le pain du terreur,

my unaffectionate name for the Villa Tronco dinner roll. That miniature loaf of bread that delights you upon its arrival to your dinner table has become nothing less than my arch nemesis. Once I called something my arch nemesis and the response I got was, "you have an arch nemesis?" I said yes, it is such and such, but today I want to amend that statement and say yes, it is the Villa Tronco dinner roll, the bread of terror. and what an understatement that is.

Every morning my shift begins with those 7 sheet trays of loathsome loaves. I make the mixture: 3 L of tepid water, 1 c active dry yeast, 1 c sugar, 1/4 c salt, 2 c olive oil, 7 "scoops" of flour (perhaps the perpetrator?). Let knead in giant mixer until all ingredients are well incorporated and dough is in that perfect spot between won't-stick-to-my-finger-when-I-poke-it and too incorporated/too dry. I am sure to watch intently and never walk away, for the instant that I walk away it will cross that invisible line and my batch is ruined. One day it is too wet, one day it is too dry, or too over-mixed and unworkable and my wrist is sore because of it (what a finicky concoction!). I then transfer the giant mass of evil to a well-oiled mixing bowl, cover with a dish towel and set above the oven for approximately 15 minutes while waiting for it to double in size.

No biggie, right? Until it comes time to portion into perfect 1 oz rounds of dough (no digital scale), bang out all my aggression via rolling pin, palm-roll into little wieners and then perfectly shape and roll out all creases and lines so that they don't rise improperly. Then I take a boning knife and score the little bastards to give them "elegance." This process should take me 45 minutes, but it currently takes me approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Each day gets a little better and a little worse. Today, I mastered consistent rolls on the first 3 trays until I was told my portions were too big. When I corrected my portions the little devils rolled out misshapen, improperly risen, some looking like baking potatoes and others looking like a flashlight. Or something other than upscale Italian restaurant dinner rolls.

Possibly the worst part of it all is when I realized that dough is a living, breathing bacteria, aka, a Creature. For so long I thought I could just bang the the rolling pin on the stainless steel table with hatred, disgust, and bad intention and the dough would have no conscience to know that I was forming it with such disdain. Then I stopped to think about what makes bread rise, those tiny little beads which bubble in warm water, the active bacteria making bread to GROW. This bread is really alive and it really DOES hate me! It has a will, and it is setting its will against mine. What a little demon, le pain du terreur.

hi there

my, time flies by. my time flies by. it has been nearly 2 weeks since posting and i am sorry to be a sluggish writer. I have worked about 60-65 hours at my internship in the last 2 weeks and it has been absolutely great! I have fewer epic stories (you can only have a first time for making ravioli once) but I can say that I have been enjoying the more mundane, repetitious parts of the job as much as the new intriguing stuff. my feet hurt (a lot, but not quite as much as at the Masters. no tears. yet) and I am trying to sort out how to use my time wisely when I have a few short hours of my own day to play with when working 35 hours a week. but i am getting so much better at speaking Spanish!

our lunch shift is 9-3 which is a nice - going in in the mornings affords more energy to spend on work and you get to skip the obnoxious mopping and sweeping of closing. our dinner shifts are from 3-close which are more tiresome but so much fun when the nights are busy.

some good specials and flavor combinations i have seen this week - salmon in an orange and basil sauce, pan seared flounder in a rosemary and pineapple sauce, filet mignon with spinach and artichoke cream sauce, seafood risotto, salad with fresh strawberries, toasted almonds, cheddar cheese and strawberry dressing.

Andrew and Amanda graduated (!), the summer is here and we have been celebrating by lots of get togethers, beer, dinners at Hunter Gatherer, and I have been getting my hands dirty fixing up my old bike. I still can't decide if it is worth the time and money - I guess it is worth it until it's not. I'll keep you posted.

Homemade Ravioli!!!!!

Yes, I am as excited as six exclamation marks. As soon as I got to work I diced some eggplant, prepared Belgian endive for a salad, and...was taught how to make ravioli from SCRATCH! It was the funnest thing I have ever done. I am sure that one day the thrill will wear off, but I could not be more excited about making pasta from scratch, rolling it out and thinning it, making the ricotta filling, stuffing the ravioli, stamping them out, dusting them with flour to freeze. It BLEW MY MIND!

The pasta is made with oil, eggs, salt, semolina, and a bit of flour. Knead in mixing bowl until ingredients are well-incorporated but the "dough" gives a little, like play-dough. Shape into balls and dust well with flour. You need a little contraption (I don't know the name) that you feed the dough through and you gradually thin the pasta by rolling it out at different settings until thin enough. Take ravioli stamp contraptions and lay a piece of pasta over the stamp. Fill each ravioli space with filling (Ricotta, egg, garlic, black pepper, salt, parmesan - or whatever you want), then lay a second piece of pasta over the stamp. Roll out with a rolling pin until raviolis form and you can easily pull dough away from stamps. Dust with flour, freeze until ready to boil! :)


The rest of the night we spent prepping for each course of a 5-course wine dinner. The first course was fried chickpea cakes; the second course salmon with endive and arugula salad finished with poppyseed dressing; the third course was seafood risotto balls; the fourth course was filet mignon with thin tomato slices, fresh mozzarella and a slice of sicilian pizza and green peas. The last course was Carmella's homemade ricotta cheesecake - yum yum yum.

bread, pesto & villa tronco day 2

I love Villa Tronco. I love my Chef, our pantry cook and our dishwasher, I love the family that owns it, I love the waitstaff, I love the kitchen. I have only been there two days so I am quite nervous about loving it so much already. Today will be a test because I am going in at 3pm to work dinner instead of 8:30am to work lunch, and I will also be working with a guy who I have not yet worked with.

