ITALIAN COOKERY CLASSES - OR THE LEANING TOWER OF PIZZA

ITALIAN COOKERY CLASSES – OR, THE LEANING TOWER OF PIZZA..

Last Monday and Tuesday to The Italian Cultural Institute (ICI) where renowned “Lady Chef” Rita Monastero was holding court with a dozen or so of us ignorant Londoners in the basement kitchen of this beautiful Belgravia Square building.

A bit constrained for space, we were assisted by the very able team of cooks and staff  - a visiting group from Enna in Sicily who are in residence at the ICI where, each day during the month of September, they are serving up delicious specialities at lunch and dinner. Head man Antonio will select a special wine for you too!

   

                 Antonio declares my pizza to be the best he has ever seen! (Either that, or some other declaration in Italian that I couldn't understand...)

Lady Chef Rita is a pure delight and packed with personality and enthusiasm for her students. To be more accurate, she taught us baking, rather than cooking (on this occasion).   Back home in Rome, she gives lessons in a wide range of dishes*.

 We learned the basics of dough, and how to prepare pizza, foccaccia bread with tomatoes and those hard little biscuits with almonds in that you dip in sweet wine or (for me anyway) espresso.

Make sure your dental work is in order before biting into these beauties!

                            Mama mia! You mean you actually cut all those cherry tomatoes by hand for the foccaccia?

My own personal experiences were - very much to my surprise – enormously successful! This is in no small part due to Rita’s great passion for what she does. I was even put in charge on day two (for new two additional students) on how to prepare the dough!

Students ranged from a couple of Sloane Rangers to a guy who was importing food from Italy and wanted to understand how his products could work with his range.

                                    Even Sloanies need to know how to cut olives for their pizzas!

Each three hour session passed in a flash and was marked by good humour and eagerness with all concerned.

A big thanks also to Anna Mondavio, Cultural Affairs Attaché and the marvellous staff all weaving around each other in the tiny kitchen which - incidentally, boasted one of the largest collections of the sharpest knives I've ever seen anywhere outsise of an Iraqi torture chamber -who did the baking and serving up for us!

 You need to be specific about which knife you require!

                                 Gimme the dough, Rita!

Saluté!

*You can read more about Rita Monastero here:

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/cookingwithrita/