Yes, I realize that it has been THREE years since my last blog post....I could come up with some elaborate story/reason for this, but the truth is, I haven't felt like there was anything interesting enough to capture any ones attention. And even now, as I am about to describe my first ever trip to Italy, I worry that it will just be viewed as another boring travelogue filled with boring details about a boring place that most folks have not yet gotten a chance to visit.

But, In about a week my team and I are presenting a five course wine dinner at our new off site function venue for the purposes of announcing and celebrating, well, our new off site function venue! The event hall consists of 2 function rooms, the smaller of which has been unofficially dubbed the "TUSCAN ROOM"...can you see where this is going? My hope was that the trip to Tuscany would provide me with spark to create the menu for the wine dinner. More than inspiration, what I received from my trip was a sincerely humbling education.

But, like I said. I fear that my blog posts won't be interesting. And describing an overseas trip has the potential for banality.

So,

To prevent this from happening, I will NOT fill this post with over descriptive images of  The Italian countryside. the vineyard covered hillsides of Tuscany dotted with cement structures colored with rusty oranges, yellows and browns, the overcrowded port towns lined with buildings layered so close together it almost looks as if they were smashed together and then squeezed inward to make room for more at the ends. The endless maze of narrow streets that wind haphazardly through the ancient towns of Lucca, Bulgheri and Volterra. The last one by the way is where they filmed a portion of one of the TWILIGHT movies...Apparently, that's where the head vampires are stationed.

Anyways...

All of that stuff was absolutely wonderful, and beautiful, and interesting to see, but all of it pales in comparison to the education I gained while in this beautiful place. An education based solely on my desire to finally experience the cuisine of my heritage. A cuisine that I have been fumbling through for most of my culinary life. I am known as an Italian Chef. I have been creating dishes in my own kitchen for 12 years. 10 years prior to that I spent my time gaining knowledge and experience through working with different chefs with different styles. And although the bulk of my knowledge came from an Italian chef who was born in Italy, everything I learned was a sort of mixture of Italian and nouvelle American cuisine. Every dish had an added "flair" to it. Extra components and fancy garnishes that became a trademark for how younger Chef's could out do their competitors.

Too much stuff. That's the only way I can describe it. Dishes just had too much stuff on them.

This was the most important thing that I learned while in Tuscany. That when you are composing a dish. Don't put any ingredients in it that don't belong. I am going to say it again. DON'T PUT ANY INGREDIENTS IN THE DISH THAT DON'T BELONG. To put it differently, do not add components to dish just because you're afraid that the dish is too simple. Young Chef's today are constantly adding ingredients because they think that the dish needs color or texture or height. Allot of times what ends up happening is the extra "stuff" starts to detract from the original idea. And what you end up with is an over complicated mash of flavors that confuse the palette.

Oh, and I was one of those Chef's. I have spent my share of nights making sure my dishes had enough color and artistic value. Unfortunately none of that stuff matters when flavor is lacking. So the lesson was one that we have all heard through the  years. The k.i.s.s. method. Keep it simple stupid. Although I think the last "s" has been eliminated due to political correctness.

Simplicity is the key. I had heard this before going to Italy. That Italian Chef I mentioned tried to instill the rule of simplicity in me but I was too young and cocky to hear it. I wanted to show off.

So there I was, having lunch in a small trattoria in Bulgheri. Sampling a selection of cured meats and olives. Simply presented on a white plate. No garnish, no fancy wild greens to color the plate. Just the meats and the olives, oh, and some house made crusty bread. The antipasti was followed by a handmade ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese in a light cream sauce. It was obvious that the ravioli was made earlier that day, and the person who made them was passionate about the process. It was the perfect balance of spinach and cheese. it was the perfect consistency to the sauce. It was the perfect thickness of the pasta that enveloped the filling.  It was the perfect lunch.

In Santa Margherita, near Genoa, every meal for two days included a pasta dish with pesto genovese, which is the basil pesto that we all know. But it's not the pesto we all know. It is the worlds greatest pesto. The reason is that Genoa is the birthplace of pesto. There are subtle differences that make the pesto much more vibrant and remarkable. Unlike the forest green textured pesto we make here, the stuff  ate everyday was almost fluorescent! It was pureed smooth and coated the pasta so evenly, every bite was as consistent as the first.  One of the most classic presentations consists of a pasta tossed with green beans, diced potatoes and pesto. That's it. Three ingredients added to pasta. A simple dish of greens and whites. No tomatoes added for color. No fried leeks piled on top for height. Just green beans, potatoes and pesto. Nothing else is needed. It was a perfect example of the simplicity rule.

The dish impacted me so hard, I decided to make it the 3rd course for the wine dinner. It will consist of those three ingredients, but make no mistake, my goal is to put my signature on it so that should you encounter this dish again, you will have a point of reference to compare it too.

The other 4 courses , although not exact replicas of dishes from my trip, have all been designed from my new found education. A salad of local organic peaches, imported proscuitto and goat cheese, a typically Tuscan roast pork known as a porchetta, an intensely rich dense dark chocolate torte and of course handmade biscotti with coffee. All of these simply prepared with respect for the ingredients allowing the flavor to be the most important component rather than worrying about composing dishes that are fashionable or trendy.

This blog post is the first in a series about my trip to Italy. It would be impossible to express the experience in one post. Three years ago, when I created this blog, it was more about self indulgence than anything else. But now I feel that I have something important to share. Important enough to start writing again after three years  Whenever I am asked how the trip was, my immediate response has been, "there are no words!" Clearly this is not true.

If anything there is the potential for too many words.