I ARRIVED home from Italy at 04.30 on a Friday morning to find my whole family sitting expectantly at the dining table, knives and forks at the ready, waiting for the Italian gourmet meal they had been promised following my culinary tour of Tuscany, organized by Naomi Catering, the Jerusalem-based company run by Naomi and Eric Goldberg. I exaggerate slightly: it wasn’t until late morning that the family asked when they might see the fruits of my trip. As a matter of fact, we all sat down to a delicious Friday night dinner that same evening - courtesy of Naomi Catering, which was the perfect finish to a sublime few days in Tuscany.
Naomi and Eric Goldberg came on aliyah from the UK in 1987. Naomi has always worked in catering, both in England and Israel. When the family moved to their house in Jerusalem in1991, she began catering from home. The company now operates from large commercial premises in Talpiyot, catering at events all over Israel for local clients and for visitors from abroad.
The couple began thinking about the possibility of the Tuscany tour after one of their clients had asked whether they knew of any kosher cookery courses in that region of Italy. They are very familiar with Tuscany having spent many family holidays there over the past three decades. After researching the whole concept with their customary thoroughness, they formulated the Taste of Tuscany tour.
They found a gorgeous four star hotel in Lucca - the Hotel Villa La Principessa - and the management agreed that they could kasher the kitchen. Naomi and Eric arranged for a local mashgiach to supervise the kashrut; they engaged Mauro, a local chef who has an Israeliwife, to prepare the meals in the hotel, and they asked Cristina Blasi and Gabriella Mari, who run the Cordon Bleu school in Florence, to teach the cookery classes.
At the end of September 2006, Naomi wrote to her client mailing list offering a five-day trip to Tuscany in early November. I had been feeling rather gloomy after the dreadful summer we had just experienced here in Israel and I cheered up simply reading Naomi’s email. I booked my place almost immediately.
The tour started in the early hours of Sunday morning when the Israeli contingent assembled at Ben Gurion airport for the flight to Milan. When we arrived in Italy, we met the tour participants who were joining us from other countries, some of whom used the opportunity to meet up with relatives who had come from Israel. Sharon Abadi flew in fromBrazil to join her brother, Michel,who lives in Raanana, and Bet Shemesh resident Shani Goldman’s mother, grandmother and aunt came from England to share the Taste of Tuscany experience with her.
It was my first visit to Tuscany, and my first cookery course anywhere in the world. I’d love to repeat both experiences as soon as possible. There was a clever balance between cooking and touring so that all the participants would indeed have a taste of both. In addition to two half-days of cookery lessons, we managed to pack in numerous other activities including a night visit to Pisa; a day trip to Florence; a visit to an olive oil press; a walking tour of Lucca, and shopping in stores and markets. On the final day, en route to Rome, we visited Pitigliano, an ancient town known as “Little Jerusalem” because of its once thriving Jewish community, built entirely out of stone on top of a remote Tuscan hill.
The participants split into two groups for the two cookery lessons, which took place in the hotel’s newly kosher kitchen. Each time, the delightful Gabriella and Cristina took us through the preparation of a four course meal, which we then ate that evening. The dishes included chicken simmered in extra virgin olive oil with garlic, fennel, Mediterranean fresh herbs and white wine, and a shallow tart with black grapes, aniseed and fresh rosemary. I’m not a very accomplished or adventurous cook so it was very helpful for me to observe and then to be able to try my hand at every stage of the meal’s preparation. This was something the more seasoned cooks among us also appreciated. Although the forty participants came from a variety of religious backgrounds, it was important to everyone that this was a kosher tour. As Andi Arnovitz from Jerusalem commented: "For people who keep kosher, and who are interested in the Jewish history of a place and adore cooking, this tour was the best of all possible worlds. We got to eatdelicious foods in the prettiest settings, with candles, flowers and wine - instead of tuna fish out of a can in our hotel room!"
Over a glass of fine Italian kosher wine on the final evening, I asked New Yorker Harriet Schimel for her thoughts on the tour. I think she expressed what we all felt: “Naomi and Eric organized this adventure with a clear vision of what they would like all of us to experience, based on their love of Tuscany. But they were also flexible about the details, tweaking excursions and options according to the interests of the group. It made our trip feel less ‘organized tour’ and more personal.” It’s a wonderful but rare thing in life when one’s anticipation of an event is matched or even surpassed by the reality.
The Taste of Tuscany tour was one of those occasions. It was a real treat from beginning to end. I’ll stop now because my family is waiting expectantly for dinner. We’re starting with peperoni ripieni alla Mediterranea, a favorite recipe from my cookery class in Tuscany.
Mediterranean Style Stuffed bell Pepper
serves 4
• 4 medium size yellow bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise and inside removed. • 2tbsp salted capers, salt removed and chopped (sun-dried tomatoes can be used instead of or in addition to capers) • 2 garlic cloves, chopped • 4tbsp breadcrumbs or matzoh meal • 2tbsp parsley, chopped • 2tbsp raisins soaked in warm water for 1 hour • 2tbsp pinenuts • 8tbsp extra virgin olive oil • salt • freshly ground black pepper Heat the oven to 4000F (2000C). Place the peppers on an ovenproof dish, skin down. Bake for five minutes in the middle of the oven. Meanwhile mix all the other ingredients and place the mixture on the pre-cooked peppers. Cook for a further 15 minutes until golden brown.
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