"Mine's better." From the thisismolly photostream at flickr.

When last we left Miss Molly (a young American cook working at a vegetarian restaurant and inn in Umbria) she was stepping out for cured meats and finding little love for the flow-busting siesta.

In this edition, we find Miss Molly experiencing a not-so-pleasant roomie, an expat Fourth of July and the Italian World Cup victory.

Ciao, My favorite Americans!

Finally got into the swing of things and made nice with Josh, the other American. (We had a rough patch in the beginning, but now I am thankful for everyday he is here.)

They finally hired two more people: one girl who's name is Sara and she is from Pescara(?). I like her a lot. If we could communicate, I think we would be best friends. She inspires me to pick up my "Italian in 10 days" book.

The other girl is Juliette. She is from London. She is also my new housemate. To put nicely what I think about her so far, I'll say this: the upside is I now have a real bed and my own room with a lock.

I have gotten the hang of the recipes and how the chef likes her food to taste and her kitchen run, and also figured out how to find the streamline in a highly disorganized work environment. I started to bitch about it, but instead I told myself (again) "This is a short amount of time.... I'm here to learn how to work in a different type of kitchen."

I'm still making all the breads, which I hope to pass off to Sara. She has made a few and they have turned out to be extraordinary. I also make all the savory doughs. I'm really getting the hang of that, as it is something I feel I struggled with in my last job when I did pastry.

The most exciting things that have happened:
* We got out at 10:25 last night.
* I got to drive Josh to and from Chiusi (where the train station is).
* I have my own bed and bedroom.
* I have earned chef's trust in my cooking ability.
* I have mastered a recipe or two (after cooking them 5 times).
* The chef shook my hand after a really busy night when it was just me and the two new girls (read: Sara and the British monster).

It's pretty lonely out here. Like, I think this is the loneliest I have ever been in my whole life. I'm definitely building relationships, especially with Josh because we don't have to talk loud and slow to each other. But no one has any social time together, unless we want to go to the bar 20 minutes away after work and drink. Not too appealing to me, nor the others as any extra sleep we can get is like gold.

We celebrated the Fourth of July by blowing up a red, a white and a blue balloon. We ate popcorn and drank a beer. (But I dreamed of bbq pulled pork sandwiches. I also dreamed of Aunt Anne's Sonoma County lamb chops with rosemary. And a cheese burger cooked medium with Grafton cheddar. And a Gray's Papaya "Recession Special." And burritos. Mmmmm. Burritos. And Clover Stornetta 2% milk. And Taco Tuesdays. And Sausages with sauerkraut... Oh, sorry. I lost my train of thought.) Anyway that was about as American as we could muster in this place Italians like to call Tavernelle.

The World Cup was celebrated in a way that I have never seen before in my life. everyone was jumping and clapping like... like.... I can't think of an American custom to compare it to. Like the entire country had just won the lottery or something.

I secretly hoped France would win.

2 1/2 more months...

Until next time amici,
Molly

Labels: Italy, kitchen stories, Miss Molly

"Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks — a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families."

Washington Irving (1783-1859)
from Knickerbocker's History of New York


Thanks to Mother Tongue Annoyances for today's quote.

Labels: food quotes, Friday, fruit, writers

Want to make a career out of your food obsession? If you're gleefully hoisting a fresh bunch of seasonally appropriate herbs in eager agreement, well... you're not alone.

Culinary school enrollment in the U.S. is now at an all-time high, thanks to a progressively elevated status in the media for culinary professionals (i.e. Food Network, celebrity chefs, Bravo's Top Chef, Kitchen Confidential...).

But maybe you already have a degree and you're not so sure about shelling out $60,000 for the CIA (even if it is kind of cool to say you're at the CIA), or $20-$40,000 for one of the other culinary schools. Maybe you're not so certain the fast-paced kitchen is right for you.

Luckily, there's a way to combine food and just about any other skill or interest you might have.

