A Taste of Italy Comes to Schreiber

Schreiber is home to a large Italian community. It also has a high percentage of seniors, so when the Schreiber Senior Centre decided to host a cooking show it was obvious that the theme would be Italian Cuisine.

Cathy Carlino, the senior centre programmer, contacted the Schreiber Media Centre with the idea that a live broadcast would enable viewers at home to watch the event. Rose Speziale and her daughter Rosann Peligrino would be the featured chefs and a limited amount of tickets were made available for the show.

The cafeteria at the Schreiber Public School was chosen to host the evening. Cameras were ready to roll and people soon started arriving, eager to sample the food that was being presented. A large video screen was set up in the room to let the diners get a closer view of the cooking. Of course, all would not go smoothly as the internet connections in the area can be spotty at times. Streaming live would prove to be a problem so a last-minute decision to just record the event and release it later was made.

Cathy introduced the chefs to the audience and the cooking began. Some food had been prepared in advance as nearly 40 guests would be in attendance and it would have been a difficult task to try and prepare food for that many people in such a small venue in real time. Rose and Rosann provided some interesting background into the preparation and history of some of the dishes they would be creating. They also took time to answer questions from the audience. As the food was being prepared, excitement was building for the tasters. The starter was rolled out as the chefs went back to the frying pan to prepare the next course. Staff and council were on hand along with other volunteers to help with the serving and clean up. Rosann and her mom then did a demonstration of how to make pasta from scratch with Rose showing off her classic pasta rolling machine from the 1970’s.

Finally, the main course was presented and the diners dug into the delicious meal. As the diners chowed down, the desert was being prepared. Classic Tiramisu required ingredients to be purchased out of town as the local grocery store has a limited stock of many items. Finally, the final course was served and diners were asked about their experience. The response was extremely positive and diners will remember the evening as that time they would be served up a taste of Italy in Schreiber.