Mom visits Italy on road to new career
Julie Szimon's career path has taken its turns. After working several years as an office manager, she stayed home to raise her three children and opened an embroidery business.
At 45, Julie is navigating another road that includes stops in culinary school and in Italy before she reaches her final destination: chef.
Through the years Julie has taken occasional classes to learn how to make sushi and tamales for her husband and three children or assemble appetizers for parties. Last September, she decided to pursue her passion and began an 18-month accelerated culinary program at Robert Morris College's DuPage campus.
“I wanted to know what the chefs know. I wanted to know those techniques,” she said. “I wanted to know the history of food, where it came from, why people cook the way they cook. I figured with that knowledge and the head start that I already had being a home cook it would propel me further into being a better chef.”
Her studies took her far from family in Naperville for six weeks this summer to Italy where she was introduced to new techniques and approaches through the school's study abroad program.
Her trip was filled with cycling along the Italian Rivera and through mountains where marble was mined for Michelangelo's masterpieces and where she watched locals extract fragrance from flowers. But Julie also experienced the region by eating fresh seafood, studying pastry and taking part in an apertivo, Italian cocktail hour where people enjoy drinks and small appetizers. Here, she said she learned you open up your stomach and the senses to dinner.
“I thought I'm bringing that back home. (I want) to have apertivos for my friends and family at least once a month if I can,” she said. “Some apertivos can be as simple as chips and some olives and nuts and some were absolutely wonderful pates and tapenades.”
Julie said she learned the simplicity of Italian cuisine.
“I learned to be true to the food, respect every ingredient for what it is and let the vegetable, fruit or meat speak for itself. That is the Italian way,” she said.
Julie shares with readers three dishes that she brought home from Italy, chizze reggiane or cheese puff, pasta di olive, an olive paste, and salsa di noci, a walnut sauce.
“In Italy, I learned that the word pesto means raw ingredients and olive oil. Here in the states most people think of pesto as basil, garlic and oil. This pesto or salsa is a great alternative,” she said.
With graduation in December, Julie's eager to start her new career as a personal chef. Her goal, she said, is to cook simply and show how healthy food can taste good.
“That is one of my goals as a chef is not just cooking for people, but cooking good food for people and nourishing them.”