In Italy, authentic focaccia is thin and crispy, topped with tomato, cheese, olives or vanilla, and eaten with a knife and fork, cut to fit size or rolled up. Whichever Italian restaurant you sit in, while waiting for your food to be served, you'll be served a few slices of cold bread and a hard biscuit called Grissini. These long, thin hard biscuits are fragrant and chewy, while cold bread is mostly used to dip the sauce left over from the first or second course. Because whether the main rai is delicious or not often depends on the deliciousness of the sauce.

After listening to Lute's introduction, Sikong Yao was also emotional, in fact, Italian cuisine culture is far more interesting than she imagined, definitely not only pizza and spaghetti, as the ancestor of Western food, Italian cuisine, it really has a unique flavor.

Sikong Yao said with a smile: "This is super similar to cheese mashed potatoes, but I don't know how it tastes, I really want to try it if I have the chance." ”

Lute shrugged and said, "This thing is only eaten by the guys on the fifth floor in the institute, of course, the chef in charge of cooking will occasionally steal a little, but even I don't have a chance, I do know that there is a good restaurant near the Bridge of Sighs that sells lasagna, if you are interested, you can go there and try it." ”

Sikong Yao nodded and said, "Well, I remembered." ”

Sikong Yao's mention of cheese mashed potatoes piqued Lute's interest, in Italy, cheese is also one of the most outstanding ingredients, this fermented milk product is very popular in many countries, and he is often seen in Italian cuisine, although tomato meat foam pasta is the uncrowned king, but smoked duck breast cheese pasta is also a popular delicacy.

Lute smiled: "Why don't you go to the eighth floor and have a look, it's the place where cheese is produced, I think you, as a pastry chef, you should be interested, isn't the ingredients for dessert more interesting than noodles?" ”

Cheese itself is a processed milk product though. However, in the category of dessert cuisine, it is still a kind of ingredient, and it will be seen in many desserts, and it is a very good ingredient. The quality is also high and low.

Sikong Yao hesitated for a moment and said, "Is this good?" Won't it disturb your work? ”

Lute smiled and said, "It's okay, there are no very strict rules for our daily work tasks in the institute, but the people here are not lazy, because they are all chefs from all over the world, and most of them are local." But anyone is self-motivated, even if there are no rules and regulations, we will work hard, after all, our job is to keep cooking and studying. Doing the job of a chef, improving your cooking skills and getting money at the same time, why not? ”

When Lute said this, Sikong Yao looked around, but found that most of the people's faces were filled with sincere smiles, which was out of love for cooking, which made Sikong Yao yearn for it.

Occasionally, one or two people with embarrassed faces are found. It is only because of the culinary problems that the whole institute is filled with a positive and energetic spirit, and there are many ways to manage it, and I have to say that the International Association for the Study of Gastronomy is also very clever.

If you have to limit the tasks of these chefs, they will lose the feeling of seeing cooking as fun, and they will lose the coping style of cooking, and they will lose the purity of progress.

Sikong Yao nodded and said, "Okay, as long as it doesn't affect your work, it's up to you, and I have nothing to do anyway." ”

Lute laughed, "Okay." Then come with me, I've done all the research at hand anyway, and I'm worried that I have nothing to do. ”

Lute took Sikong Yao to the eighth floor, and on the way, Sikong Yao asked curiously, "Lute." You said earlier that the research you had at hand was completed, what was it? ”

"Regarding the amount of olive oil used in the Mali sauce and the processing time of the various ingredients." Lute responded, and a look of relief appeared on his face, apparently the study had choked him up before.

Sikong Yao was puzzled: "What is Mali Jila sauce?" ”

Lute explains, "It's a pasta sauce, and I'm going to toss it to life in order to study it. It took more than a month to find the optimal amount of olive oil, down to milligrams. ”

Mali sauce is also a very popular sauce in pasta, a bit like garlic sauce, but with a sweeter taste.

The ingredients are 8 canned boiled tomatoes, 2 chili peppers, 5 slices of garlic, 100 ml of olive oil, and salt to taste.

Put the boiled tomatoes on the draining net, carefully drain the juice, remove the seeds one by one with your hands, remove the draining net, put the pulp on a plate and crush it, chop the garlic finely, remove the seeds from the peppers, heat the pot with olive oil, add the garlic and chili peppers and fry them.

