Class of 2022

Copy of Mell - SCAP Menu:

Mell Siragusa

Portuguese Cuisine

My desire to learn and try more Portuguese foods comes from my Portuguese heritage. I never really learned much about that side of my culture, since the family I’m in contact with is all Italian, but I knew food would be a great way to start learning. I’ve always been interested in learning about other cultures, especially their cuisine, so it’s exciting to learn about my own. Portuguese cuisine features many flavors and ingredients such as cod, lemon and olive oil. These as well as lots of other ingredients are used to their advantage, to bring out flavors that are fresh and authentic.

Portuguese cuisine is heavily influenced by its location and geography. With most of the country and subdivisions being surrounded by water, shellfish and cod are often utilized in traditional dishes. On the other side of the country, bordered by Spain, olives, potatoes, rice and kale as well as pork and chicken are vastly used and enjoyed. To go further back in history, the Portuguese were known for sailing around the world, and on those journeys, they were entranced by the culture and flavors of other countries' cuisines. They brought back the information, spices and traditions they have learned from Europe, South America, Africa and Asia to make Portuguese cuisine that much better. When it comes to the locals' favorite dishes, we’re not so different. Street food is common and extremely popular in Portugal, from the fast and cheap transactions, to the delicious and complex food, street vendors are practically local celebrities. Dishes like Malasadas (deep fried shaped dough covered in sugar), Chicken Piri Piri (chicken seasoned with chili, paprika and garlic) and Bifana (a pork & garlic sandwich served on a roll) are most popular.

Copy of Mell- SCAP Recipe- Bread

Copy of ZH - SCAP Menu

Zach Holland

Italian Cuisine

For my S.C.A.P. project, I chose Italian Cuisine. Italian food is world renowned and it’s partly due to its regional diversity, The Italians have taken some of the best parts of many cultures and really made them their own. For example, after the Americas were colonized by the Europeans, ingredients like potatoes, maize, and tomatoes were integrated into traditional Italian cooking. We can see this from looking at the first cookbook with a pasta dish including tomatoes. Written in 1871, Ippolito Cavalcanti’s cookbook made using a tomato sauce on pasta an Italian classic.

Italian food is known for influencing many cultures' dishes, but at one point it was the other way around. Countries such as Etruscan, Greece, and Byzantine are renowned for their influence on modern day Italian cuisine. Unfortunately much of the influence was formed while countries invaded Italy. Italy at one time was broken up into several sectors, this being caused by its monarchical government and geographical restrictions, meaning that up until Italy was unified in 1861 each sector had to use native plants and techniques for food. Due to the geography of Italy trading with other parts of the country was very difficult making diversity of food necessary for survival. A unified Italy didn't exist at the time so instead there were free city states . These cities, which were very advanced in trade, caused different culinary cultures to develop. After the collapse of city-states, Northern Italy was occasionally invaded by France and Austria and often added their influences to the native food, an example would be the French’s influence during the Renaissance. The Renaissance made the people of Italy see food as a form of art, with the newly unified Italy, and a good relationship with the French made it possible for trade to occur between the countries, broadening the horizons for available ingredients and spices.