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On January 17th, all the Italian chefs who belong to the Gruppo Virtuale Cuochi Italiani (itChefsGVCI) will be celebrating Ossobuco in Gremolata in their restaurants.

From Hong Kong to New York, thousands of pork shanks will be simmered in solidarity to honor an iconic Italian recipe. To find out more information about the GVCI and the IDIC please go to itchefsGVCI and click on the IDIC.

As a warm up to the great day, the Italian Studies program at the International Culinary Center hosted five Michelin- starred chefs from the motherland. That evening, the gala dinner was attended by New York Italian superstar chefs.

Below is a  glimpse of some of the demonstrations that wowed us during the day, and  of course the most delicious part of all- the gala dinner!

Pizza Master Domenico Crolla, Pizza with Mushrooms

Chef Jessica Botta, Master chef Pietro Zito, The Magic of Making Fresh Pasta

Master Butcher Simone Fracassi

Final plates risotto competition

Gala dinner, Kevin Garcia-'Cesca, Mark Ladner-Del Posto

Fortunato Nicotra-Felidia

Pino Luongo-Centolire

Fabio Trabocchi-Fiola, Washington, DC

Acquerello Carnaroli with Montoro onion cream, Smoked swordfish fillets, lemon & chili scented crispy seaweed, mantecato with Grana Padano

Mixed pasta minestra with reef fish and crustaceans

Cod, whipped potatoes & ginger, dried fruit, anchovies colatura

Neapolitan rum soaked yeast cake

With all the negative shenanigans in Washington and the seesaw world economy, I wanted to do something crazy myself.  So my female family cohort (daughter, sister, cousins) created  a pop up cafe. Pop-up cafe not all that crazy?..how about doing it  in Fourchu on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, way out there in the Atlantic ocean. And on Atlantic time of course!

 Fourchu has 47 full time residents and thousands of delicious lobsters.  The season had just ended and the last 100 pounds of lobster were left in the harbor. We decided to create a pop-up cafe for lobster rolls to raise money for the community church,the new fire truck and the community hall. We put up local signs, were interviewed by the local radio station and had the pop up announced in local churches.  No one in Cape Breton knew what a pop-up was. That Tuesday evening at home, prior to the pop-up opening, we had a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee, gaelic for party), steaming 30 pounds of lobster, singing, dancing and picking the meat. Our recipe was lobster, Hellman’s mayonnaise, diced celery and chives, salt and pepper.

Wednesday dawned and we got to work.  The cafe was set up in the community hall. The hours were posted from 11am to 4 pm. I brought playing cards so we could amuse ourselves in the slow periods.  It poured rain. Fog rolled in (did it ever roll out?) and we cheerfully got the tea and coffee going. When I left home I protected myself and the lobster from the elements but as you can see the locals do not take the weather as seriously as I do!

11 am brought no one at first but by noon we were sold out.  And then the fun started. We had to keep going to the harbor to get more lobsters.  People came in from all over the island. (Fourchu is 40km from the nearest quart of milk or tank of gas!)  We made delicious freshly baked ham sandwiches and grilled cheese. We also baked home made brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies. We went through close to 100 pounds of lobster, 135 hot dog buns and four large loaves of bread.

I used the playing cards to keep track of tables and we had tickets stacked up in the community hall kitchens. In chef parlance, we got slammed.  But since it was raining and this was Cape Breton, everyone drank tea, laughed and had a ball.  By 3 pm we were sold out of everything. Neighbors in Fourchu even ran home to supplement the bread and desserts. We raised over $1500 in a matter of hours.  In the middle of the ocean on a rainy day…not bad for Brigadoon!

When I started raising chickens twelve years ago I learned a lot about them. Firstly, and most importantly, I never realized that egg laying was seasonal. I also learned what being “hen pecked” is all about! Over the years I’ve had some jealous hens. One year I had Polish hens with fancy plumed feathers standing straight up out of their heads. But not for long. It seems the other girls in the coop were jealous and pecked those heads to scabby caps. Ugly. Watch out if there is a hen in the coop showing any sign of weakness. The other hens peck at it.

Aside from their pecking social habits, keeping chickens is wonderful and rewarding. A fresh egg is ambrosia. On a visit to my home a while back, Chef Michael Romano found out I raised chickens and his eyes lit up. After he heard that, all he wanted to do was make fresh pasta. He did and it was scrumptious!

Michael Romano making pasta

But now to the seasonality. Hens in the winter need to conserve body heat and so produce fewer eggs. When spring arrives the egg production soars! The very first eggs of a young laying hen are small and get larger as the spring progresses. They love to eat greens in the spring and as the antioxidants rise in their diet the yellow of the yolks deepen in the egg. As the summer progresses, their diet includes more insects, and the color wanes. In July and August as the heat increases, the egg production slows and is almost cut in half by the fall.

Commerical producers of eggs keep the hen environment “neutral” all year with heat, light bulbs and grain feed so the chickens do not know the delight of the seasons. It is worth finding a truly fresh egg and tasting the difference. Many farmer’s markets are now selling them. Buy’em! They are worth it but remember…they aren’t around for long.