See that cute female chef between those two handsome guys? She is Gina Stipo, an American girl who runs Ecco La Cucina, a cooking school near Siena, Italy. Last October a group of us attended Gina’s school and in between learning how to make pici pasta and saffron risotto (picked our saffron!), we drained most of the wine supply from the surrounding Chianti Classico region (Hi, Sig-O!). Today I am attempting to condense our eight days of cooking, eating, drinking, and discovering the area around Siena into 3,000 words. In the process I remembered that Gina is currently visiting Dallas and she is doing a series of cooking demonstrations and classes this month. Kimmy “Farmer-Lovin’-Fresh-Face” Pierce over at Eatsblog has Gina’s schedule.
The merry band of pranksters who accompanied me to Ecco La Cucina will be at Gina’s Central Market class on January 29th. Join us and we’ll talk about maybe doing another adventure next October (or send me an e-mail if you are interested). (BTW, say hi to the “Biscotti Brothers” Evan Paul “Grumpy” Grant and Eric Nadel in the photo taken at Ecco la Cucina. These rookie chefs turned pro in a less than a week.)