Here's a few simplified sample combos:

• food + chemistry = food lab microbiologist
  
• food + theater = Iron Chef producer
  
• food + programming = FreshDirect application development
  
• food + hypochondria = nutritionist
  
• food + nitpicking = cookbook editor
  
• food + horticulture = produce farmer
  
• food + drug dealing = restaurant receiving manager
  
• food + issuing monologues in empty ampitheaters = food blogger
  
• food + activism = Eric Schlosser
  
• food + sarcasm = restaurant critic (see: Frank Bruni)
  
• food + astronomy = food packaging developer/freeze-drying expert
  
• food + astrology = um... a producer for a line of chocolates designed for the various astrological signs? I don't know... Go read your chart. I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

Bottom line: There's a food niche that's just right for you.

Herein I've developed a quick and easy quizlet to help you along. Answer truthfully!

1. You're early at a party and your peeps haven't rolled in yet. You:
a. head straight for the buffet table to re-arrange the appetizers.
b. head straight for the buffet table to complain about the appetizers.
c. head straight for the drinks to invent a new cocktail.
d. head straight for the kitchen to assemble the appetizers.
e. head straight for the bar to pour something tall and neat.
f. Fake a phone emergency and ditch. First at a party? That's sooo not cool.

2. In high school, you:
a. rocked the special events committee.
b. rocked the opinions page.
c. rocked the chem lab.
d. rocked the split shift in a divey local restaurant.
e. hosted notoriously rocking parties.
f. rocked.

3. What's for dinner?
a. Whatever comes recommended from the specials board at Le Café Chic.
b. Quail confit over a savory apple-sage tart with haricots verts lyonnaise.
c. Cereal. Again.
d. Whatever they're putting up for family meal.
e. Vodka-marinated sirloin and a dirty martini.
f. Hold on a sec... Hey, mom! What's for dinner?

Mostly "a" answers?
Have you considered catering?

Mostly "b" answers?
Food critic. Specialty foods buyer. Wine snob. You and your opinons will be valued in these fields.

Mostly "c" answers?
Food is an abstraction for you. You'll make an excellent product development scientist. Get thee to a laboratory!

Mostly "d" answers?
You were born to be a line cook. Move to a major metropolitan area, find yourself an u¨ber-picky chef and live on vitaminwater and adrenaline. Work hard, learn much, and we'll read all about you in Saveur ten to twenty years from now.

Mostly "e" answers?
You may be an alcoholic. You may also be a professional cook. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Consider AA.

Mostly "f" answers?
Are you sure you like food? Have you considered a position in the front of the house?

Labels: nonsense, quiz

pancetta e pecorino from thisismolly on Flickr.

More from Miss Molly, a young American cook working at a vegetarian restaurant and inn in Umbria. Today: cloned cookies, cured meats and the siesta report.

Last week I ate meat for the first time since I've been in Umbria.... check my photos out. I had this crostini with pancetta and pecorino.... I'm not sure if it was really good or if I was starving for protein, but it was amazing. Umbria has a special pasta called umbricielle [sic] and it's sort of like hand-rolled spaghetti, but a lot thicker. It has great texture and I loved it. The bread here is not made with salt, and while it's a little weird at first, but I find that by the time I finished eating whatever it is I was eating with bread, I feel strangely satisfied and I think I might like it that way.

Another thing I've found I enjoy here are these snacks by the brand Mulino Bianco. I think Barilla puts it out. There are a million little sweet chocolate pastry things you can buy, but after trying a chunk of them, Eva (my housemate) and I discovered they are all the same thing, just different shapes.

Siesta... it's great in theory, but doesn't fly too well with an American like myself. Just when you get cleaned up from breakfast, all the breads for the day made and just as you start to get on a roll for your production for the day, you have to stop for two hours. We go back to the castle as the entire town of Tavernelle is shut down, so all we can do is nap, read, shower, sit in the blazing hot sun on the lawn/weeds/insect and creepy crawl-y things haven, count the mutant bugs in the apartment or snack on our various Mulino Biancos or cured pork product stashes.

