To eat is to survive, But to taste is to live.

The first day we were in Asti I was talking to a brazilian student about how the lifestyle was and how the school went. He looked me straight in the eye and said "Nothing over here is given like it is in America. If you stay here for the four months and don't apply yourself the only thing youre going to learn is how to drink. If you do apply yourself to school and cooking then you'll walk away with an unbelievable amount of cooking knowledge, and you'll know how to drink."

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

As most of you probably know my tour and exploration in Italy is soon coming to an end and I will soon be back with friends and family in the states, but it is bitter-sweet. Over the past 4 months I have been all around this country, seizing every available opportunity I could while here to explore something new or try something I've yet to do. From learning a new language, to trying new food and from walking the quiet streets of a small town in the north of Italy to being in the biggest city in the entire country I've done almost everything I wanted to do here. I have gained knowledge that is completely un-accessible to anyone whom has never been to Italy, Along with ways of cooking and beliefs that only exist  in certain parts of Italy. Through all of this I only have one regret: Not updating this blog more. I've gotten dozens of E-mails from people thanking me for the blog and how great they say it is and I'm beyond thrilled that so many people have enjoyed it (3,700+ views), it's made keeping up on it worth the while, I just feel I could have done it a bit more. I wish I could have brought everyone who has supported me throughout the years with me, to show them what the have done. What their handwork to help teach and train someone has turned into, a lifetime experience. It was 3 years ago that I remember sitting in a financial aid office signing my life away to student loans when I knew that I was soon to be apart of something I'd never forget. 3 years later here I am, sitting across the world writing in a blog, for dozens of readers to enjoy and follow my experience, for the last time. I was never really good at good-byes but I always knew where thanks was due. (In no particular order) these are the people that have affected me in the past couple of years and helped me get to where I am right now: Roxanne Ballachino, Al Hovasse, Theresa DeSantos, Melonie Lamb, Greg Markowski, Gary Brown, Steve K, Jack Stierer, Trish Nanfito, Juan Cordova and Kenneth, All the goons that were with me through out the entire CCI/LCI schooling, Professor DePitro, Peppe Zullo, All the chefs here, My friends who had stuck with me, My extremely supportive extended family. And of course my greatest thanks go out to both of my parents, without you two and your support for my education, none of this would have been possible. For anyone that I may have forgotten, that has taken the time to teach me something or has given me a shot to prove myself thank you as well.


I was given a once in a life time opportunity and I seized it.

Forever and Always
Pace&Amore

-R

Beggars cant be Choosers.

EDITORS NOTE: If you are pro-animal, a vegetarian, vegan, or really just dont want to hear about the death of an animal skip to the second paragraph. Thank you.

Alright so I put in my last blog post how I wanted to slaughter an animal for the experience of killing it, cleaning it, cooking it, and eating it. I wanted to be able to say ive completely taken care of the process and enjoyed the rewards, follow me? Well the following day I went down to the kitchen earlier to see if anything needed to be cleaned or prepped seeing as we had no service and when I got to the courtyard I was face face with a rooster with its legs bound together loosely and I instantly had a real good idea where this guy was headed seeing as the farm animals are usually at the other complex, he was here for one reason. Sure enough my suspensions were correct and I got the opportunity to be the last thing this guy ever saw, and I took it. Now it wasn't a pig like I had hope for but beggars can't be choosers and it was an experience all the same. Remember how when you would run around wild as a kid and your parents would say you looked like you were running like a chicken with his head cut off? Yeah, that's not a lie. I had him held but he still was a feisty bugger. With the hard part now behind us we de-feathered him and cleaned him out, let him hang to bleed out and dry up and then later ate him the following day. Not really as hard as I had imagined it would be but it was as satisfying as I though being able to say I completely took car of this animal. Coming from a boy from the suburbs it means a lot to me.

Gold.

The past few days have kept us reasonably busy and out of trouble. We had a good 4 day span for parties, each over 60 people, and we handled them all smoothly with our now earned sense of responsibility theve given us to trust us prepping solo in the morning. We had 5 chefs from Tuscany come down to the complex and stay a few days and give a little cooking demo, unfortunately we had a service so Anthony and myself missed it but we did get to try Tuscon bread. Now having tried I can say ill never have it again and anybody that has had it will understand why. Tuscon bread is made with no salt so it basically taste a bit better than cardboard. BUT! in Tuscany, where it is normally served, it is served with Tuscan meats which are much saltier than the meats found in Orsara. This makes good sense but unless im in Tuscany with Tuscon meats I probably won't dine on this again. Sorry Tuscany. We also had a woman from Portland, Oregon spend a day in the complex learning about all the breads we make here in Orsara (Squash bread, Burnt Flour, our Version of Italian, and Foccia) So not only did we get a good re-view in all the breads but we also were able to hold a conversation with someone other than ourselves which a win win. And finally let me just say white truffles are going to be the end of me. We were fortunately able to get roughly a kilo of white truffles from a near by town. (Mind you that a pound of white truffles in the states goes for $1,000-$2,000) If you haven't had white truffles and ever have the opportunity to try them do not hesitate. If you've never had them then its almost impossible to explain how they taste and smell just that you really should at one point try it. Now I know when I get back to the states i'll probly never see them again but while im here im soaking them up.

Were within the final 2 weeks and it only felt like yesterday when I was sitting on the 3rd floor balcony in Asti giggling about every little thing I saw in Italy.

I'm going to miss this place.

Pace&Amore
-R

Whoops!

Looks Good Right?

Well that was my bad...didn't realize how longs its been since I've updated the blog.

The past week has been more or less the same ol' same. We've had a few more parties than the beginning of the month but still no major 100+ people. The chefs here are really starting to rely on myself and Anthony a bit more, we've been put on prep by ourseleves before the service now while the other chefs go down and set up the kitchen. Nothing we can't handle or things we havent done but it feels good to finally gain that trust, you know? Despite the weather change here (colder and more snow) we've still been able to get extremely fresh crops on a near daily basis and it hasn't affected our menu much if at all. I realized the other day when we went out to eat how different the menu is in italy compared to the states.  Usually when we go out we try and tell the chefs "The regular" which consists of whatever we got when we came in with someone who could actually speak Italian but last week I wanted to look at a menu to see what I may have been missing. When I was going over the menu I realized that you don't order a specific dish you order which courses you want.
I.E. Primi, Secondi, Anti Pasti, Dolce. And based on the amount of courses is what you pay. Now depending on whatever the chef has in stock, or freshest is what the course is, so you really don't know what your going to get unless to talk to the chef himself that day. It only took me 3 months but I finally got it. Peppe also gave Rinaldi and I a specific job, we need to create a Chick-Pea Hamburger. Basically he is trying to incorporate protein into the daily diet but without using meat at all so the second best source is legumes. Were now in charge of trial and error on making a Chick-Pea hamburger (I'll keep you posted on our progress but our intial trials have been positive)

ALSO: the 14th of Feb My father catches his plane to Rome and we'll be seeing him on the 16th when he comes to Orsara. Extremely excited to see another familiar face besides Rinaldi.

21 more days in the boot and thoughts of home are plaguing both of us but were enjoying our stay daily.

Pace&Amore
-R

p.s. Still havn't slaughtered any animal...losing hope of getting this experience.