Culinary Getaway & The Gluten Free Pastry Bake-Off

It’s that time of year again! Another great season of Jovial’s spring Culinary Getaway is underway. If you haven’t heard, the pastry cooking class is one of our favorites during the Jovial Getaways. Guests compete in a fun pastry bake off and it’s always one of the highlights of the week. The Gluten Free week did not disappoint! Armed with the ingredients, cooking utensils, and four different gluten free pastry recipes, guests were split into teams and given free reign of the kitchen.

Each team chose a pastry recipe out of a basket, and “competed” against each other for the winning title! Unfortunately, Terry’s group consisted of both Jims (Jim “squared”) and Chuck, but she never flinched when it came to taking charge of her group! Although they didn’t win, Team Torta was definitely having a lot of fun and one of the most entertaining.
After a long afternoon of baking, followed by a wonderful dinner, the teams didn’t hold back when they presented their artfully plated pastries with elaborate performances. Team Torta broke into a can-can line, Team Rugelach recited an original poem, and Ariana of the winning team, Team Cherry, introduced her team’s cherry pastry with a speech as eloquently as the host chef of a cooking show.
No matter the skill level, all of our Getaway guests are able to learn something new, whether it’s a new recipe, a new cooking skill, or even the Italian names of some of our baking ingredients!

On our guests’ last night of the getaway, we celebrated Jim and Ivy’s 25th wedding anniversary with a pizza party! After guests rolled pizza dough and put together their own gluten free pizzas with fresh toppings, we fired them in the giant stone pizza oven on the villa grounds. Enjoying the music of our live pianist, guests ate their pizzas on the outdoor patio, saying goodbyes and enjoying delicious gluten free pizza.

We are always sad to see our guests go, but are so happy to have made new friends and we’re happy that they are leaving us with the skills and recipes to recreate the delicious food from the getaway on their own, along with Jovial’s new gluten free pastas and flours.