This is the fourth of a series of sponsored posts documenting Bohemian and Pacific Sun publisher Rosemary Olson’s wine and food cruise around Italy and Croatia with Duckhorn Vineyards and Food & Wine Trails.
Culinary Class
Oceania’s Culinary Institute is the only cooking school at sea and extremely popular. I was fortunate to participate in the “Mermaid” cooking seminar with Chef Instructor Noelle Barille. The lesson was cooking fish seven ways. Noelle is humorous, but precise with her instruction.
At one time in my life I was a private cook for a wealthy family on Martha’s Vineyard. They called me their chef because they loved my cooking. At the end of the summer they offered me, fully paid, to go to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It was a chance of a lifetime but I did not want to be so far from my family at 17, so I went to Mt. Vernon College and chose publishing and here I am 30 years later admiring Noelle who went to the Culinary Institute of America and worked as a chef in Napa and now lives in Genoa, Italy.
We sautéed salmon with a soy sauce glaze, lightly fried jumbo coconut shrimp, ceviche, gravlax, roasted sea bass, poached salmon for salmon salad and pan-seared sea bass with a light cream sauce.
I learned a lot about cooking fish. Only turn fish once. Don’t use tongs. Squeeze ginger juice from grated ginger. Use parchment paper. Don’t use butter because it burns in the pan. Use regular olive oil just to coat pan, be patient and watch the temperature closely.
Kotor, Greece
I needed a break from tours so the class was great. The last time I took a tour nearly everyday for a week was my trip to Ireland when I was 21. On other trips I self navigated and explored without a guide. But I was eager to see Kotor. Anxiously, we walked around old town inside a fortress. I do believe one of my past lives was in the medieval era. I love the architecture, stone, mysterious paths, churches and smells. So, I’m on a mission to buy a ring that was handmade in Kotor. Two shops into my quest, I instantly fell in love with two completely different and stunning rings. I thought the clerk said they were 50 percent off but they were 15 percent off, within those few minutes I knew I was buying them both anyway so I really did not care. I loved them. Off to the square for a beer and shared pizza which was served with the sauce on the side and that was good because it tasted medieval moldy. In a good way.
Ciao until next time.
