DISCOVER la cucina italiana: Italian cookery
Come to Umbria and discover the classic kitchen of all Italy and the homemade excellence of Umbrian and Tuscan cooking.
Classes usually begin with marketing and then returning to the kitchen to prepare a meal and end with eating what we have made. Local wine is provided. Some dishes may need a longer cooking period, and those we will eat at dinner. The cost is €175 per day which includes your five course meal, market and artisan visits and local wine.
Umbrian oil, both the black and the elusive white truffle, hand-reared Chianina veal and beef, and the ubiquitous and magnificent pig make the cornerstones of fabulous meals. Learn to make the local breads and flat breads, the famous Ciaccia that is made in minutes to embrace prosciutto or fresh mozzarella. Learn the variations that terrain and aging make in the local pecorino heeses. Taste sheep’s milk ricotta just hours after it is made. Taste the great wines of Umbria. Learn the seasons and how to wring the best out of each of them.
Spring brings agretti, asparagus, strawberries, lamb and fave.
Summer brings the bounty of a thousand kitchen gardens and all the tenderest of the fruits.
Autumn brings the olives to the mill, the grape to the press, the porcino, the black truffle and all the
cool weather produce we have missed during the summer.
With winter comes the artichoke, the leek, the precious white truffle and pork. This year’s
wine can now be tasted.
Visit a frantoio and see how the golden oil is pressed and taste the results of meticulous organic
olive farming and cold pressing technique.
Shop in the open markets and food shops of a typical Umbrian city. Taste a variety of the 460 cheeses of Italy. Introduce yourself to the preserves made from local wild and cultivated fruits and berries. Taste the honey that comes from the field flowers or the forests.
Learn to make pasta quickly and easily and to fill them and sauce them with ingredients in the hundreds.
Take home the recipes you’ve mastered and a photographic memory of a day and a culture as satisfying as days are made.
The chefs are:
Angela, a caterer and cookery teacher
Alberta, caterer, B&B owner
and me, private chef and cooking teacher. Angela and Alberta were born and reared and have lived all their lives in this area. Together, we have more than 130 years in the kitchen. We can teach in Italian or in English and limit the classes to six people or fewer. Join us and the bounty can go home with you.
Accommodations are available at Alberta’s B&B, Casa San Martino.
There are many nearby villas to rent as well. Our city, Città di Castello,
is represented on several websites including this one
Città di Castello is a mere thirty minutes north of Perugia
and is connected by trains and buses. The nearest airport is at Perugia (PEG)
but one can also use airports at Rome, Florence, Pisa, Bologna, Forlì and Ancona.
What do others say about the cook?
If you would like to discover Italian food with us, email me
Private group lessons are also available in your well-equipped rental kitchen at €85 per person, with a minimum of four students. If your rental is more than one hour from Città di Castello, there will be a journey fee.