Slow Cooking Positano™

Slow Cooking Positano™ is a unique hands-on cooking program that will bring you into the workplace of an artisan bread, cheese, pastry makers and wine enoteca while cooking, touring and vacationing on the world-famous Amalfi Coast. Join our team of local Chefs, including Salvatore, Fortunata, Philomena and Antonio – in the heart of Positano for a week of hands-on cooking and dining with fine local wines.

This program connects you with professional Chefs, cooks and prized artisans who have a passion for their craft and a love for welcoming guests. Our special Slow Cooking week immerses participants into the cooking styles of Italy’s southern Coast region and its food preparations, all in keeping with the tradition of using local organic products in 5 hands-on classes! Each day, you will prepare a complete menu reflecting the season- antipasto, pasta, secondo-a main course and dolce-dessert.

Great cooking blended with stepping into the workplace of food artisans highlights the Slow Cooking Program. The specially selected food trip takes you to artisan producers whose handcrafted food products take you back in time. We visit a bread baker who uses a wood-burning stone oven, an Amalfi Coast fisherman who sails out as the sun rises, and a historic artisan pastry maker who continues to make artfully created pastries & chocolates perfect every time.  The Food Trip takes you from the sea to the hills and give us an in-depth look at the old-world style of Slow Cooking. Our carefully selected food trip includes informal discussions and tastings along the way.

This Slow Cooking program puts you in the kitchen with a talented, inspired and creative team and into the footsteps of hard working passionate food makers. You will be cooking like a local in no time!

Slow Cooking Positano™ Cooking Classes

The Slow Cooking™ program includes 5 hands-on cooking classes with lunch or dinner following. Toast with local red or white wine and end with a sweet dessert.

Featured in this program is our ever-popular visit to a famous Mozzarella making class. Learn how to make fresh organic hand-made Mozzarella other precious cheeses, tastings included, of course.

The Slow Cooking Positano™ program, created on the Mediterranean diet, uses only local seasonal products. Italian cuisine is simple and yet full of natural flavor, garlic is used to a minimum ensuring the true flavor of each ingredient, and can stand on its own. Courses are served one by one, and always followed by a delicious dessert. Our cooking classes are hands-on and all classes class are kept small in size to ensure personal attention to each participant. In each class, participants prepare and cook an appetizer, pasta, main dish (meat or fish) and dessert. After each class, everyone eats the foods that were prepared in class. A glass of local red or white wine is included (additional wine and drinks are available at a surcharge).

Slow Cooking ~ Pasta

A Note On Neapolitan Pasta

The “Qualità Buonitalia,” given by the Ministry of agricultural contains rules that protect the artisan way pasta is made. The tasty fresh pasta is a combination of natural spring water, fresh mountain air and constant Mediterranean sunshine. The Cooperativa di Pasta Gragnano, which represents the small producers in the area, states that the dough should be made solely from Italian wheat and using perforated bronze plates to mold it, resulting in pasta strands, sheets and shapes that must be dried at temperatures no higher than 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Using bronze pasta making tools also creates a porous surface on the pasta, allowing it to hold sauces. High temperatures burn the dough and kill the wheat flavor, therefore making pasta the old-fashioned way means slowing down the process, and drying it at lower temperatures in natural air, which takes longer; as does running the dough through holes in bronze plates instead of those made of Teflon.

Pasta eating is a religion in Italy. Pasta is so important it is always served first, it is always cooked al dente, and always added to the sauce, never the sauce to the pan. Contrary to Marco Polo being responsible to importing pasta from China, or the Arabs bringing it to Sicily in the Middle Ages, the fact of the matter is that is was the Etruscans who were already making pasta in Italy. A serrated rolling pin with traces of spaghetti was found in an Etruscan tomb dating back 3000 years.

Slow Cooking Positano™

Positano is magical. Artists, writers, poets and filmmakers have marked their place over time in what is called “La Città Verticale,” the vertical city. Its breathtaking landscape includes vertical rock formations that have been carved over time and that plunge down to meet the sea. Azure seas stretch to violet pink sunsets in a land that has often been called “a dream place.” John Steinbeck, who lived in Positano in 1953 said, “Positano bites deep, it’s a dream place, that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.”

