Ristorante da Marietta

Firstly, let me apologize for a kind of an unsatisfactory level of English in this post. I am not used to speaking (or writing) in English anymore as I have spent the last three weeks (Only three weeks! Who knows what will happen after eight months …) at children camps working with Italians and, therefore, speaking more or less only Italian. So, please bare with me and my poor English today.

I guess by now it's obvious that I love food not only in the pure sense of feeding yourself in order to survive, but also in the aspect of preparing it. Baking has been my passion for more than a few years now and working at children camps for the last three weeks I got an awesome opportunity to improve not only my baking skills, but also my cooking skills. My Italian cooking skills. The last three weeks have been, therefore, like an intense cooking and language course. I have spent quite a large amount of time in the kitchen absorbing the secrets of Italian cuisine like a big undryable sponge. In front of the kitchen in Cave it's now written Ristorante da Marietta. I have to boast a bit - now, I am not only able to make an awesome pappa al pomodoro, but I have also mastered my crostata-making skills. Unfortunately (or as expected), working in the kitchen for three weeks also resulted in gaining a few pounds (or at least it seems to me I’m like a big dumpling now), so the next few weeks will have to be a bit diet-oriented.

However, to me, working in children camps has been one of the most beautiful experiences ever. The first week we had a group of 10- and 11-year-old children from Milano. They were a lovely group except one girl, one of the accompanists, made me sometimes a bit angry as she didn't eat any fruit or vegetables. Can you imagine how difficult it can be cooking Italian food without tomatoes?! The second week we had another lovely group of 8- to 10-year-olds. It’s amazing how quickly and easily children get fond of you despite your poor language skills. No, working with children did not make me want to have children, if that’s what you’re thinking now, it just made me realize how, in comparison to children, judging and selective adults can be sometimes. Maybe judging and selective aren’t the best adjectives to describe this break-through of mine, but it’s the best I can think of at the moment. Anyway, the last, third week we had a group of teenagers that made me quite angry on the first day they arrived. The thing is that when they arrived, we were making lunch for 112 people. If I say there was a lot to do, a lot doesn't really cover the amount of work as we prepared some food already the day before, but there was still cheese, mortadella, prosciutto, etc. to slice (and I actually got a blister from slicing a few kilos of meat) and other food to prepare, not mentioning he number of plates we had to wash as there's no dishwasher in Cave. The other day when we were making sandwiches to the Milano group, I sliced so much bread I wasn't able to move my right-hand thumb for a few days (the Tuscan bread has a very hard crust which makes it, well, yeah, very delicious, but also a bit difficult to cut). Still, I also have to add that working in camps hadn't been such a great experience if it hadn’t also been for the team I have worked with. Thanks to Kristiāna, Marta and Léo, my flatmates, plus Serena & co (the Legambiente people)., who all bared with my German-like discipline in the kitchen, I really had a blast despite feeling sick the last few days due to tiredness. 

Anyway, what's waiting for me now (besides answer to I don't know how many, but many many couchsurfing requests), is a 500-page book I'm reading for the TOEFL exam that's waiting for me in less than two weeks. I'm freaking out a bit about it as I haven't really had a lot of time to study, but I guess it should be fine. My English isn't so bad after all, is it?

M.