Join the first professional cooking course of Italian cuisine in Africa
Come and join in the first Italian Food Academy, where everyone can learn cooking true Italian
style followed by an Italian chef known nationwide. Whether you’re an amateur or professional
with a passion for Italian cuisine, you can’t get a more authentic education anywhere else: the
school offers professional courses for both amateurs and young chefs who want to learn the art of
Italian cuisine.
Our classes are held in a modern kitchen with practical method, offering the opportunity to fully
immerse yourself in the study of Italian tradition and cuisine.
Thanks to the collaboration of Italian chefs, we have a database of more than 200 recipes of
typical dishes from all over Italy.
Have a look at these samples to understand what you will be taught about.
Have a look at these samples to understand what you will be taught about.
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
For 4/6 people
Ingredients
1 kg of chicken cut in pieces
1 celery
1 carrot
1 onion
2 potatoes
200 g of peas (fresh or frozen)
300 ml of tomato pulp
Extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
Basil
salt
pepper
Method
Mince celery, carrot and onion and let them wither in a casserole along with olive oil and butter.
When they turn transparent, add chicken.
Cook the chicken for some minutes and then add tomato pulp and mix.
Let it boil, cover and cook for about 30 minutes at medium heat. Add the peeled potato – which you have cut in small cubes –, peas and basil.
Add salt and pepper and cook for 20-30 minutes. Serve immediately.
Crostata with apricot jam
Simple
Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes Resting time: 1 hour in the fridge
For 6/8 people
Ingredients
For a cake tin of 22 centimetre in diameter:
200 g of flour
80 g of butter
110 g of sugar
1 egg
1 yolk
Lemon zest
salt
500 g of apricot jam
Method
To prepare the shortcrust pastry, let the butter turn smoother at room temperature
so that it is easier to mix it with other ingredients. Mix flour and sugar and shape
them into a fountain. Cut the butter into small cubes and put them in the middle of
the fountain, add the egg and the yolk, a hint of salt and the lemon zest.
Mix the ingredients using your hands until the mixture is uniform. Wrap the pastry
using the clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour.
Flatten the pastry on a table covered with flour, so that it is 5 mm thin. Take a
cake tin of 22 centimetres in diameter and cover its bottom and sides using the
pastry.
Take the pastry that comes out of the borders away, knead it, wrap it using the
clingfilm and put it in the fridge.
Using a fork, pierce the pastry inside the cake tin.
Cover the pastry with the jam, levelling it. Flatten the pastry you have kept away
so that it is 5 mm thin and cut it into stripes. Use a cutting wheel to cut the
pastry and remember that the stripes should be 1 centimetre large.
Put the stripes on the jam forming a grate. Bake the crostata in the pre-heated oven
at 180° for 40 minutes. Let it cool and serve.
To prepare the dough, pour the room-temperature water into a bowl and then melt the yeast
together with the honey inside it.
Add flour and start to mix. When the mixture is quite lumpy, add oil and salt.
While the dough is in the bowl, make it uniform by pulling its sides apart and then bending them
back to the centre using your hands.
The dough will be a little sticky. Let it rest for about 10 minutes – in this way, it will be more
elastic.
Drop the dough onto a flat surface covered with flour. Form a ball and put it again into the bowl.
Grease the dough, cover the bowl with a piece of clingfilm and let it rest for about 50 minutes.
Take the dough, drop it again onto the surface and flatten it using your fingers.
Cover a sheet pan – 45x35 cm – with a piece of baking paper greased with extra virgin olive oil and
then put the dough onto it. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Drop a little bit of oil.
Using your fingertips, flatten the dough, pulling its sides towards the sides of the sheet pan. Cover
your focaccia with a piece of clingfilm and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, turn on the oven at 250°.
For the emulsion, in a bowl mix oil, water and salt. Mix quickly till you obtain an emulsion. Take
the focaccia, pierce it with your fingers – don’t flatten it – and brush the emulsion onto its surface.
Garnish the focaccia using a lot of oregano. Put it onto the lowest level of the oven and bake it for
10 minutes. Put the focaccia out and then bake it on the middle level of the oven for 10-15
minutes, until it turns goldish. Put it out of the oven, let it cool and then serve.
Fried Pizzelle
Simple
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Resting time: 2 hours and a half
For 4 people
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGH
350 g of plain flour
250 ml of room-temperature water
7 g of dehydrated brewer’s yeast
10 g of table salt
Semolina
FOR THE DRESSING
600 g of tomato coulis
1 garlic clove
Extra virgin olive oil
basil
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese grated in flakes
peanut oil (to fry)
Method
To prepare the dough, in a bowl put flour, yeast, water and start to knead using the stand mixer at
low speed.
Using the coated dough hook, keep on kneading until the dough comes off the sides of
the bowl – it takes about 15 minutes – and add salt. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it with the
clingfilm and let it rise until it doubled – about 2 hours.
Divide the dough into small balls weighing 60 grams each. Using a rolling pin, flatten them to
obtain some discs of 10 centimetre in diameter. Cover a tray with semolina, put the discs onto it,
cover using clingfilm and let them rise for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the dressing. In a casserole cook garlic and oil and when garlic turns
goldish take it away. Add tomato coulis, salt, pepper and cook for 15 minutes or until the water of
the sauce has evaporated.
