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(L-R) Christine Mazelis, Karen Morreale, MaryBeth Chasteen, Barbara Franco, Chef Paolo Fontana, Pat Biancaniello, Kathy Albrecht, Nancy Vallerella.What did you do Tuesday night? For several Smithtown women, the answer is attend the Culinary Master Series “A Sicilian Christmas” at the SCGP Café at Stony Brook University.
You don’t have to live in Italy, be Italian or go to an Italian restaurant to enjoy the Italian tradition of eating seven fish dishes on Christmas Eve. It turns out that it doesn’t have to be Christmas Eve to enjoy feasting on seven fish and you can combine them into a single dish. That was a message from Chef Paolo Fontana in his presentation “A Sicilian Christmas” Tuesday, December 2. The presentation was the second in the Culinary Master Series at the SCGP Café (Simons Center for Geometry and Physics) at Stony Brook University.
With approximately thirty people in the audience, Chef Paolo Fontana demonstrated his technique for preparing his Christmas Eve seafood dish that included shrimp, muscles, scallops, clams, calamari and octopus. He also prepared and shared his recipe for a frittata and panettone. Cooking was followed by eating. NO One left hungry!
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Chef Fontana with octopusChef Fontana emphasized using the freshest ingredients. He encouraged cooks to experiment with ingredients.He shared stories of lessons learned from his Sicilian mother and father. Fontana’s love of cooking was apparent as was his love of his Sicilian heritage. Interspersed with cooking instructions were stories of eating sea urchin, cooking octopus and lessons learned from watching his mom.
You don’t have to be Sicilian to enjoy Chef Fontana’s style of cooking, but if you are, Fontana’s commentary may just bring back some fond memories.
The Culinary Master Series will continue in February the topic is Aphrodisiacs
Chef Paolo Fontana - SCGP Café -100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook University Campus, Stony Brook,, NY 11794