“This is what I was supposed to do my whole life”
Among olive groves, vineyards and rolling hills dotted with slender Tuscan cypress trees – but away from the path beaten by millions of tourists each year to the likes of Florence, Siena and Pisa – is the charming, tranquil town of Chianciano Terme.
While much smaller than those cultural hotspots, Chianciano Terme has a unique claim to fame. It’s home to mineral waters that nurture a local tourism industry featuring spas and hotels, including the Fortuna, Admiral Palace and the Cristallo. And in May, their restaurants were transformed into classrooms for six Culinary Arts students.
Each year, NAIT students travel for four weeks as part of an exchange to either Portugal, the Philippines or, in 2025, Italy. In return, students from each country visit and learn in Edmonton.
“The exchange provides a glimpse into a different culinary world, allowing the students to immerse themselves into a vastly different culture,” says Cook program chair Paul Campbell (Cook ’97), who accompanied the students with instructor Harjeet Mehdwan. “It’s [good] to have on your resumé that you’ve worked in a country where food and culture are a focus.”
We talked to students Reese Reid and David Rowley about how that glimpse – seen through the lens of springtime in Italy – has affected their view on their own futures as chefs in Canada and beyond.
Learn more about NAIT’s international culinary exchange program
A long way to Chianciano
Reid and Rowley set their sights on the Italy exchange soon after starting at NAIT – but the drive to immerse themselves in the craft of cooking goes back much further.
As a kid in Grande Prairie, Reid grew up watching food TV, regularly tuning in to Gordon Ramsay and Guy Fieri.
Being a student at NAIT, she says, “[is] fulfilling a part of my inner child that wanted to just cook.”
Rowley also has childhood connections to cooking, his dissatisfaction with family members’ culinary cooking skills pushing him to develop his own.
He came to enjoy cooking so much that he added the profession to his career wishlist: the military (“I did my contract”), paramedic (“I found out I was afraid of needles”) and, soon, chef.
A (work)day in Tuscany
Workdays in Italy proceeded in stages, beginning at 9:30 a.m. until lunch, after which everyone stopped for siesta, the afternoon break.
Even the fruit vendor in the street would pack up shop, says Reid, and the town went quiet.
Staff and students later returned around 6 p.m. and worked until about 10.
During serving hours, however, Rowley was struck by the efficiency. Typically, each hotel kitchen employed only a couple of chefs who handled all aspects of the menu.
“It was weird to see two people [produce] all the food,” says Rowley, who works part time as a line cook in Edmonton.
“I’m used to just sticking on one position and doing what [I’m needed] to do.”
Sharing food and culture
The trip wasn’t all about work. Students had the chance to join excursions to other cities and towns, for example.
“It was really beautiful countryside, everywhere we went,” says Rowley.
They also had the chance to mingle with locals. Reid recalls the fervour of football fandom, be it groups of café patrons burying faces in hands or the jubilation of car horns honking in cobbled streets.
“Oilers fans have nothing on them,” she says.
Among Reid’s happiest memories, however, is the opportunity to share her own culture.
During the month, she had the chance to prepare Jamaican curry chicken one day and red peas soup another for hotel and restaurant staff.
“They loved it,” she says. “Food connects us all.”
Educational souvenirs
In addition to showing students how to run a kitchen, the trip provided a crash course in kitchen hacks.
Reid learned, for example, that she could microwave sage and olive oil in cling wrap to emulate the deep-fried version of the spice, a common garnish for Italian dishes.
And at a tasting session she learned how to identify good-quality versions of that oil, a skill she believes will serve her in future kitchens keen on striking a balance between flavour and cost.
For Rowley, the lessons were also personal. He acknowledges that, at 38 years old, he’s embarking on a culinary career later than most students.
But he also notes how the trip to Chianciano boosted his confidence.
“I think this is what I was supposed to do my whole life,” says Rowley. “I’m finally hitting it.”
Onward from Italy
Reid has returned to Canada to what she sees as a limitless horizon.
That may mean anything from being “a Jamaican woman cooking you Italian food that brings back memories from your nonna” to food styling to being a jetsetting chef, eager to experience other cultures and cuisines.
“There are so many avenues that you can go,” she says.
Rowley’s ambitions are more likely to keep him in Alberta. He envisions running a restaurant or bed and breakfast in a small town – convinced by the skeleton crews of Chianciano that he can manage it.
Before that, however, Rowley plans to continue his education at NAIT, motivated by the trip abroad to tackle consecutive diplomas in Baking and Pastry Arts and Hospitality Management.
“I have a fire under me,” he says.
Dining and Cooking