Over the Weekend

Enrolled in a pasta sauce course last weekend at Amici di Don Bosco School of Advanced Cooking with Chef Giorgio Bucciarelli. 

The course lasted all day, from ten am to 5pm and was supposed to have a limit of only 25-30 people.  Apparently a lot of people registered but didn't confirm, so the secretariat kept accepting confirmations, only to find out that the people who didn't confirm showed up last saturday so it was a little bit crowded in the cucina that day.

Chef Bucciarelli is a sociable person and had the course only been made up of maybe 5-10 people it would have been great.  As it was, the apron that I was told to bring was totally useless as due to the sheer number all we did was listen and watch him cook.  It was also a chore because the cucina was NOT mirrored and so everyone had to crowd around the counter and the cooking area.

The last time the pasta course was offered, they only had 5 people enrolling.  And I think it is the usual case to have a maximum of ten people sign up for a  class so staff were caught unawares. 

Be that as it may, it was still a freaky experience lol.  In one of the foodie blogs I frequent, there were a couple of entries where the writer described her experiences at a food fair with free food.  There would be no lines or any semblance of order, with other people bringing plastic containers or dipping their forks into the food. 

Well, it happened here too.  For one thing, there weren't enough plates.  For another, there were no lines.  When Chef ladled out the pasta into the huge serving plate and placed it on the table right in front of me (and my friend Trish), everyone converged and there was general chaos.  Trish and I stepped back, willing to wait until people were done, but we soon found out it was a stupid idea because those who got portions first came back for seconds, thirds and fourth servings LOL.  I don't mean to be catty, but can I just say "patay gutom"?

There was a pound of pasta for each recipe but with these people there was very little going around.  Trish and I threw up our hands and let them go at it; we both decided to just have lunch at the restaurant where I had some sausages (yummy!) and she had some lechon kawali (yes, they also have Filipino food) and we shared a plate of paella (very good).

Unbeknownst to us, Chef took the time we disappeared from class as time to take his lunch break, so it all worked out fine and we didn't miss a thing.  We, at least, had a long liesurely lunch only disturbed by three of our classmates who asked me what sort of food we had and where we bought it and then sat in front of us and kept pointing at our food.  It was a little uncomfortable, I think they wanted to try the food and were just looking for an opportunity to catch our attention, but Trish and I were on to them and just tried to eat our lunch in peace.

We walked back to the cucina, past Chef who was sneaking in a few more cigarettes.

I learned a lot of things from the course, technique-wise and some secrets they use at the restaurant, which ingredients have acceptable substitutes and whatnot.

The only things that would have made the course more enjoyable:

1.  a little more order.  Chef's mise-en-place was not en place and he had to keep asking his assistants to bring him things from the restaurant kitchen.  Also, with a class as huge as that, it would have been better if the assistants would have actually plated the pasta instead of letting it become a free for all.  And most importantly to STOP people from DIPPING THEIR SPOONS OR FORKS into the freaking pasta/filling/sauce while it was cooking.  One woman even went so far as to pinch one of the conchiglioni shells already cooling on the table and putting it back!! *blech!  she didn't even wash her freaking hands!!

2.  secretariat to book only people who confirm ahead of time so they can control the class.

3.  and this is nitpicking -- Chef's accent :D since it was a big class, he needed to use a microphone (which was a little faulty) and with his thick accent it was a little difficult following the discussion when you can only just hear him.  On a side note, listening to him speak made me miss my italian professore and my language classmates!  I wonder where they are now...

4.  and nitpicking #2 -- There will always be one in any class, and it reminded me so much of language class.  One, being a person (usually a woman) who takes classes not really to learn so much as to bag the cute professor or classmate.  (There were none in italian class, though, as I took that at uni and we were all scared stiff of the professore and he was an old terror teacher, but there were a couple in french class, in every level *grin*.)  In this case, she kept asking the most delightful questions :D e.g. "Chef, do we always have to cook pasta al dente?" and she also had the most delightful facial expressions I was itching to take pictures of.  It was getting pretty annoying after the first hour, though :)

5.  It would have been great if we could have actually used our aprons and done some of our own cooking, but with a class that size it would have been more mayhem.