Fry few pizzelle at a time in a casserole with hot oil at 170°, until their sides are goldish. Strain
them using a skimmer, dry them using paper towel and dress using the tomato sauce.
Garnish with grated parmesan cheese and its flakes, a leaf of basil and serve while they are still
hot.
Genovese Pesto sauce
Simple
Preparation: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Garlic, without the inner parts of its cloves
Pine nuts
Basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pecorino cheese
Parmesan cheese 24 months
Method
Clean basil leaves and garlic cloves; then blend them along with oil, pine nuts and salt. Blend the ingredients until they are completely minced. Keep on mixing until you obtain a creamy
sauce.
Put the mixture into a bowl and add grated cheese.
Dress pasta with pesto sauce and mix, away from the stove.
If you must save pesto for a long time, do not add cheese, because it might turn acid.
Pasta alla Norma (Pasta at Norma style)
Simple
Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes
For 4 people
Ingredients
2 eggplants
8 red beefsteak tomatoes
Garlic
Oil
Basil
Salted Ricotta cheese
320 g of Rigatoni pasta
Salt
Sugar
Pepper
Peanut oil (to fry)
Method
Cut tomatoes into cubes and put them in a pan with oil and garlic. Let them turn smoother for 20
minutes with basil, salt, pepper and a half teaspoon of sugar.
Then take tomatoes away from stove and blend them in a food mill. Put tomato sauce in a pan
and cook it until its water has evaporated.
Cut the eggplants into cubes and fry them. Drain them so that there is no more oil inside and over
them.
Cook pasta and dress it with tomato sauce. Serve it and add the eggplants and grated Ricotta
cheese in each dish.
Risotto with saffron
Medium difficulty
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 15/18 minutes
For 4 people
Ingredients
240 g of Carnaroli rice
40 g of minced and stewed onions
2 l of chicken’s bouillon
50 cl of white wine
100 g of butter
100 g of Grana Padano
20 g of extra virgin olive oil
400 mg of saffron threads
salt
Method
Toast rice with oil for 3/4 minutes at low heat. Add white wine and let it evaporate. Add the hot
bouillon, the minced and stewed onion and salt.
After about 10 minutes, add the saffron threads. Mix and cook until rice is “al dente”.
Take the rice off the stove, stir in butter and in Grana Padano. Serve with grated cheese.
Scaloppine with lemon
Simple
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes
For 4 people
Ingredients
800 g of thin bottom sirloin steaks
1 lemon
1 garlic clove
flour
extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
salt
pepper
parsley
Method
Put the bottom sirloin steaks between two pieces of baking paper and tenderize them using a
meat tenderizer. Otherwise, you can ask your butcher to do it for you. Cover both steaks’ sides
with a little bit of flour and cook them in a pan together with garlic, oil and butter.
Grate the lemon zest and keep it away. Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice through a strainer
onto the steaks. Add salt and pepper, then keep on cooking at low heat for some minutes.
Serve Scaloppine with lemon adding a little bit of pepper – which you will mince in that moment –,
the grated lemon’s zest and a little bit of parsley.
Torta paradiso (Paradise cake)
Simple
Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
For 8/10 people
Ingredients
125 g of smooth butter
125 g of powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 yolks
80 g of flour
80 g of corn starch
4 g of yeast for cakes
Grated lemon zest
Method
Keep butter at room temperature for 2 hours or make it softer in the microwave oven for 20
seconds. In a bowl mix butter with powdered sugar.
When the mixture is foamy, add yolks and eggs and mix. Sift the flours together with yeast.
Keep on mixing until all ingredients are melded. Add the grated lemon’s zest and keep on mixing
until the mixture is foamy. Take a cake tin, grease it using butter and cover its bottom and sides
with flour. Drop the mixture into it. Level the surface of the mixture using a knife. Bake in the oven
at 175° for 30/35 minutes.
Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool and then garnish it with powdered sugar.
Job placement
Thanks to our awesome courses in Italian food preparation and thanks to our official certificate,
you will be able to easily enter in the Food and Beverage industry as a professional chef
specialised in Italian cuisine.
As lots of Kenyan restaurants, lodges and resorts are offering Italian food choices in their menus,
the demand for quality Chefs specialised in Italian cuisine has increased in the past few years.
Our courses are structured so to give you the best practice in Italian food preparation and to share
Italian culture with you.
We have prepared a big data base of all Kenyan restaurants that are looking for Italian cooks. We
will help you to apply for internships and stages to train yourself and hopefully get a job in the
tourism industry.
About us
Alice for Children by Twins International, an Italian NGO, with three primary
schools in slums and two children’s homes in Kenya, has developed the Italian Food Academy as a tool
to give kids the possibility to find a job in the grey area of Kenyan wide unemployment.
Now after two year of success of the Academy, we have developed an official school
directed to Kenyan professionals or amateurs.
Alice Italian Food Academy is a real chance to learn a job and gain economic and
social independency.
