Mark
Campus: Orland ParkProgram: Hospitality Management
From: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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It all began two years ago when I was driving myself to my mundane banking job. Now don’t get me wrong the job was okay, it just wasn’t for me. That day, traffic was terrible, I was miserable, and I thought there has to be more to life than this. I decided it was time for a change. So I left the banking industry (after working in it for eight years) and started my new adventure into the world of food. That’s how I got to the Bobby Mo.
Previously on Real Life...
Don’t you love flying? I certainly don’t. I’ve flown five times in my whole life. All in all they were positive experiences. (Nerve wracking, but positive.) Cut to me being trapped in a small airplane with every type of passenger from hell on board; meanwhile, the plane is jerking so much that I’m really thinking of grabbing that air sickness bag in front of me and giving it a good fill.
Since I’ve got nothing but time and no scenery to describe to you, I’m going to give you the low down on the passengers on my Jet Blue flight from Chicago to JFK.
1. Shirley Temper Tantrum (seat 21A)
Apparently mom decided to take away a toy of Shirley’s because she was being naughty. Big mistake Mommy! Now Shirley has decided she is really unhappy and telling the rest of us on the plane about it. Thank god for Ipods! Unfortunately, my volume only goes up so high. I hope Mommy is embarrassed. Daddy doesn’t seem to care as he keeps checking out the flight attendant passing out snacks. (The flight attendant is a man).
2. Claus Von TooClose (Seat 14C, next to me)
This guy is practically sitting in my lap. First off, his crap was strewn all over my seat when I went to it and now he’s trying to play touchy feely with me. As if the seats weren’t cramped enough on this little jet liner. He’s decided to doze now and it looks like he’s about to come crashing into my shoulder. Sorry buddy, but this sexy chef is taken. Yeah that’s right, I’m writing about you. Move the hell over.
3. Mr. and Mrs. Hoy D. Toydy (Seats 12 A and 12B)
She has stacks of Vogue Magazines on her lap; he has his laptop out typing like hell (he’s a loud typer). Mr. Toydy has decided to give Mrs. Toydy a play by play about their investments. Why would you discuss how much money you have in your Money Market Account on a plane? Let alone loud enough for me to hear. They must be on their honeymoon as their public displays of affection sicken me. Oh look the picture album of the dog is out. How cute. No, Mrs. Toydy, your gum snapping isn’t at all loud. By all means, snap it louder.
Review of Jet Blue:
The good: The TV’s in the headrest are awesome. I get 36 channels and XM radio. And it’s free. Thank god I brought my own headphones because the ones they hand out look a little gross.
The bad: Watching food network while the plane is bouncing around. Where’s that bag?
ROUND 2: THE FLIGHT FROM JFK TO LONDON
So, I’ve arrived safely at JFK. Decided to stop at Mc Donald’s for a bite to eat. Big mistake. Thank god the Pepto-Bismol was packed. JFK airport has to be one of the most confusing airports ever. From the airtran system (a big monorail that goes in a loop) to the tons of people that take up every seat available. It was not a fun stop. British Airways on the other hand was pretty cool. Free wine with dinner! You’ve got to love those Brits. After downing two glasses with a handful of sleeping pills, I was out like a light.
It is now 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, so I guess that ends day one. Sorry no pictures!
Next on Real Life...
Sidenote:
The final two members of our party showed up. They actually did arrive on Sunday night (at 6:45), but there was no one there from the school to pick them up. Unfortunately, we could not leave word with British Airlines to give them a message. They said it was for privacy’s sake. So David and Graham had to take a train and a cab from the airport to the school. It was pretty amazing that they made it given the fact that neither of them has ever been to Italy, speak Italian, or had contact with anyone from the school.
(Monday) Day 3 - Lost in Translation
So today was not only Memorial Day, but also Olive Oil day at the ICIF!
I just have to say that it was a totally weird experience. Don’t get me wrong it was very educational, but very weird. The classes today were taught in Italian with an English translator standing upfront. So, I’m sure that we lost a lot of meaning somewhere in translation.
