Jumping into Tuscany, Tastebuds First!
Post by the TuttoToscana Communications Team
Photo by Isabela Elizondo
This week we’ve really dived into the food and wine building blocks of our TuttoToscana events!
During wine classes with Prof. Coppetti, it’s been exciting to really get to know our JBF wine sponsors, starting with Marchesi Mazzei. Most team members have experienced wine learning in their previous academic careers, and all concur that delving into the a wine producer’s background and personal story is a refreshing discovery. Another important element has been focusing on a single territory such as Tuscany rather than a survey of many places and products. It was the first time for many of us to taste two versions of raw Sangiovese grapes, with a week’s worth of difference between them.
From a food perspective, we’ve began familiarizing with chef faculty members. We tested some savory recipes with Chef Brad Hindsley, a visiting faculty member from Robert Morris University, and Apicius Head Pastry Chef Simone De Castro. Chef Simone in particular stressed the importance of understanding a recipe concept in order to fully benefit from event recipe testing. The most surprising element of pastry recipe testing? It would definitively be finding out that Chef has developed a dessert recipe that can be produced either in the oven or in the microwave and produce the exact same quality results.