Molto Buono!

So many good things happened today, I don't know where to begin! The walk to school was bautiful and crisp this morning after the snow we had last night. And most suprising of all, the sun was out today shining brightly off the new fallen snow. It reminded me of snow in Denver when the sun comes out the next day and immediately melts everything. This is a picture of the gardens infront of my school covered in a light dusting of snow this morning.

It kind of reminds me of the gardens at Versailles. After our sunny walk to school, we had history class and a guest chef come from the region of Trentino-Alto Adige. As I said before this is the region that borders along Germany and has a rich influence from both Germany and Austria.

This region is particularly interesting because its cuisine is the result of two colliding cultures that have a long, intermingled history. We sampled this food today from Chef Karl Baumgartner who owns Ristorante Schoneck in Trentino-Alto Adige. The food from this region is the least "Italian" that we will eat while we are here, but the flavors and aromas are so uniquely interesting they won't be easily forgotten. Today he made for us roasted duck with a honey and pepper crust, accompanied by an orange pepper sauce and a puree of potatoe and celery root. I haven't eaten much duck before coming to culinary school, but this dish was one of the most flavorful and delicious I've had. My classmates and I were actually picking the meat off the bone and dipping it in the sauce - molto buono.

Chef Baumgartner also made a venison goulash with hazelnut polenta, a pate with gorgonzola and a Gewuztraminer gel (I don't usually eat pate, but this was incredible), and for dessert he made ricotta canederli(a ricotta dumpling of sorts) with caramalized pears. It was a comforting, heavy dish to finish off a very tasty day of eating. On the left of this picture below is Chef Christian, our main chef who teaches us in the kitchen and who translates at the guest demos, and on the right is Chef Baumgartner of Trentino-Alto Adige.
And the last good thing that happened today is we finally got internet in our apartments, which means no more traveling down to the common room. I also went for a really long run tonight with my friend Greg, becuase you can't eat like I did today and not exercise.