Photo: E. Bennett

It’s internship season here at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and everyone is abuzz with plans for the near-future and exit strategies post-graduation. Our last classes will take place on March 4th, at which point we will each set off on two-month long internships of our own design. These can take place anywhere in the world (though you have to fund your own food and housing), and can take a variety of forms, from independent research to a structured corporate program. At the end of the two months, we must turn in a thesis, which is usually (but not always) related to your experiences on internship. Graduation is set for May 13th, and then we officially become UNISG alumni.

Some examples of internships from my classmates:

• working with chef and UNISG lecturer Barney Haughton at Bordeaux Quay on educational initiatives
• WWOOFing on farms throughout the Mediterranean and N. Africa
• training as a pizzaiolo in Naples
• collaborating with Slow Food headquarters to develop the incipient chapter of Slow Food Norway

Of course, there are still a number of us who are frantically trying to make arrangements and hammer out final details. Good luck to you all!

As for myself, I have landed a number of writing gigs in the last couple months. I am working with Edible Brooklyn/East End/Manhattan as an editorial intern on the launch of their new website, and I am a member of the public relations team for Vineyard Adventures, a wine tourism firm that does tours in Tuscany and Campania. Finally, I will soon be taking charge of the blog for the movie Fresh, an indie film about the sustainable food movement. I am quite excited about this opportunity to write to a national audience about the issues I care most about.

As I was tossing around ideas for potential Fresh blog topics, I started musing with Wendy. You know, there’s a lot of conflicting information out there on sustainability issues. The value of recycling versus generating less waste. Food miles versus a complete assessment of environmental impact. There ought to be a book written to demystify the complexities of these issues, and provide real solutions instead. Wait, maybe we should write this book. And so, I now have a coauthor for a book. Our self-imposed deadline for this project is the Ides of March, 2012.

Of course, all that will have to wait until our theses are finished. Meanwhile, I’m moving to New York on March 7th. (Porca vacca, that means I only have six more weeks in Europe!) See ya’ll in the Big Apple.