Experience the ultimate Italian travel experience in the heart of Parma and Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s Food Valley, with Academia Barilla and the VIP gourmet tour organized by Academia Barilla Culinary School Alumni Frank DiMaria we announced with a previous post.

The VIP gastronomy tour dates are September 21-26, 2008, and the gourmet guided tour to Emilia-Romagna includes:

Culinary Hands-on Experience
Exclusive tasting sessions
Regional delicacies
Authentic menus
Specialty recipes
English-Italian translation
5-Star hotel accommodations
All meals included
Castle and winery visits
World class facilities
Individualized instruction
Courses from Italy’s top local Chefs
One-of-a-kind gourmet and culinary tours
Daily transportation and transfers
Tuition and course materials

Culinary travel highlights include:

The cultural street life, authentic markets, food stores, retail shops, restaurants and cafés of Parma and surrounding areas of Emilia-Romagna

Two hands-on culinary courses at the Academia Barilla Culinary Center
The spectacular historic Torrechiara Castle and medieval town nestled in the countryside of Emilia-Romagna

Gourmet tours to award-winning Parmigiano-Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma producers, where we will witness the production, authenticity and quality of traditional Italian products

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar tastings with professional, expert techniques on how to taste these regional delicacies

An excursion to a winery in the Emilia-Romagna region for a tasting and lesson on discovering the intricacies and flavors of different wines

An excursion to the Ferrari Museum in Imola to experience first hand the history of an Italian icon

Gelato and sorbetto tasting in local area cafés

The exclusive group price for this luxury VIP guided tour is $2,900 per person, airfare excluded. For more detailed information about the VIP tour features, cost and booking please call Frank DiMaria at +1 847 965-0672 or +1 847 417-7587, or email Frank at frankdimaria@comcast.net.

We will be blogging more over the next few weeks about this VIP gastronomy tour to Emilia-Romagna, getting into details of each activity and destination to feed you with more Italian food culture and some desire to come cook with us in Parma!

Today, March 21, is the first day of Spring; we leave behind us the cold days of winter (not so cold this year, after all) and look forward for more and more beautiful days of primavera, spring time.

So how about planning a trip to Parma, in the heart of Emilia-Romagna and the Italian Food Valley? Academia Barilla could be your perfect host for your Italian gourmet vacations.

Amazing Medieval town rich of culture and with plenty of historic highlights that meet culinary culture (check out our blog article from last year for a virtual visit to the city), Parma is also, as our readership knows, home to Academia Barilla, its Culinary School, and of course BIGAB, Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library.

Both Academia Barilla’s Culinary School and Gastronomic Library will release their official calendar of events and gourmet and cultural initiatives soon (you get a peek preview on BIGAB’s activities from a previous post), but make sure that you will have plenty of choices that you can customize.

Academia Barilla’s culinary learning vacations include everything from gourmet tours of the Italian Food Valley to hands-on Italian cooking classes at the Culinary School, cultural guided tours, exploration of traditional farms and local artisan producers of Italian regional specialties and more, including on the cultural side of experiencing Italy. Opera? We got that too. Contemporary art? Of course. Cinema? Yep.

Getting curious? We suggest you stay tuned with this blog for more details coming up soon, but also that you start inquiring at Academia Barilla about the gastronomic and cultural initiatives for 2008. You can call directly Academia Barilla in Parma, Italy at +39 0521 264-060 or toll-free number (numero verde) 800 376-116; if you are in the United States you can reach Academia Barilla the toll-free number 866 772-2233.

In the meanwhile, explore our Parma photo set on Flickr.com! (click on the image to go to the photo set).

See you in Parma in primavera!

Academia Barilla is proud to introduce three new Italian gourmet products dedicated to the tastes of regional Italian cuisine.

Introducing Sapori Italiani, authentic Italian Flavors, a line of Italian gourmet specialties made exclusively by hand on small regional estates in Italy, using only local, typical ingredients. Sapori Italiani allows finish any dish with real Italian flair and taste.

The first product is Academia Barilla’s Sapori Italiani Mix, an exclusive selection of Italian herbs from small Tuscan and Sicilian estates.

Hand packed with wild oregano, capers and cured olives, this all natural mix gives true Italian taste to any dish and is ideal on a variety of dishes and perfect for every day use. Try on pasta, pizza, salads, bruschetta and grilled meats.

A great add-on to the Academia Barilla family of Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oils (EVOO) is the brand-new Unfiltered Oil, a product of Sicily, in the heart of the sunny Mediterranean. Made from Sicilian olive varieties Cerasuola and Nocellara del Belice, Academia Barilla’s Unfiltered Oil offers a medium fruitiness and very fresh aromas, with strong undertones of green grass, pachino tomatoes and oregano.

The most natural EVOO available from Italy, this oil is produced with innovative methods that surpass traditional centrifuge processes, leaving the oil’s original flavors and properties intact, with no sediments or pulp. Versatile, for everyday use, Academia Barilla’s Unfiltered olive oil gives his best on marinades, dressings, cooking, dipping and bruschetta.

