Bologna 2010

In May this year, in the middle of two ash cloud incidents and two cabin crew strikes, both here and in Italy, six of our best Head chefs and two of our high performing managers travelled from various parts of the UK to Castelle San Pietro near Bologna.

This region of Italy, Emilia Romagna, is renowned for its high quality produce. Globally recognised products such as Parmigiano Reggiano, balsamic vinegar and Parma ham, to name but a few, all hail from this part of northern Italy .

This particular trip was the third of four trips that we have organised with our Wine Partner. The itinerary changes a little each time to suit the needs of the group and is built on the successes of previous trips.

On this particular occasion after a tour around Cantine Sgarzi winery and some wine tasting, the guys had a masterclass on pasta and pizza at the Bartolomeo Scappi school of culinary art. They then headed off up the valley to a 7 bedroomed villa complete with swimming pool, panoramic view, games room, gym and even its own chapel, but most important of all it had its own huge wood-fired pizza oven. So the guys got busy tasting more wine then stoking up the oven and preparing their version of the classic Italian pizza. The results were fantastic! The oven imparts a flavour to the pizza that you cannot recreate in any other way, it's the same as cooking on charcoal.

The following day the guys were taken on a tour around a parmesan cheese factory, 10km from the winery. Here they were shown the whole production cycle from the milk arriving to the huge warehouse where the cheese is aged. We calculated that there were approximately 22 million pounds worth of cheese stored in this one warehouse!! And the smell was absolutely amazing. They then tasted cheese and other products that they produced at the factory - the freshly made ricotta which was still warm from production was particularly memorable.

The final evening was spent wine tasting as well as cooking and preparing produce that we had bought throughout the day. Each chef was given a section of the menu. We ate six courses over 7 hours - Buon Appetito!