Day 10

3:30 in the morning came way too soon. I did manage to get to sleep by 10 pm, so I got a lot more sleep then a lot of people did. I got to the restaurant first, around 4:15, everyone was supposed to be there by 4:30 because we were going to be shuttled in the Chef's van to the bottom of Orvieto to get on the bus. Another group member, Sheldon and I, started to make cappucinnos right away because we wanted them and we were sure everyone else would too. Of course as things usually go the majority of the group over slept, forgot stuff, or were just slow to get ready. We did all make it on the bus before 5 though which was our intended time to leave. Our first stop would be Parma, Italy which is North of Florence, in between Milan and Bologna. The trip took us about 4 hours all together. The first stop was a small farm where they produce Parmigianno Reggiano. This cheese is protected by a European consortium, at least the name is. It can only carry the name if it was produced in this region completely. All the milk that goes into the cheese comes from within 10 kilometers of the producer. Its all organic milk and they are strict on the diet and handling of the milk. It is given to the cheese producers and I was surprised to find how quickly it is really made. They use 159 gallons of milk to make just 2 wheels of cheese. They explained to us how they are placed into large silver basins and left overnight for the cream to rise to the top. The cream is skimmed off and sent to be made into butter. Then the rest of the milk is mixed with another fresh batch of whole milk and put into large vats that are about 6 feet deep. They are conical and they add whey and rennet to the milk as they are heated by a steam system. The containers are copper on the inside and steel on the outside. They started the process early in the morning before we got there, and when we got there the cheese was all ready to come out. Two guys broke the cheese into 2 pieces with a specialized tool and then wedged it out from the bottom with a giant wooden spatula. Then they got a large cloth and got it wrapped around the cheese and pulled out of the milk mixture and let it drain for a bit as it was tied to poles. The cheese master pulled off some chunks for us to eat, it tasted like unflavored mozzarella, it had the texture, but no salt, just bland. After the cheese is pulled out its taken to the salting room. Its a large room with huge vats of brine. The cheese is first pressed into molds to squeeze out a lot of moisture, its pressed over and over into smaller molds, and then finally into a special mold with a plastic strip which will end up leaving the company name and the brand name on the rind of the cheese as it ages. After we saw the salting room we went into the storage room. This is a small producer and the room we walked into was massive. All the cheese is aged for at least 12 months and up to 30 months. There were 5 rows of shelves, each with wheels stacked 17 high and we counted 70 wheels deep. We calculated that there was about 3.5 million dollars in cheese in there. After that room we began plotting the heist.....but first we had a tasting to get out of the way. We had a selection of the 12 month, 24 month and 30 month old cheeses. All of them were very good, but each with a distinctive flavor. I ended up buying a half kilo of the 30 month old, which is about 1 pound. It cost me 7 euros, which is about 11-12 bucks, which is a great price per pound for this quality of cheese. After we left we traveled not too far to a prociutto di Parma producer. Chef Polegri once told me that the prociutto we have in the states is "shit." He was definitely right. There is no comparison. We got told about the whole process from start to finish and saw some hams already undergoing each stage. They go through a lot of care and some time honored techniques with a lot of quality control to get just the right product. Once again this is a product that is regionally protected. No one else can use the Parma name and when you try it you know why they are protective of it. All over Parma they were selling it in restaurants and delis, slicing it so thin you could see right through it. After the factory we went to a vineyard so Chef Polegri could buy some wine for the restaurant and he bought us some meats and cheeses for snacking. After that it was off to pick up lunch. He knew a nice bakery and pizzaria not far away that we could get a great variety of stuff. We basically cleaned the place out. We had a bus full of hungry people so we got 3 different kinds of pizza, several types of sandwiches, a bunch of baguettes to go with our meats, cheeses, and some great balsamic vinegar and fruit preserves. We got the stuff to go and got back on the bus and took it to our next location, a vineyard and producer of balsamic vinegar. We had our lunch quickly, we were all starving, and the vineyard gave us a selection of wine to sample with our lunch. After we had devoured nearly all the food, we got a tour of the balsamic vinegar production. It really doesn't take any more than patience to create it. We are talking about years and years of patience though. They make it without any machine or chemical help, they just let the process take place naturally, with the natural grapes over long periods of time. They showed us how the vinegar starts out in large bottles and loses about 10% of its mass in one year through evaporation. Once a year they put a batch that has been reduced into a smaller barrel and repeat that over and over for as long as 30 years. There is a whole consortium of producers that participate in this and they are also protected by the European Union, so several producers cooperate to be able to make enough to sell to the public. Their real prize that they sell to the public is their 12, 20, and 30 year old balsamic vinegar that comes in their red, silver and gold packages. No matter where they were made in this limited region, they all have a common packaging to certify its authenticity. We had a tasting of all 3 and they are all excellent. The red is sweet, with a little tang and its still pretty liquid. By the time you get to the gold its like maple syrup with a rich taste, just a few drops would go a long way. They sell it in packages of all 3, or you can buy them individually. I bought the 30 year old because its excellent and a single bottle will last for a long time because you only use it in the rarest of occasions as a finisher to a dish, you never cook with it. Chef Cochran who is with us bought a bottle 10 years ago and says he still has 1/3 of a bottle left. Its expensive, but overtime I think its worth it, and who knows, I may never get back here and if i tried to get it in the states it would be twice the cost, and not as good. After the vineyard we headed to the hotel, we would be staying overnight in Parma and leaving early Friday morning to go to Tuscany. The hotel we got was very nice. Still small, but better than our apartment in Orvieto in some ways. A lot of the group went to sleep when we got there, it had already been a long day, but a lot of Parma. They city is beautiful of course. The buildings and town in all aren't as old as Orvieto, but it's a lot more modern. There is a college in town, we even met a few people from Spain that were there for school. I could see it being pretty comfortable to live there, there are more amenities that home has than Orvieto can offer. We went out for group dinner at night to a great restaurant. They went all out for a menu for us. There was a parmigianno custard topped with shallots caramelized in balsamic vinegar, prosciutto with these fresh ravioli shaped pastries that were still very hot when they got to us, then we had a few great pasta dishes and a veal dish with potatoes. We really eat way too much here. After dinner a few people went out, but I was off to bed, we have another early wake up call to get back on the bus, and I haven't slept all day.