FLORENCE GOURMET – A COOKING CLASS

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Highlights of this tour

Select your own menu from a huge list of recipes
Hands-on cooking class with private chef
Learn about tuscan cuisine while you cook
Eat what you made!
Sip local wines matching your dishes
Learn about Italian culinary culture from a professional

FLORENCE GOURMET – HANDS-ON COOKING CLASS

Florence Gourmet – Italy is certainly the land of Art and Beauty, and for sure visiting palaces, castles, churches and museums will be for you an unforgettable and enriching experience!

History is everywhere, even its landscape is an absorbing book where you can read thousands of years of civilization.

But a visit to Italy cannot be said to be complete without an insight on its culinary traditions, because for an Italian, no matter from which region, food is not just food, but culture, tradition and lifestyle.

Tuscany is universally renown for being home to some of the best wines and olive oils of the world, is blessed by a fertile soil and a mild climate and provides an excellent choice of vegetables and fruits. Some of them are truly unique, like the Tuscan black cabbage, or Certaldo onion, or the Zolfino beans.

Although Tuscany is more famous for meat and game, and is also land of delicious goat and sheep cheeses, the Tyrrhenian Sea provides excellent mullets, sea breams, mussels, bonito, squid, octopus, shrimps, prawns and much more.

But please don’t feel guilty if, when in Florence, you decide to escape half a day from Michelangelo or Botticelli and spend instead some time with your hands-on pasta or gnocchi, or chocolate salami!

Florence Gourmet is a fun and learning experience at the same time, a very special souvenir to bring home with you.

Your friends will be bewildered by your new culinary expertise and you can continue cooking Italian for them!

Our chef, Marcella, will welcome you at her warm and bright cooking space by the Arno River, where, in three hours (it can be morning, afternoon, or evening) you’ll learn a lot about Italian cuisine (and not only cuisine!) and, eventually, you’ll be able to go back home and impress your family and friends with your homemade pasta (or gnocchi) and all your new adventures!

When you book our Florence Gourmet we’ll send you all the amazing long list of recipes where you can choose from. However, if you want to stick to regional Tuscan cuisine, we highly recommend:

Bread dough pastries, Cecina, Focaccia, Frittata with potatoes and taleggio cheese

Chicken liver crostini, crostini with lard, crostini with beans, pecorino fondue with truffles,

Eggplant roll with mozzarella, aromatic rice ‘bocconcini’

Caciucco (fish soup), octopus and potatoes salad, stuffed squids, calamari and arugula salad, red mullet Livorno style

Cavatelli with chickpeas, gnocchi with pesto, maccheroni with lamb, pici with sausages,

Acquacotta (soup), beans soup Giglio-style, ribollita, pasta e fagioli.

Tripe Florentine style, fegateeli Arezzo style.

Stuffed rabbitt saddle in balsamic vinegar, veal fillet with nuts crust

Panzanella (vegetarian), Spinach and carrot flan, fagioli all’uccelletto (beans in red sauce).

Bucellato, chestnut ciambellone, Marcell’a Sacher, sweet slami, almond cookies (fregolotti), cantuccini,

Marcella’s cookies, Marcella’s apple pie, lemon sorbet.

You will prepare three dishes, typically a first course, a second course and a dessert.

Marcella’s recommended menus, should you not be able to make up your mind choosing from the over 1300 recipes on her list:

TUSCAN MENU: Saffron risotto Pork fillet in wine sauce and mushrooms Chocolate dessert.

RENAISSANCE MENU: Crepes of Caterina de’ Medici Chicken with balsamic vinegar sauce Soft ricotta cake.

TUSCANY & LIGURIA MENU: Gnocchi with pesto sauce, Veal chops with cheese sauce. Tiramisu’.

DEEP INTO TUSCANY MENU: Ribollita (vegetables and bread soup), Peposo (beef with pepper corns) Mixed fresh salad with extra virgin olive oil. Strawberries tart.

SEA FOOD MENU: Sea food risotto Sea bream with artichokes Fresh fruit tart.

CLASSIC TUSCANY MENU: Chicken Ravioli – liver patè with Vin Santo gelatin. Chocolate cake.

She will take care of all the ingredients and will select the proper wines to match each recipe.

Marcella was born on an island, Isola del Giglio, and grew up in her aunt’s restaurant. Then, later. After she married, she opened her own restaurant, managing it with her husband for 12 years. She began to teach international students after having worked in the USA as a personal chef.

Being not only a chef but also a passionate reader and traveler, she possesses a vast knowledge in the history of food, is acquainted with the latest food trends, keeps a professional eye on the dietary aspect of her recipes (and can adapt them to your exigencies).

After the ‘technical’ session, during which you’ll be followed and encouraged step by step, you’ll have a wonderful feast together, enjoying the fruit of your efforts, drinking good wines, relaxing and having fun after your culinary tour de force!

Florence Gourmet can be customized according to your time and tastes

It is also possible, if you have longer time in Florence, to have multiple cooking classes, choose a special theme, have a sommelier presenting the wines, treat yourselves with a special dinner in a historical palazzo of Florence, and of course take a tour of the traditional food markets in town…

Let us know if you’re interested, send us your desiderata, and we’ll email you all the information required.

If you’d like to experience more cooking while in Italy:

have a look at Walks inside Italy’s proposals in Venice and in Rome. Buon appetito!

If you are also interested in wine and fingerfood tasting while in Venice, book a tour with Walks inside Venice.

Cost of this tour

The cooking class lasts three hours and costs 250 euros per person, with a minumum of 2 people (max 8).
What’s included: all ingredients (three courses) and wines, personal chef, final meal with the chef
On request it is possible to organize a shopping tour at the Central Market in Florence, lunch or dinner in a historical Palazzo, theme courses (chocolate, patisserie…) and a special cooking class with both chef & sommelier.