I am a graduate of the Food and Wine Academy in Florence, Italy!

Enjoyed a great all day cooking class in Florence today. The day began at 10 am with a walking trip to the Market Centrale. This is the major market in Florence and often the one featured on the Food Network. Florencetown.com is the tour and I highly recommend it. €80.00 each, includes everything. Worth every penny. Very organized and the kitchen is air conditioned. Chefs Guiseppi and Giovanni spoke very good English and even commented on Portland's good food and organic farmer's markets as being perfect for Italian cooking! They also mentioned that the quality of Oregon's porchini mushroooms as some of the best next to Italy's! Now, who wudda thunk that, eh? And Alfredo sauce is not from Italy, and neither is chicken parmesan or mac and cheese. So basically, the crap you get at Olive Garden is all made up Italian and it is an insult to Italian cooking. Ok enough ranting, here is a pallet teaser for you; a slice of parmesan or pecorino cheese (young in age)with a dollop of orange or apricot marmalade on top. Seriously, a treat! We tasted a 15 year old basalmic by the spoonfull...heavenly. Then we made pasta, by hand. There was not a food processor, electic mixer or blender in sight. Everything we made today was made the same way it was made 300 years ago! Pasta by hand is easy but I still opt for the pasta maker that Michele owns. Bolognese is easy, just start with a base of olive oil, a carrot, two celery stalks, one red onion and a clove of garlic and saute until clear in color. Add salt and pepper and then sweat veggies a little more then add chianti. Finally, add meat like pork sausage and ground beef, add canned tomatoes and simmer for an hour minimum, but longer the better...but here is the secret: add chili flakes. And tiramsu is sooooo easy. We whisked egg whites until stiff then folded in egg yolks and sugar, soaked wafers in espresso and layered custard, marscapone cheese, cocoa and wafers in a glass before chilling for two hours. I will make this again, no problem, but soaking wafers in cognac instead. Oh, almost forgot the butter and sage ravioli! Super easy too so I suppose when I get back, I will be cooking for many of you! All in all, the day was a good one and so happy we took this class. Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot so we are heading for Portofino on the coast. It is one hour to Pisa (which is a disappointment) then two more to Portofino. I am looking forward to seeing this seaside town! Ciao!