Last but not last new entry in the Academia Barilla line of Italian olive oils is the new 100% Organic Oil. Produced in Umbria, in the heart of Italy, 100% Organic Oill is one of the few organic olive oils available made from 100% Italian, organic olives. With a medium fruitiness, and mild hints of ripe olive, grass and sweet almonds Academia Barilla’s 100% Organic Oil is the perfect companion for versatile, everyday use organic marinades, dressings, cooking and dipping.

We’ll publish some recipes soon with the new Academia Barilla ingredients, so stay tuned! In the meanwhile, do not forget that the new gourmet Sapori Italiani are available at the Academia Barilla online store!

Last December a group of American students from NY Universities (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, NY) spent some time in Parma to study Italian Cuisine at the Academia Barilla Culinary Center .

The group of students were headed by Giacomo Berselli, President of the Marco Polo Foundation, the organization who sponsored the students’ trip to Italy. After spending 7 weeks in Otranto (Puglia) and 3 weeks in Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna), the students attended cooking classes at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma for additional 2 weeks.

During their Parma residency the US students of the Marco Polo project studied the typical products of the Parma region, and attended classes of olive oil tasting, Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma tasting, as well as Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and wine tasting. After theory and tasting classes in the morning the young Chefs spent some time researching Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library, with the support of the Library Curator Giancarlo Gonizzi and his team.
The afternoon were generally spent in the kitchen, trying dishes and recipes containing the ingredients the students have been working on all day, under the guidance of Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini and his Chef team.

To complete the students’ full immersion into the art of Italian gastronomy, Academia Barilla organized also culinary and gastronomy tours for the students, allowing them to discover the secrets of producers and farmers of authentic regional products, and to meet the countryside traditions and history of the Emilia-Romagna region, that certainly is a key ingredient of our traditional recipes.

At the end of the 2 weeks of classes the Academia Barilla Culinary School released to each student a certificate of completion of studies that, join with the other certificates awarded by the students at the other learning locations across Italy, would have grant them the formal recognition of the exams and classes by their respective original colleges (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, both in the NY State).

Here below a couple of testimonial notes from the Marco Polo students, as written on the Academia guest book, pictured here above with more Marco Polo testimonials:

“Thank you Barilla for such an informative 2 weeks. I enjoyed myself thoroughly would tell my family friends about this wonderful place. Thank you so much.”

“Ciao, this school has taught me that food to the Italian is religion and the kitchen is their church. Thank you Academia Barilla.”

To know more about the student program we interviewed Marco Polo Foundation President Giacomo Berselli who firmly says that “Academia Barilla is state-of-the-art of the Italian Cuisine“!

[youtube]7WmyPfStHAk[/youtube]

As recently announced when we last talked about Giada De Laurentiis, we have great news for you today.

Academia Barilla is proud to announce the launch of a new product line designed in partnership with Italian Chef, cookbook writer and TV celeb Chef Giada De Laurentiis.

Academia Barilla and Giada De Laurentiis present a piece of Italy to Italian food lovers and food connoisseurs, to taste, enjoy and share. Together, Academia Barilla and Giada De Laurentiis are launching the much anticipated range of high quality, authentic Italian gourmet products.

The first product in the Giada line is, of course, an Italian classic: a 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made exclusively with olives from Italy, with a very low acidity level.

With its versatile nature, distinct notes of mature, green olives and a smooth, balanced taste, this 100% Italian Olive Oil is ideal for use in all types of recipes, for finishing dishes and for olive oil dipping.

Next product in the Giada De Laurentiis - Academia Barilla line is an authentic Balsamic Vinegar from Modena with a young and fruity taste obtained from gently cooked grape must, grown and processed solely in the Modena area.

With its aroma full of balsamic notes and hints of aged wood, Giada’s Balsamic Vinegar also presents an harmonious taste with strong and well-distinguished scents of balsamic, and a dense and persistent texture.

A completely new product is Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix - a mix of refined and appetizing herbs that capture the tastes and aromas of the awe inspiring rolling hills of Tuscany.

With a well balanced and defined aroma with clear sensations of chili peppers and wild fennel, Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix offers a strong and intense taste, ideal for rich and savory dishes. As a serving suggestion, Giada De Laurentiis and Academia Barilla suggest to use the Tuscan herbs for all recipes including soups, sauces, marinades and rubs for any type of red or white meat.

As a final gourmet item selected by Academia Barilla and Giada De Laurentiis, an incredibly tasty Sicilian Sea Salt with Fresh Lemon Zest. The hand-harvested, all-natural sea salt with lemon zest comes from a combination of the pure Sicilian sea water and the freshest lemons grown under the Sicilian sun.

Giada’s Sicilian sea salt presents a delicate and intense aroma, with distinct hints of sweet, fresh lemons. Its fresh and delicate taste is characterized by intense notes of lemon, making this gourmet product a perfect ingredient to be coupled with light dishes, ideal for cooked or raw fish and shellfish, poultry, vegetables and desserts.

We will talk again soon about this new exciting line of Italian gourmet products, soon distributed across all top gourmet and food specialty stores, as well as at the Academia Barilla online store.