2016 ITALY 1 - Italy, Here We Come Again

Well, Chef John (formally head chef at Zazios Restaurant, currently Director of Culinary Education at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and fabulous tour guide for our 2015 trip through northern Italy) set-up another Italian excursion. This one started in Rome and headed south along the Amalfi coast. I could pass on Rome as I have visited there before, but Amalfi was calling our name. "Killarneys get over here. Now!!!"

The trip for 2016 was in September. In July the seven couples got together at John's house for a meet-and-greet and to talk about the upcoming tour. John's wife Stacey was traveling with us this time, but showed up later to this evening. I had heard nice things about her as she worked with my sister. All true. She is a delight, and John and Stacey are the cutest couple ever.

Steve and Karen from our 2015 trip were not able to make it this time. Boo hoo! We will miss them as they were great traveling buddies. But our fab friends Lynn and Sandy would travel again with us on this trip. Yay! 

So we met four new couples. We had actually met Frank and Mary Lynn previously at a Zazios chef's table when Chef John was still cooking there. They had been on John's 2013 trip and encouraged us to go soon because it was so wonderful. That's how we got inspired to take this 2015 culinary tour. (I think John said he has been leading these excursions for 10 or 11 years now.)

Next were Tom and Jean. They had already been on four(!!) of John's tours. They are real foodies and have taken numerous cooking classes a Le Cordon Bleu in France and elsewhere.

Alison and Brian both work in the food manufacturing industry. She is a quality control rep. Later we would find it quite interesting to hear her comments about food processing and quality control in the Italian way compared to her experience in the USA. They had been on two previous trips with John.

The last couple was Paul and Pat. This was their third trip with Chef. Our connection here is that he worked with our upstairs neighbor before retiring. And she is a vegetarian, so I would not stand alone in "special treatment" at the table. I'm actually a pescatarian (fish and seafood are OK). I was not going to miss out on fruits of the sea along the Amalfi coast.

Chef John called this his "Pizza Tour." We would be sampling pizza throughout the journey, which included a day in Naples. Naples is said to be the origination of that culinary delight. Pizza is one of my very favorites in life, so I was quite excited.

Thus the menu at this event was homemade pizza which Chef prepared as we got to know each other. He made about five large pans worth and each had various toppings--cheeses, meats, veggies--to appeal to every taste. While he was baking, there was wine and nibbles--olives, almonds, fruits, and other Italian-ish delights.

By the end of the evening, we were all feeling comfortable with our travel mates. We knew L&S, of course, and some of the others had already traveled together on previous trips. All in all we really looked forward to making new friends in this latest journey. I took photos to send to everyone, so we could easily remember faces.

Sorry to say I can't find pizza photos of that evening, but if I do find them, I'll add them later.