This was our first trip to Rome with kids and outside of all the mandatory historic and cultural must sees we wanted to add a fun and memorable experience. Our friends’ hotel set us up with this cooking class and we couldn’t be more pleased.
We found ourselves in a lovely neighborhood – Trastevere – a charming residential enclave in Rome known to come alive at night and also where locals tend to hang out.
We knocked on the large wooden door dotted with beautiful pink bougainvillea and were let inside a small portico leading to a spacious building. The chef’s kitchen had an enormous oven to the right and in the back a few spacious sitting areas and a large family-style dining area. There was a tiny little loft upstairs, a working space which made sense as the building used to be an architects office. This architect had designed the metro which was built over time. In the Roman era, this area was at river level and there were ample black and white architect drawings that were retained and now adorned the walls which lent the space a special character.
Our lovely hosts’ Chef Vittoria Boccianti and Chef Marco Farnetti took exceptionally good care of us. After freshening up and washing our hands we were each given an apron and led to the large kitchen counter that had all the basic ingredients required for our pizza making adventure. The kids dived right in with the chefs to first start with kneading the dough and flattening it out to get our pizza base. Next we used the freshly made tomato sauce and then we each got to adorn our pizza with the choicest of fresh vegetables and delicious meats. The kids were engaged and thanks to the attentive chefs really taking to the whole experience.
The most fun part was the fabulous looking large brick oven where our pizzas went through their final step. The bubbling cheese and splendid aroma filled our lungs and we couldn’t wait to grab a bit.
Our dinner turned into a few hours long relaxing fiesta chatting with our chef and learning about her and about food in Italy. Chef Vittoria lived in England for 20 years but came back to her home in Barri, Italy. She wasn’t a chef all her life. She had completed her MBA at NYU in Marketing communications and that job involved 80% marketing and 20% cooking. Now it was the reverse and she loves the cooking. Her son is into rugby and her daughter has a career in politics. This led us to talk about the government, Berlusconi and about Brexit and Spain.
We were curious about the Italian love for cheese and pasta, meat and wine, food that is in this modern-day considered unhealthy. She explained that they obviously don’t eat pizza and pasta every day but when they do what sets their food apart is the abundance of fresh ingredients and the quality of food that is highly regulated in Italy. For example, a chocolate bar has to be 50% cocoa, the vegetables we were using were picked up this morning and the cheese is no more than a week old. The number of pesticides found was a fraction of what you would find in the States. Besides not being able to find a good curry in Italy she loved every bit of Italian sensibilities regarding food. Cooking skills are for life she emphasized saying that the more you develop a palate for a good life the less likely you are to eat junk.
One of her favorite things to eat is the Tiramisu biscuit dipped in coffee. The mascarpone was easy to make and here’s a short recipe, the kind I like! – (heavy cream), 4 egg yolks, 4 tablespoons of sugar. You can dip it in milk and put slices of strawberry and coconut and voila!
We heard about some new trends like the new craze which is the Water menu – nowadays with wine it’s trendy to also try fizzy water to clear your palate. Now we couldn’t not ask the Chef for her restaurant recommendations – Le pergola, Aroma in Florence, the Restaurant ‘Oops I broke the cake’, Moma in Copenhagen – A 3 Michelin Star that served fizzy candy in cake which made her laugh –
In the end they not only taught us and the kids how to make the most delicious pizza we’ve ever eaten they did it while giving us cooking tips, chatting, laughing and getting us to truly enjoy our evening. What made it especially memorable was hanging out together breaking bread after we quite literally made the bread, and conversing like friends over a lovely meal on a lovely evening. We also had excellent wine and dessert and loved the extra special attention to every detail. This experience was surely one for the books.
