Italian Cooking for the American housewife

Italian Cooking 1: Mediterranean Cuisine

by Paul Wichert


Formats

Softcover
£11.11
Softcover
£11.11

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 12/09/2014

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 8.25x11
Page Count : 148
ISBN : 9781496937797

About the Book

This cookbook is a set of lessons from our Italian host school that the chef put together especially for the newcomers from America. Recipes from the Mediterranean region were presented as lessons in Italian and an Italian/English translator previewed the recipes with us so we always knew what the dish is called, the ingredients, and how to make it. Fortunately, a menu plan was given to us each day so we could read the recipes in Italian and make notes on the paper. At the end of our stay in Otranto, we were assigned a large menu meant to feed a party of twenty. With everyone gathered round; the invited guests, school staff and administrators we served a six course meal one course at a time. Afterwards, the formalities included photo opportunities as each student was presented with a certificate of completion and the course packet of about fifty recipes including a letter from the school principal. His letter is the missing perspective on why a group of American culinary students are in this city and at his school. Total immersion into the local community meant accepting the Italian language in all its forms: spoken, written and historical. While translating for this book I developed a written accent and it remains as a colorful imprint. Because I wanted to bring Italy home with me and this is a way to share the charm. Reading certain passages aloud will highlight the rhythm and character.


About the Author

Paul Wichert received his Associates of Applied Science Degree with a major in Culinary Arts from Great Lakes Culinary Institute, a state of the arts facility at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan. The greater Traverse City area is where he made his home from the mid 1980’s to 2010, and where he launched a career in Hotels and fine cuisine. In 2009, a trip to Italy with nine culinary students from New York City added authentic Italian cuisine to his culinary talents. In his younger days his family would travel to rural Huron County to visit with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and his cousins enjoying big meals at the dining room table and picking up cooking tips in the kitchen. His family’s style would be described as American home cooking with German flavors fueled by local and farm raised goods. One day his mother took a French Cooking class being offered by Adult Education during the Julia Child years and she became a fine French cook overnight. For Paul, his cooking career began after he found his inspiration to return to school for a culinary arts degree and stayed with it. Since graduation, he left his home state of Michigan and went to Park City, Utah; home to the Sundance Film Festival and a popular ski area high in the Wasatch Mountains. At the Canyons Resort, he worked at the Hyatt Escala Lodge in a “showcase kitchen” as an Intermediate Cook. But the daily commute along the mountain pass from Salt Lake City convinced him to leave Utah for a new destination, one with a warmer climate. Today, he currently lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he is employed at the Days Inn, the Bahia Cabana Resort which features an open air litchen, patio bar & restaurant.