My epic culinary journey en-route to "Our Little Green Kitchen"

     Here I am in beautiful Italy, on the Ionian Coast in province of Catanzaro in the Calabria Region of Southern Italy attending a three months program, 'Master of Italian Cuisine; Italian Haute Cuisine & Wine Master's Program' in Italian Culinary Institute as a student. It is an intense program including wine, curing meat and seafood, cheese making, artisan baking, preserving,  gelato, Italian desserts additional to evolution of Italian Cuisine and advanced cooking techniques. We also did some menu development and mixology. I have been enjoying so far, actually loving it. 

    Kitchen has always been my happy place. Thanks to mom, I am an art&crafts person,  just give me a piece of material and watch me make it something useful, a part of daily life; could be a little pebble on the beach, a little branch from a plant or something edible from the nature growing wild. I think there is art in bringing the raw ingredients together and ending up with a tasty food. The best part is being able to share the product, if it is a good one you will be sharing the pleasure as well as your food. I find food is the best thing to share; feeds your body and your soul, it has reality in it as well as art, of course if you present it the right way. I had been into the feeding the body part, right food which is good for your body as well as the planet. This program gave me a new point of view; feeding your soul at the same time. Now I have a better understanding about science of food and the chemistry behind and how to get better knowing the right techniques and presenting it in a right way; elegant and beautiful.

      I have been taking lots of notes as well as pictures but I have been slow about posting, I want to make sure I have enough experience before I start sharing things. We are having great training here, we have a great master who is very patient with us and very generous about sharing information. I want to thank him here; thank you very much Chef John Nocita for excepting me to your program, thank you very much for your efforts and patience. I will do my best to be worthy of your efforts on us and represent your institution. For more information about Italian Culinary Institute and programs visit http://www.italianculinary.it, you'll find the details about short term and long term courses.

      Please follow me, I will make sure we are all well fed; physically and mentally. With good food we will be healthy and happy individuals. Remember; you are what you eat, food does really matter.