Cooking or culinary holidays, vacations, tours in Italy:

Deborah Krasner's Vermont Culinary Vacations
. . . . . . like Europe in Vermont!

Come join James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Deborah Krasner, CCP, at her Eighteenth century renovated barn for five days of cooking, exploring great foodstuffs, touring and living the good life in southern Vermont.

. . . or join her at Artisan Umbria for five days exploring the food and culture of rural Umbria, Italy.

Your teacher and host for the week is Deborah Krasner.

Deborah is a CCP (Certified Culinary Professional) and the author of the James Beard Award-winning book, The Flavors of Olive Oil, which was also a finalist for the Jacob's Creek International Food Media Award. In addition, she is the author of four other books, including the IACP Award Finalist Kitchens for Cooks.

She has written for such magazines as Eating Well, Real Simple, Wine Enthusiast, Vegetarian Times, Parade, Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. She has taught numerous cooking classes at Sur La Table and Cookworks stores, and has also taught at Macy's De Gustibus and The Greenbriar Symposium for Professional Food Writers.

A celebrated kitchen designer, she designs kitchens coast to coast. She created a notable kitchen for celebrated cookbook author Marcella Hazan, and helps make great kitchens for serious home cooks. Her kitchen design website is www.kitchensforcooks.net

You will learn the HOW's and the WHY's of cooking like:

• why adding alcohol releases flavor

• why we preheat a pan before adding oil

You will learn how to:

• bone a leg of lamb

• truss a chicken

• roll a sheet pan soufflé into a jelly roll cake

. . . and much more

We will make a bread starter, a syrup from organic roses, and we will spice our own nuts and cure olives.

No matter what your level of skill or experience, you will end the week knowing how to cook a wide variety of full-flavored dishes, AND because you will understand why they work you will be able to translate this knowledge into creating your own great dishes.

Some of the dishes we'll cook together:

Spring / Summer:

• Salad of mesclun with figs, warm goat cheese and chestnut honey
• World's best salad dressing
• Oven roasted olive oil asparagus
• Home made ravioli stuffed with our own ricotta, fresh herbs and spring vegetables
• Ciabatta bread made with our own wild yeast starter
• Roast Chicken glazed with local honey and sprinkled with lavender flowers and rose petal syrup
• Rolled and stuffed leg of lamb with Rhubarb
• Duck breasts with violets and pomegranate molasses
• Gratin of new potatoes with truffle oil and local sheep cheese
• Wild Strawberries and home made cr?me fraiche
• Roulage Leontine (Chocolate souffl? rolled with whipped cream)
• Chocolate Toasted Walnut Torte with Ricotta Cream
• Polenta Cake with Lemon

Autumn:

• Candied nuts with Indian spices
• Home cured olives with lemon and orange zest
• Wedding pasta with pumpkin and amoretti crumbs
• Local thick-cut pork chops stuffed with local apples
• Caramelized cauliflower
• Potato Galette
• Morning sausage from scratch
• Delicata squash soup with aromatics
• Wood-fired pizza with autumn vegetables
• Polenta with fresh chanterelles and apricots
• Fresh pasta with apple sausages and kale
• Olive oil-poached yellowfin tuna
• Golden Fall Raspberry Tart, grill style
• Pierre's Flourless Chocolate Almond Cake

. . . and what could be more relaxing and restful than staying in luxury accommodation.

Five double bedrooms all have views of gardens, hills, and sky. Each is equipped with an extremely comfortable double or queen size bed (some with memory foam matresses), goose down duvets, luxury damask bedding, and good reading lights. Each bedroom is different, but all meet the same high standards. There are 3 1/2 bathrooms. In addition, there is a library filled with thousands of cookbooks, a large and welcoming living room, and outdoor patios and lawns for relaxing or dining.

. . . and to take the stress out of the travelling

Free airport pickup and delivery from Hartford, Connecticut which connects to international flights from JFK or the west coast of the USA.

Now in Umbria too!

With our Italian partner Madi Gandolfo / Artisan Umbria, we are very excited to offer three unique sessions devoted to making, cooking with, and enjoying regional artisanal food in Umbria.

Just like our Vermont experience, the accommodations are both rustic and luxurious, giving guests a real feel for a very beautiful place. The price includes all meals, accommodations, travel during the week, and airport transfers. There are no additional charges of any kind. All activities are conducted in English, and no knowledge of Italian is necessary.

We will be cooking with a large extended Umbrian family. Family members include an expert butcher, a truffle hunter (and his truffle dog!), several generations of outstanding hand-made pasta makers, and organic vegetable growers. With them, we'll make and eat:

• bread and pizza in their wood burning oven
• tagliatelle and ciriole (typical umbrian pasta without eggs)
• gnocchi
• truffle sauce to go with it
• pigeon alla leccarda - a rare speciality
• boar with olives
• rabbit
• mushrooms/peppers/eggplants etc. preserved in oil/vineger
• cooked mushrooms
• tozzetti
• jams

. . . and much more, this is just a taste!

We will also participate in the preparation of sausages, lard (better than the famous one from Colonnata) etc with Palmerino and Francesca in their butcher shop and then cook them.

Field culinary trips, depending on the season:

• Truffle hunting
• snail hunting (and cooking!)
• Mushroom picking
• visit to the cattle farm/feeding the boars and pigs
• walk in the woods where one can also spot deer and pheasants
• Olive oil picking/ pressing - visit to a frantoio
• olive oil tasting - different oils from the region
• mozzarella making, ricotta and pecorino making
• winery and wine tasting
• pasta factory (Federici in Amelia)

Other possible trips include:

• Amelia and its museum - guided tour in English
• Evening at the theatre
• Montefalco for the linen
• Orvieto for the wine and the Duomo
• Deruta, the most famous Italian ceramics

Other possibilities include:

• dinner / lunch at local restaurants to taste all the delicacies we will not manage to prepare
• introduction to Italian language (culinary terms/ingredients)
• walks
• talks on Umbrian products: white celery, Cannara onion, why the bread has no salt, stuffed figs (we can also visit the family place where they make them in Amelia)

All of this will have a very rustic mood, but it will be done in the most efficient, professional and elegant way. Transportation, housing and all details will be taken care of impeccably. Guests should land at Fiumicino and we will pick you up. Extra days in Rome, Umbria (or anywhere else) can be arranged.

. . . and to take the stress out of the travelling

We can pick up in central Rome, or we can meet the train from Rome, so in both instances there need be no concerns about navigating and travel.

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