Most of you know the primary reason we are in Florence is so Susan can attend Apicius, the Culinary School of Florence (click here to visit the school’s website), which is part of Florence University of the Arts, and where she is enrolled in the professional pastry and baking program. Like the other professional culinary programs at Apicius the baking program is a year long and consists of two semesters (or terms); and while it is possible she may be able to complete the second term during an intensive summer term at this point this appears unlikely. If so we will be in Florence through the end of the year. (The photo on the left is the entrance to the Via Guelfa kitchen facilities.)
OK but why Florence? First she had to quit medicine. The work had just become too stressful. Second she wanted to do something creative and baking was a natural for her so we started researching what serious baking programs there were out there in cyberspace. We found very few strictly pastry-only programs available in the US and those programs which provided a significant professional curriculum such as the CIA in Hyde Park, New York and the Italian Culinary Institute in New York City, carried outrageously expensive tuitions; and then there were the living costs.
And since we love Italy and were going to be in Siena for some months after selling our house in Vermont we started researching schools/programs in Tuscany and lo and behold Apicius popped up in Google. This was last fall. Well since we were already in Siena we set up an appointment to come to Florence for a day and check out the school’s facilities. Most of you already know of the saga of the return trip home for the visa. So here we are at last.
The school is located in two facilities, both of which are in the historic center of Florence. The one on Via San Gallo houses the main administrative offices as well as computer labs, library, and wine appreciation studio. The other facility, which is in fact the primary kitchen facility, is located on Via Guelfa, about a 10-minute walk from our apartment. That’s where nearly all of Susan’s courses are held.
While the school does provide and arrange for small short-term cooking and wine courses (primarily for tourist groups we think), most of the programs are one-year long and have more of a professional orientation to them: in addition to the pastry program, there is also a culinary arts program (which includes a 2 year Master’s program as well) a wine expertise program, hospitality management, food communications (food styling), design and market for the food industry, as well as a program entitle “La Bella Tavola” (the beautiful table) which has courses on food and culture, table settings, fabrics, ceramics as well as a course on the physiology of taste and flavor. The Italians are clearly serious about food and wine. Each program also includes either a beginning, intermediate or advanced Italian language course as well (Susan is in the advanced class).
Most of the students are university-age and many of the present group at Apicius and FUA seem to be American girls. There are three students taking the professional pastry program this term: Susan, Sibyl from Turkey and Omer from Israel, so that group has quite an international makeup. The instructors are all Italian, and most of them have their own bakeries or restaurants, so they certainly have important experience in the field. The classes are in English, but because most of the instructors’ English is limited, allowing Susan some opportunity to interact in Italian as well.
To see Susan’s schedule of her classes in the Beginning Baking and Pastry program as well as read a description about each course click here and then just scroll down to the Beginning Baking and Pastry Program for all the details. Susan will be taking the Intermediate Baking and Pastry program either in the summer of the fall.
Click here to see the school’s video online. Note this is a huge file and recommended for broadband users only.
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