When the garlic is yellow-brown and the pepper is slightly black, add the tomatoes, sprinkle with salt, cook slowly for 15 minutes, and refrigerate them in an airtight container for about a week.

Lute recalls the pain he had to peel garlic and pepper seeds every day, and the smell on his hands could barely be washed off, and once he accidentally rubbed his eyes, and he almost went blind with irritation.

The eighth floor of the institute is responsible for the research of cheese, which is divided into two types: fresh cheese and fermented cheese, and the fermentation time often ranges from six months to two years, so the research span here is very large, and many projects have been taken over by many people.

The practice of cooked cheese is slightly different from that of raw cheese. When making cooked cheese, the fresh milk left over from the boiled milk skin, or the fresh milk after the cream has been extracted, is left for a few days to ferment. When the yogurt is coagulated into soft pieces, filter out the excess water with gauze, put it in a pot and cook it slowly, stirring while cooking, and when it is paste, scoop it into the gauze, squeeze it to remove the water, and then put the cheese into a mold or wooden plate, or squeeze it into shape, or cut it into different shapes with a knife. Once the cheese is made, it should be placed in the sun or in a ventilated place to harden and dry.

Lute explains: "The cheese is not all yellow after a long time, and fresh cheese is made by solidifying the milk and removing some of the water without maturation. The texture is soft and moist, exuding a fresh milky aroma and a light sour taste, which is very refreshing. But the storage period is very short, and it should be consumed as soon as possible. ”

Sikong Yao nodded, she still has this common sense, after all, as a pastry chef, these are all basic knowledge.

There are many varieties of cheese on the eighth floor of the research institute, Sikong Yao knows a few of them, there are skin covered with white fungal fluff, when eating, you can keep the mold and fungus of the skin, and you can also remove it according to the taste, the texture is very soft, the milky white mold cheese, this kind of cheese is generally eaten directly, and will not be used for cooking.

Blue cheese is marbled with penicillin, and the taste is more spicy and pungent than white mold cheese, and it is occasionally used in cocktails.

Washed soft cheese is much gentle, its ripening period requires frequent scrubbing with brine or local wine, the skin is orange-red, the interior is soft, the taste is mellow, the aroma is rich, and the color is also very pleasant, like orange amber.

For hard, unripe cheeses, the manufacturing process is strongly pressurized and some of the moisture is removed. The taste is mild and smooth, and it is easy to be accepted by the general public. Because of its easy dissolving texture and not fully ripe, it is often used in large quantities in dishes.

On the other hand, hard ripe cheese is squeezed and boiled to make it, and has a hard texture, luscious aroma, and intriguing taste. It can be transported and stored for a long time.

The most classic goat's cheese is made in the same way as fresh cheese and can be eaten fresh or dehydrated. It is small in size, has a variety of shapes, and has a slightly sour taste.

Melted cheese is an over-squeezed dough that is melted and added with milk, cream or butter. Different products can be added with different ingredients, such as vanilla, nuts, etc., the taste is not strong, can be stored for a long time, and the light fruit aroma is very attractive.

The most appealing is an unripe full-fat cheese called cream cheese, which can be processed to contain more than 50% fat, with a delicate texture and a soft taste.

All kinds of famous and unseen cheeses emerge in endlessly, Sikong Yao was fascinated at once, each cheese has a different flavor, sour, salty, sweet and spicy, and the uses are also very different, it is definitely not in vain to spend a whole layer of space to study cheese alone. Because cheese is a milk product made by concentrating and fermenting milk, it basically eliminates a large amount of water in milk and retains the essence of high nutritional value, which is known as the 'gold' in dairy products. Each kilogram of cheese products concentrates 10 kilograms of milk protein, calcium and phosphorus and other super nutrients required by the human body, and the unique fermentation process makes the absorption rate of nutrients reach 96%-98%.

However, cheese is not easy to digest if you eat too much, and it is not suitable for people with a bad stomach, because the fat content contained in it is high, although there are also low-fat ones on the market, but it is concentrated in high concentration, which is not good for the digestive system of the elderly. The job on the eighth floor is to develop cheese that is suitable for the elderly and people with bad stomachs, so that everyone can enjoy this deliciousness.

Sikong Yao looked around and found that there was one place that was the most conspicuous, not far from her left, there were dozens of wooden gongs and drum-shaped containers, with fine and ancient patterns drawn on them, enough to see that what was hidden in it must be very high-grade cheese! (To be continued.) )