chili

Much has happened in the past 4 weeks. I have been traveling through out Europe, interviewing chefs, organic producers, cheese manufacturers and producers, agricultural producers, and more. I have jumped from plane to trains to busses across Barcelona, Lucca, Florence, and Rome. I have tasted local foods, discovered organic cuisine in Spain and enjoyed wine on the Tuscan hills. And yet, that is not all. I m now moving to London on Tuesday, which means for you and me a new challenge and evolution of this blog. How to cook in a foreign country? How to discover new foods? How to find like-minded people who love organic produces?

While I was in Italy, I cooked for my friends in two occasions.

1. First, I made chili. I thought it would be an easy recipe, because the ingredients are pretty basic and to be found anywhere. It was not that easy. I had a hard time even finding black beans. The spices were the most difficult to find. At the national known supermarket, chili powder did not exist. The section of spicy was limited. This is terrible, but I had to buy a pre-packaged Mexican tacos box to get some of the spices. I was then told by my cousin that I needed to go to a small Asian market, but the reality is that my hometown does not have much variety in terms of markets (Asian, American, Mexican).

Another item that I could not find, which is incredible considering that Italy is popular for cheese, was cheddar cheese. Ok, I know that Italy does not produce the neon orange cheddar cheese. However, I thought I could find something similar, with a similar flavor. Nothing. I could not find anything. Maybe, I just don’t know much about cheese, maybe the supermarket, but the point is that I should be able to find a mediocre cheese right?

#Fritos, which I put on my chili were obviously impossible to find. I found a similar, fake version, which tasted like crap, and I am not even a big fan of Fritos for obvious reasons.

In the end I made a chili that was who knows what, but surprisely it tasted amazing. I am not sure anymore what I put in there, but it was a lot of unknown spices found in my brother’s kitchen.

2. I made for another occasion vegetarian lasagne. You will think, “Ok, come on you are in Italy.” Well, the problem was that I was staying in a house that had not been used in a while, so there was no garlic, onions, you know the basics, and most importantly I did not know how to use the oven. The electricity went off 7 times. I had to figured out how to turn it on again, finding the electric box in a romanesque ex convent – not easy.

The lasagne did not turn to be as good as always. I was so said. I found that the water, the ingredients, the tools, are just not the same. I made chocolate whipped mousse and even the way the heavy cream was whipping was not the same. I know that climate can affect food, but how do chefs do it when they travel? I did not realize how important is to feel the comfort of your own kitchen and grocery store. I missed that.