Cooking With Eros!
Umbra student Erica Mouch had this to say about her culinary experience with five-star chef, Eros… Even his name sounds fabulous. As soon as I heard I could cook with a five star chef – in his kitchen, in his own restaurant – I knew it was something I had to do and something I would never forget. As both my mom and I love food and love to cook, I convinced her it was a good idea. Although two is a good number for cooking a five star meal, three is better, so I convinced Katy Branston to come along for the ride! When we arrived in the kitchen, amongst the aprons and chef hats, we found 30 or so eggs, a guinea hen with its head still on, potatoes and chestnuts and dark chocolate! We were all wondering what exactly we were going to whip up!
With a brief introduction into typical Umbrian food, Eros and his fiancé Manuela instructed us to mix, chop, roll out and blend. After spending about an hour in the kitchen, we set everything in the oven and waited for it to bake. Another hour
later, seven of our friends arrived and we all sat down (of course with a glass or two of wine) to sample our goods! The first dish, an antipasto of a spinach, herb and cheese rolled in the lightest phyllo dough known to man began our meal. This was followed by our tortellini (the pasta dough delicious thanks to Katy!) with a filling of ricotta and chestnuts with Parmesan, dark chocolate and truffles shaved on top. Another pasta with a red wine sauce complimented by chicken so tender it fell apart in our mouth filled our bellies and we weren’t done yet.
elicate crescionda, a typical Spoletodessert , almost a crème caramel with three layers was the final dish. Never have we eaten so well! As full as an egg (Sono pieno come un’uovo!) we rolled out of the restaurant, content after spending a night with great friends, eating food fit for a king – slightly astonished that we created it. Katy and I have plans to attempt this meal for our Italian thanksgiving dinner!