Parma

After four days in Paris, I packed up and headed to Parma, Italy.

I consider Parma – a small city in the Emilia-Romagna region best known for its production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma – my second home.  My junior year of university, I studied there for a semester.  I’d opted to live in a homestay with an Italian family and was placed with Marco and Paola, a Parmigiano couple who do not have children of their own but who have hosted multiple Boston College students over the years.  I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing experience.  They are incredibly special people, and over the past six years, they have become two of the most important people in my life.  I love them like my second set of parents.

And I love Parma itself.  The city is small but very affluent, with plenty of windy little streets and colored buildings and cobblestones and unbelievably charming nooks and crannies. Biking is one of the primary ways Parmigiani get around, and the city is small enough that you can get almost anywhere on foot.  Parma was where I first fell in love with Italy, and it will always feel like home. During the year I spent in Firenze, it was so nice to know that Marco and Paola were just a two-hour train ride away and that I could go “home” whenever I needed a break from my life in Firenze.

Paris v. 2

“I’ve seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.” – Ernest Hemingway

Paris.  Where to even begin? I think I, like so many before me, have fallen in love with Paris.

I arrived in the early morning on September 16th.  I was staying with some Parisian friends in their very trendy up-and-coming neighborhood in the 9ème arrondissement known, in true bourgeois-bohème hipster fashion, as “SoPi” (South Pigalle), so I headed there first to drop off my luggage and take a very much-needed nap.  With its many hip restaurants, bars, and cafés, SoPi – formerly a rather sketchy red light district – is now often compared to New York’s Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Reykjavík

I wasn’t sure the exact date I could leave for Europe until just a few weeks before my trip, so by the time I started looking for flights, the only ones I could afford were those with fairly significant layovers. I decided I wanted to fly through a place I hadn’t been before, preferably with enough time to actually leave the airport and explore a bit.  IcelandAir offered a flight to Paris with an eighteen-hour layover in Reykjavík, which, I reasoned, would give me an entire day there and plenty of time to experience the city.

My flight landed at the Keflavik International Airport at 6:20am on September 15th.  The airport (Iceland’s largest) is located about 50km southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík; it’s approximately a 45-minute drive to get from the airport to the Reykjavík city center and there are busses that run every half hour or so between the two points. A good portion of the bus route runs along the coast, and my first glimpses of Iceland – illuminated by the early morning light from the sunrise – were absolutely spectacular.

The bus stopped at several hotels on the way into the city center.  The center was the final stop, and by the time we’d arrived, there were only two of us left (evidently, all of the other passengers were actually staying overnight).  We disembarked on the side of what appeared to be a very busy and industrial road, the driver pointed vaguely in the direction of a bakery where we could get breakfast, and we we were left to our own devices.

New Chapter

For the past sixteen months, I’ve worked as a chef at The Farmhouse at Veritas, a bed & breakfast in Afton, Virginia adjacent to Veritas Vineyard and Winery.  I decided recently to move back to Boston, where I lived for six years during and after university.  Central Virginia is a beautiful area, but I’ve missed living in a city; and Boston, where I still have an extensive network of friends that remained in the city after school, feels in many ways like home.  I’m excited about the move, but the decision to leave Veritas was also very bittersweet.

Yesterday was my last day at the winery.  The experience I had there was absolutely incredible.  I can’t even begin to put into words how grateful I am to have had that opportunity.  I learned so much in my year and a half at the winery, and I had the immense privilege of working with (and for) amazing people that not only taught me a great deal, but also made me truly feel like family.  I am so grateful for all of the experiences I had during that time, and for the wonderful friendships I formed.  So thank you, Veritas, and to everyone that made my time there what it was.

At the end of October, I’ll be starting a new job at Sportello, part of the Barbara Lynch Gruppo in Boston, which serves trattoria-inspired Italian dishes.  Until then, I’ve taken a month off to travel in Europe – primarily in Italy, but a few other countries as well.  This will be my first time back in Italy since leaving in May of 2014, and I’ve missed it… so unbelievably much.

I’m beyond excited for the future – for Europe, for Boston, and for whatever else it may hold.  More soon!

The Farmhouse at Veritas Blog

My first post is up on the Farmhouse at Veritas blog (here)!

Summer is perhaps my favorite time of year.  From a culinary perspective, it is the season that most embodies simplicity.  There are few things in life that give greater satisfaction than the ability to pick something fresh and perfectly ripe from one’s own garden, prepare it in a simple way in order to maintain that ingredient’s flavor and integrity, and eat it immediately – perhaps al fresco, with friends.

At The Farmhouse, our own garden has begun to produce more than we know what to do with, from tomatoes to sweet corn to okra to freshly dug potatoes. In the summer and early autumn, it’s a privilege to have so much homegrown produce right at our fingertips and to be able to work with such extraordinarily fresh ingredients. And as a guest, it’s a truly unique experience to be able to dine in the Garden House during the warm summer months, overlooking the Farmhouse garden where so many elements of the meal are grown.

The incredible thing about Virginia, and in particular this area of Virginia, is the amazing abundance and variety of products that are available locally. Agriculture is the state’s largest single industry, and due to its relatively temperate climate and long growing season, Virginia is a state capable of accommodating an array of different fruits and vegetables.  In addition, Virginia boasts incredible wineries and breweries, cheese producers, artisanal butchers, bakeries, and innumerable other extraordinary local manufacturers.

What I love most about being a chef here is how passionate Virginia’s food, wine, and agricultural community is about what it does.  There is an inherent sense of responsibility among producers to create products of the highest quality, and in turn, consumers are particularly conscious of where their food comes from and treat it with corresponding respect.  Ours is an area defined by a rich culinary heritage, and a community with an ardent desire to remain true to its roots.  I think it is this sense of integrity, not to mention all of the incredible goods that are produced as a result of this attitude, which so draws people to this area.

Chef Andy and I fully embrace this philosophy at The Farmhouse at Veritas.  Emphasizing the concept of farm-to-table cooking, we strive year-round to create menus that showcase ingredients seasonally available in our area and products that are cultivated by local purveyors.  It is an exciting and extremely rewarding challenge, and one that we very much hope you can share with us!