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Nov 21, 2009

Cooking with Chef Bruno Amato at Il Fornaio Sacramento

Today we bundled up and headed to Il Fornaio for our cooking class with Chef Bruno Amato. Upon our arrival at Il Fornaio we were all offered a choice of Prosecco or an Italian white while waiting for everyone to arrive. Yum!

Class began at 11:40 with a demonstration on the proper way to prepare a whole salmon - selecting, removing the skin, de-boning, etc. Chef Bruno showed us an easy and tasty way to prepare an elegant salmon dish by stuffing a fillet with shrimp, pesto, peas, thyme, red pepper flakes, and lemon, then rolling it, sauteing it, and then popping it in the oven for a bit. The finished dish is topped with a sunny side up egg and was spectacular!


It was "Hands-On" on the line in the Il Fornaio kitchen as we each made our own Cioppino. One of the differences with this Cioppino is that we did not make a sauce, put in the seafood and cook it. We made our sauce first and layering the seafood according to cook time, then simmering it with wine and plating it.



Legend has it that rounds were made to the boats that came in that day asking for any seafood to "CHIP IN" to the pot, add an Italian twist and hence the name Cioppino!

We finished the class sitting together enjoying our finished dishes and sipping wine. What a great way to spend a late Saturday morning!



Keep your eyes open for the 2010 Il Fornaio Cooking Classes, their Festa Regionale, and Wine Dinners. Log on to www.ilfornaio.com and sign up for their mailing list or find the location near you, go in and enjoy their fabulous "Happy Hour" and inquire about their events. You won't be disappointed!

1 comment:

foggywear said...

Great chef and great photos