to it, and mind you whatever breaks we get are 10mins at a max and there no real sitting so you deal with. Its not all bad tho, I mean were picking up more of the language little by little and now we can somewhat converse with the othe kitchen members...well at least find out where things go or what needs to be done. I know there talking about us they way they act sometimes im just trying to pick it up as fast I can so I can say something back! On the other hand ill be extremely good at charades when I get back to the states.

For the record christmas is celebrated over here as big as it is in the states. Maybe ill get something nice from someone over here :P

One can only hope...

Pace&Amore

-R

Just warming up...

So contrary to popular belief im not dead. Busy busy weekend thats all.

 Editors Note: I consider friday nights to be apart of the weekend shift because if the weekend starts for someone who works M-F when there shift is over friday then when I work friday night it starts my shift.

Friday:


Marchesi.

 So We worked 9-2 this friday, prepping food for the wedding on saturday.We then went with Peppe to meet Pietro Zito in his reasturaunt in Foggia. Now for those who don't know Zito is ranked in the top 10 chefs in italy and owns his own reasturaunt and olive oil field. www.pietrozito.it We met with him and the President of Slow Foods (Slowfood.com) Foggia to car-pool to a meeting involving the biggest names in olive-oil production in italy to speak about the spread of their industry. While we were there we had the oppertunity to meet the number one rated chef in italy Gualtiero Marchesi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gualtiero_Marchesi) We wernt able to sit and hold a solid conversation with him due to the amount of people that were trying to get his attention but the few wrods we had were something to be remembered. Once we had left we headed back to Zitos reastraunt for a late dinner. Now mind you dinner over seas is alot bigger than the states it started off with about 7 or 8 different primi dishes all of wich were a bite or two a piece, from there we had spagetti con cavllo wich was an experience in itself, had the chew of a filet of beef but a taste all its own. From that we had a 4oz steak cooked with caco to a perfect medium rare, also fantastic. And for dessert we had Bicotti, wine soaked apples, rum soaked pound cake, lemonchello, and a homemade herb liquor wich was quite interesting. Now mind you this whole time weve been drinking different wines and eating homemade bread with house made EVOO. After that 21:00 feast we headed back to the house to rest up before tomorow.


Saturday:

Half of the food for the wedding.

We woke up ay 8:45 grabbed an espresso and began the longest day yet. We Prepped all sorts of food for the wedding wich started at 2. We served bread and mini sandwiches for hors d'oeuvres after that we served a meat platter consisting of sliced prosciutto, capicola, and pancetta, followed by a cheese plate with 3 homemade cheeses. Then we served two different plates of pasta, followed by a serving of that veal lasgna I spoke of in a earlier post. Now about this time its 19:00 and all thats left is the dessert so we headed down to the reasutraunt to help prepare for the 18th birthday party starting at 21:00. Now the food was close to the same, sliced meat plates to start and cheese plates to follow, a pasta dish and then sliced pork roast served with roasted potatoes to follow, dessert was a birthday cake purchased by on of the party go-ers. So after serving all the food, a few relaxing brews, our family meal and clean up we finally got to sleep at roughly 2:30 the following day. A long but 'tis the life of a cook, and any other cook will back me up with that statement.


Sunday:

Good Company.

Now we were un-knowing at this point what was to happen today but we woke at 8:45 again, grabbed an espresson, and got down to buisness. Turns out that there was another wedding/giant party in the banquet hall and another small party in the reasturaunt, so all of a sudden we were up to our neck in prep again, the only difference from yesterday? Everything starts 2 hours sooner. So we dished out as much prep as we could for the party in the banquet hall before being sent down to the reasturaunt to help the kitchen down there. (Note: I forgot to mention that there is roughly 3-5 cooks working in the banquet hall and 1-3 down in the reastraunt including myself and rindaldi at any given time.) So back to the story, while we were down prepping for the small party in the restaurant Peppe came down to pay us a visit with a few of his friends. They were however no normal friends, One was the president for Slow Foods Italia the other? the mayor of Orsara, and we were about to cook for them along with this party. So after a quick photo-op we got back to the grind stone and needless to say it all went down without a hitch. Were served sliced capacole with fresh fromaggio and argula for starters, followed by crustini with sauteed mushrooms, cantalini and escarole, orecchiette for a pasta dish, followed by veal lasgna and roasted potatoes, the dessert was a platter of sweets. We then cleaned and went back to help the banquet hall finish there service and once we did finish we left, headed back to the dorms and here we are now. 

