Ever since I really became serious about the idea of cooking professionally I began to dream about coming to Italy to work in a restaurant. I am of half Italian descent, and having that cultural influence in my life really had a lot to do with leading me here. When I was in culinary school, I was fortunate enough to have Chef Francesco Tonelli as my skills II instructor. This was a pivotal moment in my life. I was forever changed after this class, as I know many of my classmates were because we still talk about the class and how it affected us.
Chef Tonelli was born in Fano which is in the Marche region, but he grew up in Milan. He worked in restaurants in Milan, Paris, Switzerland and Montreal and he was also a R&D chef and food stylist for La Cucina Italiano Magazine for seven years. Along the way he was made a Maestri di Cucina, or Italian Master Chef by the Federazione Italiana Cuochi. There are only 110 in the world.
He then made his way to becoming a chef instructor at the CIA where I made his acquaintance. We were lucky to get him just in time. I think that we were his second to last class before he left the CIA for his other great love of photography.
The passion that Chef Tonelli had and his philosophy and approach to cooking along with his natural ability as a teacher was very inspirational, and gave many of us a new view towards food. He's also like, totally cool man.
Chef had mentioned that he was the U.S. representative for the Slow Food Master Italian Cooking School in Jesi Italy. Prior to graduating school, I was working with him to try and get a scholarship to the school, only to find out that scholarships were no longer offered to people out side of Europe.
I then asked if he knew of any place in Italy that I could work at for a year or so. Obligingly, he gave me the contact information of Chef Barbanera, and the rest is history. Now I'm living La Dolce Vita.
Chef Tonelli's career is really talking off. He has done work for The New York Times and Art Culinaire, and among other things has worked with Chefs Grey Kunz and Masaharu Morimoto. He is equally as talented with the camera as he is infront of the stove and you can view or purchase his personal food photos at his web site francescotonelli.com His photos are awesome. I think I remember him saying that he made all the food in the photos, and then he and his wife ate it. Sounds like a good time.
On another note a couple had come by the restaurant the other day with a bunch of truffles that thay had found in the forest. I think that chef paid 400 euro for half a kilo which is cheep. Truffles are cheeper now because they are not mature. They have more of a real intense nutty mushroom smell then a overwhelming sexy truffle aroma. The season for mature black truffles in the area is late autumn to early winter. These truffles still add a lot of flavor to dishes, and are sliced very thinly over the dish just before service or ground up and mixed with olive oil to be added to sauces. Deepness.
