Taking students from California to Italy, the Italian Culinary Experience immerses students in Italian culinary technique, language, and culture in just seven months. Here is an overview of the topics you'll cover:
Your first 10 weeks will be spent at our California campus, where you'll be exposed to authentic Italian cuisines and traditions in real-world settings, preparing you to live, learn, and work in Italy. Language classes will be combined with time spent in the kitchen learning fundamental Italian cooking techniques and becoming familiar with Italian ingredients: their origins, uses, and methods of preparation.
Introduction: You'll get an introduction to the kitchen with training in knife skills and sanitation techniques. Lessons on produce will cover how to purchase, clean, prepare, store, and handle fruits and vegetables. You'll also learn about oils, vinegars, and vinaigrettes, the authentic dressings that can enhance any recipe.
Cheese and Antipasti: Italy produces over 450 different types of formaggi across its 20 regions. See, smell, and taste a range of cheeses, as well as the varieties of cured meats and vegetables. You'll learn the proper cuts for each kind of vegetable and how to balance attributes and flavors, like acidity and sweetness, in dishes that include insalata di funghi, carpaccio alla cipriani, and bruschetta al pomodoro.
Stocks & Sauces: You'll learn techniques to create stocks and sauces that are used in countless recipes and that form the backbone of many dishes: chicken and seafood stocks, mayonnaise, pesto, and béchamel. You'll work with beans and grains to prepare recipes such as zuppa di ceci, pasta fagioli, zuppa di farro, and other classic dishes.
Pasta - Fresh, Dried, and Filled: You'll beam with pride as you roll out your first sheet of fresh pasta, the cornerstone of Italian cuisine. Nothing else compares to the sensation of recreating classic dishes using regional ingredients and methods passed down for generations. You'll make ragù di carne and gnocchi alla romana the way they were meant to be, and be introduced other Italian mainstays, including hearty risotto, polenta, and rice dishes like vialone nano.
Pizza and Breads: From rustic and crusty to sweet and flaky, Italian pane in all its manifestations is famed for its distinct flavors and textures. You'll practice essential techniques that include mixing, shaping, baking, and finishing on staple recipes such as flavorful focaccia, calzone, crispy grissini, and pizza.
Fish: You'll learn the right techniques to prepare all kinds of pesci, from shellfish to round fish. You'll learn how to check for freshness and practice scaling, trimming, gutting, and filleting. You'll also have the opportunity to refine your skills in poaching, sautéing, and baking by preparing a number of regional recipes, including sogliola alla mugnaia. Advanced lessons will clarify the ins and outs of a diverse range of seafood, including mussels, lobster, octopus, clams, shrimp, and more from the deep blue sea.
Meats: This unit runs the gamut of Italian carni: chicken, duck, quail, beef, veal, pork, lamb, and rabbit. Using a number of cooking methods, such as sautéing, grilling, braising, and roasting, you'll make such dishes as saltimbocca alla romana, pollo arrosto, and braciole. The lesson includes learning how to purchase, fabricate, and store regional Italian varieties of meat, as well as their local preparations.
Contorni: No Italian meal is complete without a salad and vegetable side dish, and you'll learn the essential preparations used for all of them. For example, greens like radicchio and arugula, and items from the vine like tomatoes and eggplant, have particular methods of preparation and unique flavor complements. You'll practice classic methods, including brasare, arrostire, and frittura, and see firsthand how these ingredients combine in their own unique ways.
Desserts: And finally, la dolce! :You'll cover techniques for preparing authentic and delicious sweets: custards, cream puffs, sponge cakes, biscotti, gelato, sorbet, mousse. Lessons include such popular desserts crostate, panna cotta, pasta sfoglia, and tiramisu.
At ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine, you'll expand your cooking skills and supplement them with theory, history, and more language. You'll visit regional farms, factories, and vineyards to witness first-hand the production of authentic ingredients. These traditional methods—harvesting, cultivation, and refinement—will deepen your ingredient knowledge, which will serve you well in the kitchen for the rest of your life.
History of Italian Cuisine: Class meets twice a week and explores how culinary traditions have been shaped by the events and geography of each region. Understanding Italian ingredients and recipes in the context of where they originated is key to elevating your experience and education while in Italy.
Italian Language: Ciao, Italia! Language classes allow you to absorb the culture around you and are held three times a week right in your dorm. Your teacher is a native speaker who will help you understand some of the more obscure idioms of Italiano and prepare you with a useful vocabulary for communicating inside and outside the kitchen, helpful during school and at your stage.
Guest Chef Demonstrations: Michelin-starred guest chefs visiting from various regions of Italy will show you techniques used to prepare significant traditional local recipes. During your time in Italy, you will learn firsthand from a minimum of 16 visiting chefs, each running 6 hours of demonstration.
Products and Raw Materials: Italian cuisine is strictly related to the availability and to the quality of raw materials, as well to regional Italian products. Knowledge and direct experience of both will be delivered to you through lectures and product tasting.
Cooking Practice and Recipes: As a core course of the program the focus of training is directed to providing you with the capability to professionally prepare, cook, and present Italian dishes based on regional recipes. This course focuses on techniques and recipes and is organized through a continuous process of demonstrations and hands-on training in order to involve you in a very practical immersion in Italian cuisine.
Wines: Wine is an integral part of Italian gastronomy, and wine's relationship to Italian culture, products, and habits is as important as its regional variations. You'll explore the technological aspects, grape characteristics, and the power of wine in unlocking flavors upon your palate.
Pastry: Pastry holds an important place in Italian cuisine. The objective of this course is to teach you how to prepare a wide range of key Italian pastries, including sweets and cakes, such as tiramisu, zuccotto, zuppa inglese, cassata siciliana, cannoli siciliani, pastiera napoletana, panettone, pandoro, and more.
Field Trips: Five days of training will be devoted to visiting some of Italy's most significant production sites. You'll witness prized agricultural traditions, some of which are thousands of years old.
Past destinations have included:
- A truffle museum
- Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino cheese production plants
- Parma ham production plant and museum
- Culatello pig farm and production plant
- Vineyards in Chianti, Montalcino (Toscana), and Barolo (Piemonte)
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Olive oil mill in Toscana
- Chianina steak butcher
- Pasta production plant
- Acetaia producing balsamic vinegar
By week 20, you're ready to enter a professional kitchen
There's no better way to break into the culinary industry than on the heels of a 9-week internship at a highly rated Italian restaurant in Italy.
The stage (pronounced stahj) consists of a short-term apprenticeship in the restaurant of a highly rated Italian chef, located in one of Italy's 20 regions. Here, you'll put all elements of your education—culinary technique, culture, and language—into practice.
Little to no English will be spoken at this point, and you'll work full shifts, cooking in a real-world environment and improving your technique each day. All your training will come into practice, plus, when you finish, you'll have an internationally renowned restaurant on your resume.
Return to ALMA
Following your stage, you'll return to ALMA to put the finishing touches on your training. You'll complete your final, a practical exam that will be evaluated by a panel of distinguished professionals.