Its really starting to sink into the both of us that were away from home, and were not going back for a while still...no complaints.

Pace&Amore

-R

Now it begins...

Its starting to feel more and more like home here...



Mini Pints

 Last night we went out with Peppe, his son, and there web designer Little Richard. (Now little richard is 2m 4cm tall so its a bit of a joke in the town, Anyway) The pizza place was right in Orsara and the owner was once a student of peppes. We were greated instantly at the door, sat down just as fast and the pizza started coming. We had (between the 5 of us) 8 pizzas, all of wich were cooked perfectly and had different toppings everytime. It was another oppertunity to bond with Peppe himself and see how much of an impact this man has on the community around him. After we ate we said farewell to Richard and went home.

Pancetta, Prosciutto, Fungi, and Pumpkin with fresh pasta.

This morning was the day i'd been waiting for, kitchen time. We started the day we the regular eggs and esspresso then went to the main office to do quick paperwork for the schools then it was time to finally get our hands dirty. We did nothing but prep for the wedding on saturday, including making 35lbs of pumpkin puree, roasting off 50lbs of veal, and making 200 bread cups. Now it wasent a busy day by any means but between the joking around between us and the other chefs, music playing from my laptop, terrible dancing, family meal, and countless coffe breaks it was enough to last us the whole day. Its only our second day with the other chefs but already, despite an emense language barrier, were becoming pretty good friends.

Tomorow is the same routine, but in the afternoon were possible going to meet one of the premier chefs in all of italy. Gualtiero Marchesi.

Pace&Amore

-R

We only make beautiful things.

Im interested to see if Peppe Zullo can keep impressing us day after day, because these first two have been un-real.

Beautiful, isnt it?

We started out our day out at 9 with a quick coffe with peppe, he told us we had free range to the kitchen for breakfast. It was easily decided we would be making a home town favorite, something we havent had since we got here...An over easy egg sandwich. Now to those folk who havent visited the boot may think this is pointless but if you have you understand what were talking about. Breakfast here consists of a danish and juice...maybe some yougurt if your luckey, so the oppertuinty to make some SOLID food to start our day was great news. So a few over easy eggs, fresh bread, and fried pancetta meat, fantastico. And we were on our way.

The Reasturaunt/Banquet hall.

From there we meet up with peppe and his architect and got a chance to visit his other estate. Now this lovely piece of land includes, but isnt limited to, a school (with dorms), A guest house, A farm (includeing pigs, horses, ducks, chickens, other foul) a glass walled banquet hall (with a 50's something bentley inside) a full field (with a working six-top stove and oven), A Banquet hall for weddings, the largest of his kitchens (A full underground basement with a slaughter room, Cheese drying room, meat drying room, a pastry room, a fresh pasta room, 4 coolers, 2 freezers, and a loading and un-loading dock for shipments.) Another wine vineyard, Oh and he's mid build on another reasturaunt on site...Yeah that big.

Lunch

After we got the full tour of the second zullo complex we got to meet three of the chefs he employes. They were friendly folk, no english  but the hand signals here help alot. So even tho there was a massive language barrier we still managed to help clean all the new dish ware for the reasturaunt and clean up the kitchen. We then headed back to the main zullo complex to make a late afternoon dinner/lunch consisting of fresh pamadoro sauce (whole canned tomato from the complex, crushed tomato, red onion, EVOO, and salt. Keep it basic.) and cavatelli (Fresh from the town over) after that for a starter we then had a zullo special, Veal lasagna. It was thinly sliced veal layerd like a lasagna would be, with some other goodies inside (zullo secret Im not at liberty to say what) We also had more Zullo wine and talked with the entire family. (Peppe, His Son, and the three other chefs he employs full time) The rest of the afternoon we helped clean the kitchen and set-up for the week ahead.

 We have a wedding for roughly 120 people on saturday, we can't wait to really get our hands dirty.

As always Pace&Amore

-R