Oh yeah, I had to give up my little room with a phone to move back to the castle. I feel a lot more camaraderie with my fellow employees, having to arrive and leave work with them every morning, siesta and night.

Labels: Italy, kitchen stories, Miss Molly

mmmmm... fresh food! from this is molly at flickr.

The latest from Miss Molly's cooking adventures at Montali, a vegetarian restaurant and inn in Umbria.

Today: Molly feels the heat and has an ABC After School Special moment.

I feel like I am working at one of those places that you read about in those books they tell you to read in culinary school, (save the Michelin star).

You know which books I'm talking about... The ones where the 12-year-old apprentice works his ass off for some temperamental European chef for 10 years and then moves to America and opens up a four star restaurant. Yeah, one of those.

Except I'm not going to stay here for ten years, so what I'm getting is just a taste. Week two was especially difficult for me. Like, I thought I had adjusted after week one, but week two proved I hadn't. I wanted to leave. I didn't want to be here anymore. I was tired, I wasn't liking the food, I wasn't into my employers. I ranted and raved. I wanted to go elsewhere. I wanted to do something else. I still want to do something else, but after I finish my commitment here.

Alberto.... He stands oh-so-high on his soap box, that once I realized Eva and Jaro felt the same way about him, he became quite tolerable. He talks to me like this is my first time ever working in a restaurant kitchen. I humor him. He likes to lecture (and I stress the word LECTURE) about how Americans do not have a good palate, how great Italy is and how stressful his job is.

Okay okay okay. I get it. I can't relate why serving customers is so difficult because I've never done it before. But your life can't be too stressful when you take your Honda 600 to Perugia to buy some grass and then lay in a hammock and smoke cigarettes all day only to wake up, put on your clothes from Milano (which he never fails to tell us), have a drink or two, serve customers for no more than three hours and then sit in the patio talking about yourself and sipping on 1000-year
old-port. Disclaimer: the grass thing is pure speculation.

As for my fellow cooks, Roman took off last Friday without so much a word to the chef or boss. I guess he was hired as a server for 800 a month and when a spot opened in the kitchen he took it a week or two later. When payday came around and he only recieved 300 with the rest promised to him as soon as they hired another cook, he decided to take off.

I went with him and a few others to drive him to Perugia where he had some friends and an apartment waiting. This happened right after my temper tantrum at the end of week two and I'd wished I'd had the balls to do the same thing. Later that evening, this overwhelming feeling of guilt struck me as I, along with everyone else, returned to work and couldn't say anything to chef or boss about it. I half felt like an accomplice simply becausI i went along for the ride. (My dad says this means I have strong values, my mom says not to let this get to me.)

At the end of the evening, it hit me. I'd had the balls to stay when all I wanted to do was take my credit card and run. Like everything else in life, it is what you make of it. It's hard to remember that 100% of the time though.

To me, guilt is one of the worst things to feel, coming in a close second to abandonment, nausea and cramps. I decided not to feel that way anymore and that 3 1/2 months of my life is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If anything, I feel that it's not long enough in terms of where I want my career to go.

I just have to remember that next time life throws rocks at me.

A few mantras that have gotten me through the difficult time:

"You're a swimmer, Molly"
-PH, 2006

"Hard work and misery are the backbone of a strong, resilient character. It's still worth your attention."
-DCP, 2006

'I like you, but I don't think you should cook. You should work the front of the house."
-FC, 2004

Anyway, Eva, Jaro and I all have some great laughs on a daily basis. They are both from Slovakia but speak pretty fluent English. They say I'm harder to understand than the other American who is originally from the Midwest. The point is though, as long as you have a hearty laugh everyday, there is no way that day will be unbearable. (Awwwww! I just had a Doogie Howser moment!)

In the next Missive, we'll get the food update...

Labels: Italy, kitchen stories, Miss Molly