The olive oil lecture / tasting was very interesting. The man who taught the lecture has an olive oil production facility in Umbria (the area of Italy with the best olive oil.) I didn’t know that there was a specific way to taste olive oil. First, you put it in your mouth and let the oil hit the back of your tongue. Then, without swallowing, you bring the olive oil back to the front of your mouth. Next, with a chewing motion you determine the viscosity of the oil. Finally, you spit it out. Like wine you are looking for a good aroma and flavor (unlike wine you do not look at an olive oil’s color; it has nothing to do with the quality of the olive oil). Flavor and aroma are dependant on the variety of the olive, the soil, and climate. This is just one tenth of the information we got today. It was an excellent class.
After the lecture we were given lunch. All the students of the culinary institute eat together in the main dining room. This is the first time our group got to see everyone. Besides us Americans, there was a group of Korean students and Brazilian students. You could tell that we were not the most popular kids there. In fact, we got a lot of nasty looks from the other groups. Lunch ended pretty much with us being labeled as the outcasts.
The next class was a olive oil cooking class. We only made two recipes. Brendad (sp?) which is a salt cod cake, and meat stuffed olives which were breaded and fried. Both recipes were very good. The interesting part of the class was that like the earlier lecture, this class was also taught in Italian. Even more interesting is the fact that the recipes they gave us were also in Italian. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them when I get back to the States. I guess find someone to interpret them for me.
The school itself has numerous classrooms. One is a lecture hall with a demo kitchen area, the other is a practical kitchen with stoves for everyone, there is a pastry kitchen with bread ovens and all pastry equipment, and then there is a production kitchen where they make lunch and dinner for the students (as well as for special events). I’ll post pictures. The most interesting part about the school is that they use electricity to cook (because it is a castle it would be dangerous to cook with gas). It took a little time to get used to the electric flat top stoves.
After the cooking class, it was time for dinner. All the students were there again. The stares from the other groups continued and we felt even worse about ourselves. I knew that I had to somehow reach out to one of the groups. While cleaning up I got to talking to the Brazilian group. I told them the fact that my mother grew up in Sao Paulo. Instantly, I made a connection with them. They told us about a little party they were having later that night and that I should come and bring all of my friends (meaning the rest of the Americans.
Most of our little group decided to go out for a drink afterwards. It was the first time I ever had Grappa. It is similar to wine in the fact that it is made from grapes. I can almost compare it to a sherry. It was good (and very strong). I also had something called Ferent Banca (sp?). It was pretty gross. It is made entirely from fermented herbs. I compared the taste to old man cologne mixed with leather. The locals drink it a lot. I guess when in Rome?? (Or in this case some city out side of Asti. I should really find out what it’s called).
After a few drinks, we came back to the dorms and went to the Brazilian party. It definitely bridged the gap between our two groups. So even though we spoke different languages we were still able to have fun and enjoy the Italian Life. I suppose in this case, nothing was lost in translation.
Tommorrow: Risotto Day! PICTURES AT
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/briguyinil@sbcglobal.net/albums
After a crazy day of security checkpoints and no sleep the night before, I finally arrived in Milan – Linate. I’ll skip the part about how annoying and confusing the airport in London was.
The views from the plane when arriving where absolutely gorgeous. The area near the airport, I later found out, is mostly rice fields. So, as you come into Milan, the land almost looks like a quilt. Looking down from the plane you see a patchwork of different colors and shapes which are the rice fields. The airport (Milan-Linate) is quite small and old. In fact, when you get off the plane, you exit onto the tarmac and they bus you to the terminal. It was very 1950’s rockstar. There is a larger more modern airport, but it is used for larger commercial flights.
I lucked out and got a head of everybody going through customs. They were checking us in pretty slow. I also lucked out and didn’t lose any luggage! Thank God!
So I met up with our ICIF contact, Roseanna. She is such so super nice. She is your typical beautiful Italian woman. Very knowledgeable and funny, too. In the end there were supposed to be 7 of us from the United States on this trip.