Yesterday I got to shadow the breadmaker and all I can say is - in 45minutes he does what I think would take me 3 hours! My Chef's goal is to put me on bread and lunches in a couple of weeks - yikes, I have so much speed to pick up. I am learning a lot though and trying to keep a record of everything i learn. I made homemade pesto yesterday, an amaretto sauce to go over amaretto bread pudding (yum yum yum) and basically just plated eggplant parmigiana and lasagna and dropped pasta for orders during the lunch rush. it was insane but that is how I like it.

finally, i love the walk there. if I don't ride my bike, I park 5 blocks away and walk over to the restaurant. at 8:20 am it is absolutely perfect weather right now - warm with a little breeze and the street is green and lush and offers shade until I get to Sumter St - and then I am almost there. it has been great. I will try to keep you posted on good recipes/ideas without betraying the confidence of Villa Tronco!

internship @ villa tronco : day 1

I was the first one at Villa Tronco this morning at 8:30 am. I thought my Chef had stood me up like he did for our interview (in fact he had to unexpectedly leave town so I interviewed with the 3rd generation owner) but at 8:37 he walked up and we went inside. I do not know what to say except that it was amazing! I guess I could say that I love how old and hot their kitchen is because it makes me feel like I am really in Italy. It is tiny, and though the equipment and building is old (the restaurant itself has been there for 70 years! and before that it was a fire station. and before that, well, who knows), Chef Tom keeps it extremely clean. DHEC came today. I know, I know, what a way to start my first day on the job.

after a thorough tour I spent the day working on my knife skills, helping Chef Tom on the line, learning sauces and recipes. it is a 95% scratch kitchen - almost everything is made by hand, even mayonnaise, and we roll our own ravioli. i learned how to use the pasta cooker - an outstanding machine which cooks pasta FOR YOU! anything that does not take the fun out of cooking but makes life easier is my friend. at the end of the day I was working on a stock from lobster shells for a bisque. I found out that the internship is paid! I found free parking but I plan on riding my bike mostly. today he told me that once I get the hang of things I will be heading up lunch sandwiches and the pizza station!

cheers (to the summer, all of our plans, jobs, internships and graduations!)

a bit more about the Masters

Everyone has been so excited for my opportunity at the Masters and it has been fun talking about it to everyone - first of all, there is something thrilling when you have the inside scoop on something exclusive and secret and you can RUIN it (okay, that sounds so terrible! really I just mean...oh god I can't rationalize this one can I?). All that aside, it has been fun talking about it because every time I open my mouth I realize that I have learned something ELSE that I didn't even think of when I talked to the last person.

I love cooking because there is always something new. It never gets old, never ever. There are elements of art, science, beauty, nourishment, constant motion, excruciating patience, problem-solving, people pleasing, and hospitality involved in culinary. You must be a jack of all trades and master of EVERYTHING in the kitchen - you play with fire, hot vs. cold, prevent foodborne illnesses and contamination, lift heavy things (in my case reach to high shelves), etc. Maybe my favorite aspect in the kitchen, but also undoubtedly the hardest on my heart, is the ethics behind food. Where did my food come from? by what means was it gotten? where is it going? how much is going? am I meeting a need with my food or ignoring a need with my food? those questions will always plague me (dear Lord, please let them always plague me).

I was blown away by the immense amount of knowledge my chefs had last week and how they too still had so much to learn. I am excited to pick up better knife skills, learn how to prepare and make EVERYTHING, but I still have fear that I will not develop a discerning palette. I have heard that this can make or break the most skilled chef. During my vacation with my parents to Niagara's wine country, I could definitely learn to taste and smell and identify certain flavors in the wines while we were there. When I came home, I stopped trying and so I stopped tasting the details - what a shame. The hope in that, though, is that my tastes WILL be developing as I try.

Lastly, a few weeks ago I had mentioned a hopeful interview I had with Villa Tronco of Columbia for a 400-hour back-of-the-house internship. Well, I have been in that limbo of do-I-follow-up-again-or-do-I-leave-it-in-their-court and thankfully, Chef Tom put my mind to rest last night during the festival and called to say they wanted me aboard! I danced a jiggity jig upon my re-entrance into the festival (Indie Grits. Be there). I start Tuesday at 8:30am, expected in full chef attire and ready to roll. Let me tell you...I am SO ready to roll. I am so happy I won't be wasting much time in between the Masters and a kitchen here.

My only frustration with this whole thing is this. Chef Tim in Augusta told me I was too nice and too short for the hospitality industry, so I proved him wrong about being too nice. But then Chef Tom of Villa Tronco told me that "Carmella [3rd generation owner] thought you were as cute as a button so welcome aboard." So I am too nice for the industry, but just right on the cuteness factor? if I am so damn cute and it is getting me great opportunities, why have I even been spending my time studying for a 4-year degree? to have something to compensate for my niceness which is apparently a problem? this restaurant business could prove much more difficult than a proper tournée.