Chianti Cooking Class

This week we took a cooking class at Querceto, an organic vineyard in Tuscany. The class is held in the kitchen of the family matriarch, Laura. First, we met her in the center of town, to do some shopping for the menu we were making. This was a big plus for us, because getting to shop with Laura and ask her questions, and see how she goes about it, was a golden opportunity, as far as we were concerned. We did it all in Italian, but Laura speaks English so it could have been done that way too. We asked in advance if she could walk us through cleaning and cooking some artichokes, since those are my favorite, and I could use some professional advice on how to deal with all the different varietals.

Our first stop was a macelleria (butcher) in town, where we bought the pork loin and pancetta (here called rigatino). Since we were in the shop, and no one else was there, we took a moment to ask why cinghiale (wild boar) is impossible to find here, unless you personally know a hunter. What ensued was a 15 minute symposium on wild boar, hunting laws, and Italian government restrictions on butchers that was fascinating.

After shopping we drove to the vineyard, where Laura’s house is. We spent the next several hours in class with Laura, preparing a multi course meal from start to finish. I would say we spent about 95% of the day in Italian, with a few breaks here and there for some English interludes where Laura explained a thing or two we missed. Her patience is infinite. We kept her there for much longer than a normal class because we talked about food, and being immigrants, and music, and when she met her husband for the first time, and how American Italian food is so different than anything found here in Italy, and performing on stage with violin and cello, and what type of owl is the best, and how cute her dog was.

Laura’s supervisor

A lot of our clients ask us to organize cooking classes for them, and those are not hard to find. But we have spent a lot of time hunting up classes that reflect a “Little Roads” philosophy: showcasing the foods and traditions of the area. Those experiences take more time and cost more money, but that is because they are particular - an experience based on memories and skills of a lifetime, that makes life-long memories. Some cookie-cutter classes don’t cost much, but they are teaching you how to make, for example, pizza and tiramisu, which may or may not have anything to do with the area you are visiting or the family you are cooking with.

One funny aspect of the experience, for us, was to take a class together, as students. We met each other when we were professionals, working in a symphony orchestra. At that point, we were no longer taking lessons as students, but giving them as teachers or clinicians. We spent the next 20 years teaching and working together, but never studying together. The first time we saw each other as students was when we sat together in Italian driving school. We had to go to driving school class a few times a week every week for several months, and we spent several hours a day every day studying and taking practice tests. It was really interesting for me to see Matt as a student, when I had always known him as a teacher.

In our cooking class last week, we started out with Laura giving us each a zucchini to cut, into rounds and strips. The pressure was on!! Hahahaha. How ridiculous. Pressure… I mean, there was no pressure at all, but we both cut our zucchini into chunks that looked like we used a lobster cruncher to do it. Laura politely looked on and complimented us even though we totally didn’t deserve it.

What a gorgeous day. Obviously Laura’s class is on our list of offerings for our clients, so if experiences like this sound good to you, that is one aspect of the type of thing we seek out.

One thing I noticed about Laura’s house that was very striking to me was its silence. Set up above the vineyard, it is in a remote location. There is zero traffic noise. The house is absolutely gorgeous and its large picture windows have commanding views over the vineyards and gardens and surrounding hillsides and distant hilltop towns and castles. Those windows may or may not be soundproofed, but they wouldn’t need to be: the only thing they would block out is calling songbirds. I found the silence of the place so relaxing and peaceful, I could almost hear my own heartbeat.