Unfortunately, only five of us got there on time. Jared and Rand are both CIA students from New York. Laura is a student from Washington. And Annie is a student all the way from Maui. Rand was not as fortunate as the rest of us. His luggage did not show up on the flight. (As of now, the airline is still trying to track it down.) We decided to wait as long as we could (about an hour) to see if the other two students were somewhere in the airport. They were not. We figured they must not have made the connecting flight from London to Milan because of the change in flights from NY to London. So after an hour, we left without them. Since the airline would not tell us if they were on the flight or not, we had no way to contact them. So if they did show up later, they would be stranded (which would turn out to be the case).
The school is 2 hours south west of Milan by car. The scenery around Milan was pretty typical of any industrial/major city. It got more interesting as we headed towards the school (which will be referred to as The Castle from here on in). The little town (which I’m still not sure the name of), has a population of at least 6,000 people (according to Roseanna). This is where I became the typical tourist and brought out my camera to snap a bunch of pictures. The scenery is so beautiful. It’s your typical Italian landscape. Plaster buildings with red tile roofs and vineyards surrounding it. The dorms are…interesting. I ended up having to room with Jared and Rand. (The two other guys who didn’t make it would room together in another dorm). The only really nice thing about our accommodations is that the bathroom is huge (it has a bidet, aka the fun other toilet) and there is a balcony to walk out onto. Although the view is really nothing as it looks out into the courtyard and the surrounding apartment buildings.
So after settling in and unpacking, we changed and headed out to Magdelena’s. It’s a local restaurant that specializes in pizza. (Sidenote: Rand had actually visited the school before, so he was a little familiar with the town. He also is the only one of us who knows Italian so he’s acting as interpreter as well). The restaurant is the most popular in town. It was already packed by 8 o clock. Luckily the school made reservations and we had a table waiting for us. We started off with an antipasto appetizer which consisted of a chilled calamari salad, Vitello Tunato (sliced veal with a tuna mayo), beef carpaccio (raw beef with shaved parmigano reggiano), a roasted yellow pepper stuffed with what we believed was tuna or some sort of fish, and a slice of fresh bufalo mozzarella with fresh herbs. Very good.
The pizza in Italy is totally different than pizza in the US. The crust is much thinner and the sauce is made with fresh tomatoes and very little herbs. They use very little sauce as well. Also, you can totally taste the difference between an American tomato and an Italian tomato. It is fresh, sweet, and has that just from the garden flavor. Yummy. There’s nothing like it. Their pizzas are topped with not so typical ingredients like artichokes, prosciutto, tuna, and blue cheese. Sorry, no pepperoni at this joint. The pizzas were also individual sized/and boy were they tasty. I ordered the 4 Stagiani. It had ham, mushrooms, cheese, and artichokes divided into quarters on the pizza. Excellent!
You can’t think Italy without thinking wine. We decided to get a carafe of the house red with dinner. Woooowee was that stuff strong. Good, but strong. We noticed that getting wine is a lot cheaper than getting water in some places. They also like to mix things into their wine and make them into cocktails.
Dessert was an order of tiramisu that we all shared. Everyone was pretty full, but you can’t go to Italy and not try tiramisu. Honestly, it tasted like tiramisu from the US. In reality it is a simple dessert that you really can’t change too much. It was fair.
So after dinner, we decided to walk around the town at night. It was the perfect end to a long day. The town is quaint and charming. It’s also very hilly (great butt workout) and has such history. The castle is at the top of the highest hill and looks out over the town. It is currently going through some outside renovations, so the pictures I took have scaffolding around them. We decided to stop for a quick nightcap at a local bar. I had red wine with Campari (a liquor), seltzer, and a slice of orange. Delicious. That’s pretty much it. We went back to the dorms to get ready for day number 3, olive oil!
(Please excuse the spelling errors. I am typing this at five in the morning and Word’s spell check doesn’t pick up on Italian words. Also, the wireless internet connection only works in the breakfast room downstairs. Why am I up at 5 in the morning? Because I can’t sleep. It’s been a little gusty outside and the wind has been blowing around doors and windows. So every time I fall asleep, I get woken up with a BANG! It’s a little scary. Plus the hall light outside our door keeps going on and off. Ghosts perhaps?)
Bad news: I can't upload pictures to this blog page from Italy. It takes way too long because the files are so large. So go to
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/briguyinil@sbcglobal.net/albums
to view the pictures.