We would to introduce you to one of our recent partners, the Denver-based Cook Street.

Located in the historic LoDo district of Denver, Colorado, Cook Street is a world renowned Chef school which delivers culinary training by focusing on hands-on learning, menu preparation, palate development, wine education, and by building a rich appreciation for the culture, history and heritage of great cuisine.

The Cook Street School of Fine Cooking offers an accelerated Professional Food & Wine Career Program, recreational cooking and wine classes for students of all skill and experience levels.

Cook Street also provides online resources for those who are looking for more info about the culinary world, and offers a directory of trusted (friendly) links to several operators in the food industry under categories such as Books, Food&Wine, Kitchenware, Restaurant Equipment, Nutrition and more.

Italian Food Lovers has been listed within the cooking classes category, that we remind you we regularly run all year-long at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy, and across the United States in partnership with several local US food organizations. We will soon publish on Italian Food Lovers the updated calendar of 2008 cooking classes at our Parma Culinary School.

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“!

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Quick note for all the Italian food lovers in the Miami Area - this weekend Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Costantino Cicchelli will represent Academia Barilla at Laurenzo’s 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting, the now classic pre-Christmas gourmet event in North Beach Miami. Here below a picture of last year’s event.

Costantino Cicchelli will be your cheese tasting host at Laurenzo’s Italian Gourmet Market in Miami next Saturday December 8th, offering to the Miami gourmands samples of Pecorino Dolce, Pecorino Gran Cru, as well as some tasting and cooking tips on how to use the new line of Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt.

Ask Costantino about the Academia Barilla VIP program, he will be glad to give you detailed info, and sign you in. We will be talking soon about the Academia Barilla VIP program, too.

Laurenzo’s 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting is an evening event, starting at 7.30pm, and closing at 10.30pm.
We suggest to buy the entry tickets in advance, as they are sold at $44 advance, $55 at the door - call +1 (305) 945-6381 to get your advance tickets before the event goes sold out!

Address to Laurenzo’s Italian Gourmet Market and the 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting is 16385 W Dixie Hwy, Miami, FL 33160 - here is a Google Map to make things easier for you and help you with driving directions. See you in North Beach!

View Larger Map on Google Map

As we on our latest post, Barilla America celebrated last Saturday October 20 the grand opening of its second pasta plant in the U.S., located in Avon, NY. Academia Barilla and Barilla are celebrating this event with the New York Wine & Culinary Center with the Barilla Weekend, a gourmet event full of gourmet tastings and culinary workshops.

As a first opening event, the New York Wine and Culinary Center (NYWCC) offered three free tours of the new Barilla plant in Avon, open for a day for the general public to come and experience the culinary arts and Barilla’s dedication to the production of the highest quality Italian food products for consumers around the world.

After the plant tour, a series of culinary and gastronomy dates dedicated to the Italian food culture were scheduled at the NYWCC, in partnership with Academia Barilla and Barilla USA, who provided some of its top Chefs and Italian Culinary Specialists for the event.

Barilla America Corporate Chef Lorenzo Boni teached a hands-on class on pasta, preparing delicious dishes: Fettuccine with Italian Sausage and Leeks, Orzotto with Artichoke & Pancetta and Italian Style Pasta Salad with Tuna, Olives & Capers.

Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini teached a Pasta 101 and Cooking Demonstration workshop, in which he explained as pasta is an integral part of every authentic Italian meal, how to choose pasta, measure pasta, and of course cook pasta!

Chef Bindini also shared a few myths about cooking pasta and presented a cooking demonstration: Farfalle in Savory Guinea Hen Ragu with Pecorino Cheese and Orange Zest, and Pennette with Pumpkin, Bacon & Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Exclusive wine tasting sessions provided by NYWCC paired with Nicola Bindini’s scrumptious dishes. We will be soon proving you with some of these yummy recipes, promised!

After the cooking demonstrations, guests pulled up a seat to experience more on Italy and its extraordinary food products with Italian Culinary Specialist Italo Besseghini. Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist illustrated to the participants tasting techniques for Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, and shared gastronomy tips and recipes using these culinary delights.

Here is the full schedule of the NY Barilla Weekend at the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua, NY - the event was completely sold out!

Class: Barilla Plant Tour - Avon, NY
Date: October 20, 2007
Time: 11:00 am - 1:30 pm
Time: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Time: 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Class: Pasta 101 and Cooking Demonstration with Barilla Chef Nicola Bindini
Date: October 20, 2007
Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: Education Theater

Class: Interactive Cooking Demonstration with Barilla Chef Lorenzo Boni
Date: October 20, 2007
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: Hands-On Kitchen

Class: Olive Oils & Balsamic Vinegar Tasting With Italian Culinary Specialist Italo Besseghini
Date: October 20, 2007
Time: 11:00 pm - 12:15 pm
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Time: 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm
Location: Exhibit Hall

The Barilla weekend at the New York Wine and Culinary Center has been so successful that we believe the NYWCC will ask us to plan more event with them soon. Stay tuned with us, or also inquire with the New York Wine and Culinary Center’s Information Desk at +1 (585) 394-7070.

Do you remember when we blogged about Academia Barilla featured in a documentary about the Italian-American history and culture in Chicago?

Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti, who makes several appearances in the documentary produced by Modio Media, sent us some video clips of the documentary, kindly provided by our Modio Media friends.

The documentary, “And they came to Chicago: the Italian-American Legacy“, is narrated by Tony Award winner Joe Mantegna, and also features Barilla and Academia Barilla when talking about the impact of Italian food in the US culture in the last 150 years, and particularly in the Chicago Area.

In this video clip from the documentary Mario Rizzotti takes a break from a cooking session to quickly give away the fundamental tips on how to taste Italian extra-virgin olive oil, a topic we covered on the blog too, but sure a virtual tasting session with Mario is way superior to a simple blog post. Enjoy the virtual tasting session!

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We will be back soon with more video clips from the documentary, and more Italian culinary and gourmet tips from Mario, as well as video recipes - stay tuned!

If you want to know more about the documentary, please visit www.modomedia.com - they also have a link where you can order online a copy of the documentary on DVD!