The Zeppelin - A Play in Six Acts

Oh, what a time we've been having!  As I mentioned in the last post, we have a story to tell, but it has been happening in parts and we wanted the whole thing to be through before we began to record it.

Setting
On Wednesday morning we had been looking (as we do) for the next location for our morning coffee and pastry habit (elevenses, if you will) and passed the open doorway of Zeppelin restaurant which had been on our carefully researched list of places to try for dinner.  There was a large board outside with a photograph of a chef, advertising Cooking Classes with Lorenzo, so David asked if I wanted to call in and make a quick enquiry about those while we were in the area. 

Act One
I went in, but there didn't seem to be anyone around, so I wandered out towards the kitchen, calling out, "Ciao!  Bongiorno!  Hello!" as I walked.  Lorenzo came out of the kitchen with a broad grin, held out his hand to me and said, "Ciao!  You want a coffee?"  I said, "No, no, I'm here to ask about the cooking classes."  "No, no," says he. "First we drink coffee, then we talk."  I said that my husband was waiting outside.  His response was, "Forget husband! Come on!  Just kidding!  Get husband!  Coffee time!"

I should have sensed that this was going to set the scene for how things would progress from that point.  To sum up, David came into the restaurant, we drank coffee with this insane, fast-talking, ebullient, passionately Italian captain of good food and wine and his young American intern Luke, from Texas, and we signed up for the two of us to have dinner in the restaurant that evening, to attend the cooking class on Friday afternoon, a tour with them of Orvieto's farmer's market early Saturday morning and a wine tasting on Saturday at noon.  Those who know David know that he really does not cook - he doesn't mind cooking, but he doesn't cook.  It's not his thing.

Not MUCH it's not his thing!  More on this later.

Act Two
Dinner on Wednesday night was a delicious theatrical experience.  To detail a couple of the dishes we enjoyed: hat-shaped pasta stuffed with shoulder of wild boar, served with a burnt butter, toasted hazelnut and sage sauce and ravioloni with asparagus and cheese filling served with black truffle and almond sauce. 

Desserts we shared were apple and raisin crepe with warm vanilla sauce and chestnut mousse.  The food was very good indeed, but the theatre component was that dinner guests were invited into the kitchen to watch elements of the food preparation and the sounds of laughter, shouting, singing and hilarity emanating from that area assisted in creating a very convivial atmosphere out in the dining area when patrons returned to their meals and chatted across tables like old friends.  Good fun!

Act Three
Friday afternoon we arrived at 3:30pm at the restaurant for the scheduled class, already knowing we would have a continuation of the fun that had been started on Wednesday night.  We met the other students who would be in our class with us, four young women from the U.S. who are in Rome for 3 months as part of their college studies and who had organised a couple of days in Orvieto to attend this class.

During the next four hours we made savoury fried bread pockets stuffed with salami and cheese, focaccia with olives and capsicums, pizza with tomatoes and mozzarella, gnocchi with parsley and radishes (yes, radishes), sausage, eggplant, mixed vegetable sauce, stewed wild boar with olives and tomatoes, tiramisu and biscotti. 

We also talked about the origins and elements of Italian cooking, we learnt (better) knife skills, we came to a better understanding of how a commercial kitchen functions, we nibbled on dozens of different sample dishes, we drank a large amount of prosecco and we laughed a lot.

Lorenzo was loud, funny, informative and totally in control of us all, plus his team of six interns, as well as the constant stream of business-related visitors, old friends dropping in for a chat and constant phone calls.  He was like an orchestra conductor, managing it all with great good humour and charisma, and David was his sous chef, having an absolutely brilliant time and learning a lot, as we all were.  I may have to fight him for the whisk and spatula when we get home. 

Act Four
At about 7:30pm we sat down to eat the fruit of our labours - needless to say none of us had an appetite because we had been snacking, sampling and drinking all afternoon, but we all wanted to see it plated up and eat it sitting down!  By then we had formed a good relationship with the girls and at dinner we chatted as though we had known each other forever, exchanging Italian travel tales and tips and hearing their interesting stories.  One of Lorenzo's former students, a young Columbian guy, who had dropped in to say ciao, sat with us (sat with the girls, if the truth be known) and Luke, the Texan intern, served us and chatted about his time at Zeppelin.  It was a wonderful meal and although we didn't actually finish a whole plate of anything, we felt very proud of our work - it looked and tasted very professional. 

Act Five
Saturday morning we all met again at Zeppelin before 8:00am to go to the open-air food market with Lorenzo, his young staff, the American girls, Lorenzo's girlfriend who had arrived from Boston, Lucky Phil (the Columbian) and a couple of other hangers-on.  We walked around the various stalls, where Lorenzo is clearly well-known, sampling the wares and buying food for the restaurant.  Trial samples as we walked around included roast stuffed suckling pig, olives, pecorino, hard Umbrian crackers, dried chestnuts, green leafy vegetables of unknown origin, buffalo mozzarella, chocolates, rice pudding tarts, very alcoholic peach-shaped doughnuts filled with custard and shots of a cinnamon-flavoured spirit.

We then dragged ourselves home for a rest... seriously!  We knew that we had to be back at the restaurant for the wine tasting at midday.

Act Six
The wine tasting was interesting in that it was conducted by a knowledgeable sommelier and we tried four local Orvietana wines - two whites and two reds.  Needless to say, there were accompanying plates of salumi, proscuitto, a selection of cheeses, breads and roasted artichoke dip.  We were joined for the tasting by three other people who are in Orvieto for a conference on... (wait for it)... torture recovery therapy.  I kid you not.  They are part of a group of 55 people from all over the world who are here to chat amongst themselves about their work with victims of imprisonment, abandonment and other shocking circumstances. 

After the wines and food had been consumed, Lorenzo presented us with our certificates, Zeppelin aprons, bags of biscotti and recipe booklets while we and the girls hugged each other, exchanged email addresses and promised to meet up in Rome in three weeks.

So, that's some of what we've been doing.  It has been absolutely brilliant fun.

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