Learning to Cook

I went down Ristorante La Cambusa today for my first cooking class and did surprisingly well. I didn’t light anything on fire, burn anything or drop anything, and at the end of the days, Chef Claudio even told me that I was “molto bravo” when it came to making gnocchi. I thought he was telling me I was very brave for attempting to make gnocchi (which didn’t really make much sense, but I went with it), but later learned he was telling me I was a skilled gnocchi maker.

The restaurant, famous for its seafood, sits on the water and offers amazing views. Outside is a large patio, and inside, on the 2nd story, is the main dining room with three walls of windows. If you look left, you see the next town over, Priaino (another town built into a cliff, only with all white buildings), if you look straight ahead you stare into the sea, and if you look right, you see an ancient Turkish watch tower jutting out into the water.

When I arrived at the restaurant this afternoon, Mario greeted me and introduced me to the rest of the staff, which was composed of two chefs, Claudio and Pietro (neither of whom spoke English), a dishwasher (no English there, either), and three waiters. Additionally there was Emilio, who owns a fruit farm (I think) and was there delivering fresh fruit, and another man who owns a pescheria (fish shop). We all ate lunch together (pasta with sausage, and a side of grilled mozzarella), and I sat next to Mario, who told me all about his farm - he lives about twenty minutes outside of Positano on an olive and fig farm, where his family makes olive oil (which I got to try, and it was superb). The entire lunchtime was in Italian, and I hard a hard time keeping up because everyone spoke at rush speed (Mario helped me cheat by translating the conversation into English). After lunch, however, I was on my own.

I followed Chef Numero Uno, Claudio up to the main kitchen. Claudio was about 40, slightly taller than me, with thinning grayish hair, little wire rimmed glasses, and a very patient demeanor. Mario had told him to speak slowly to me so I could understand him, which would have been fine had it not been for one small hitch - he’d lost his voice. It would come and go, and when it would come, his voice was high pitched and I felt like I was having a conversation with an Italian Mickey Mouse. For the first hour, I was half listening to Mickey Mouse list off ingredients in Italian (I did a lot of smelling things to figure out what they were - still haven’t figured out Masce Noscate, any ideas?), and half attempting to read his lips - which is NOT easy with a foreign language. But as I said, he was very patient.

The first dish we prepared was Eggplant Parmigiana - it was the perfect way to start the day, as Eggplant Pam is my favorite meal second only to shellfish. After the eggplant, the day continued to improve - we made Spaghetti al Frutto di Mare - spaghetti with fresh clams, muscles, shrimp, and calamari. From there, we made a variety of different pastas and seafood, different types of fish in a lemon/parsley sauce, creme brulee, and of course, gnocchi.

Gnocchi was by far the most challenging, even though I felt like a five year old playing with play-do. After boiling a few dozen potatoes, Claudio had me run them through a machine that spit out long, thick strands resembling spaghetti. Once the potatoes had all been run through and turned into a towering mass of “spaghetti,” we it cool and turned our attention to making an olive  oil/garlic/parsley sauce, which would later turn into a sauce for the linguine alle vongole.

When mass of  former potatoes was finally cool, we topped it with a lot of flour, a lot of parm, a few eggs, a bit of salt, about about 10 cranks of pepper. And then it was time to play with our food again. We smushed everything together in one big pile, and then cut off small portions, which we rolled into 12 inch snakes. The snakes were supposed to be perfectly symmetrical, which was molto difficile. But agin, Claudio was patient, and rather than throw my snakes back into the pile, just reshaped them a little bit. After about 15 of my snakes had been reshaped, I finally got the hang of it and was given two thumbs up by Claudio and Chef #2, Pietro.

Due to the language barrier, Pietro thought I was a very stingy gnocchi maker. After we had rolled out about 100 gnocchi snakes, it was time to cut them. Pietro kept coming over and telling me to make them piu grande, which I took to mean smaller, forgetting that piu means more not less. So every time he said piu grande my gnocchi got smaller and smaller, and I’d think I was doing spectacular, until I’ll look up at him and he’d shake his head and reiterate piu grande! When my chunks got miniscule, he finally came over and took the knife away from me and cut a piece three times the size of mine - and it was then I realized piu meant bigger. Oops. But thankfully, Pietro was as patient as Claudio, and rather than throw my meager gnocchi away, he let it stay in the pile.

Next we pressed the gnocchi, and then they taught me how to cook it (boil about 20 seconds until it floats) and prepare it (just mix it with pomodoro sauce and fresh mozzarella) - and then we got to try it! I’ve never really liked gnocchi before, but this stuff was amazing. By far the best I’ve ever had.

Before I arrived, I’d wondered if they would mind mind me taking notes. They didn’t. In fact, when I first entered the kitchen, Claudio asked me if I planned on opening a restaurant in Atlanta, and if so, did I want to use their recipes! Rather than try to keep them a secret, he was flattered to share. He even handed me a notebook and pen and told me write it all down. I told him I just wanted to learn for myself so I could make great meals for my friends and family, but I still wanted to to take not of everything he did. So yes - to answer previous questions, I have wonderful Italian recipes to share now. And when I come back to Atlanta for a few weeks in May (when my French Visa will hopefully be ready), there will be a big dinner party at my parents house :)

Cooking class #2 is tomorrow - I’m crossing my fingers it’s ravioli day.