This Moorish-style village, built in the form of a seashell was discovered by American troops at the end of World War II. This small, sleepy fishing town soon became a popular summer vacation destination after Steinbeck’s review tempted dreamy tourists to this picturesque piece of coastline. Its main one-way street takes you to Piazza Mulini and tiny pedestrian passages and arches that line the vertical city. In the 10th century, Positano was part of Amalfi’s Maritime Republic. It was an important center during the 16th and 17th centuries, when its ships traded in the Near and Middle East, carrying spices, silks and precious woods.

Its pastel houses built on vertical landscape, were once humble homes to fishermen who spent their lives at sea. Positano’s landmark, the majolica dome, is the Chiesa Madre, or the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta. It has a green and yellow majolica dome, topped by a cupola. It was built on the site of a former Benedictine Abbey of Saint Vito, a 13th-century Romanesque structure, and was almost completely rebuilt in 1700. The church has a carved wooden Christ, a masterpiece of devotional religious art. At the alter is a Byzantine 13th-century painting on wood with the Madonna and Child, known as the Black Virgin. Legend claims that the painting was once stolen by Saracen pirates who were fleeing in a raging storm when they heard a voice from the heavens, say “Posa, Posa,” “put it down, put it down.” When they placed the statue on the beach near the church the storm calmed, as did the Saracens. Positano was saved, and the town’s name was established. Others claim the town was named after Poseidon.

An important landmark is Palazzo Murat on the footpath to the main beach, originally built by Prince Joachim Murat, whom Napoleon designated as King of Naples in 1808. Murat wanted to lead the simple life, yet built a grand palazzo. He was killed in battle and never enjoyed his palace.? On Positano’s famous beachfront is Tre Sorelle Ristorante, and Music On The Rocks. This lively area offers great people-watching opportunities. The footpath, Via Positanesi d’America, follows the sea and connects the Spiaggia Grande with Fornillo Beach. Three Saracen towers watch its shore: the most famous ones are, La Torre Trasita, La Sponda and Torre Di Fornillo, all from the 14th century. Set in the sea just a short distance away, are the mysterious islets of Li Galli. Legend has it that they were once mermaids and now have turned to stone.

Slow Cooking Accommodations

Your Slow Cooking program is hosted at a villa-style Bed & Breakfast located in the center of Positano and overlooking the sea. Each bedroom has a sea view and overlooks Positano: the seaside village is surrounded by a flowered pergola and greenery. Cool ceramic tiles line each large bedroom, with a private bathroom and shower in each room. Additional amenities include hairdryer and air conditioning. Breakfast is served each morning, and daily maid service is provided for your convenience.

The Secret Garden is truly a magical setting, terraced with lemon trees, plush green gardens and set under spectacular bougainvillea overlooking the sea. Guests can sunbathe on their terrace, walk to the beach or relax at one of the cozy sidewalk cafés with a freshly squeezed lemonade. Step out your door and stroll past cafés, bookshops, and trattorias that spill onto the sidewalk. A panoramic view spans Li Galli Islands and the Amalfi Coast. The Tyrrhenian Sea is literally at your feet, and the beach is just a short walk away. As the sun sets, sit back on your terrace and watch the world-class yachts and local fishing boats ripple through the cerulean waters. Shuttle boats connect from each of Positano’s beaches and sail along the Amalfi Coast. From Positano’s port you can also take a water taxi or a private boat service to Sorrento, Ischia, Capri, Amalfi and Naples. Mediterranean gardens and lemon groves dot the Amalfi Coast, and gardens grow almost all year long producing red cherry tomatoes, plump eggplant, zucchini and sweet oranges. Olives also grow in abundance thanks to the warm Mediterranean climate, fertile volcanic soil and salted sea breeze all of which provide perfect growing conditions. Organic herbs of basil, sage, parsley, oregano, rosemary and mint, line gardens and fill pretty terracotta pots set on terraces. The local organic herbs that we grow in our garden are used in our cooking classes, along with our own Extra Virgin First Cold-Pressed olive oil.

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Itinerary: 8 days, 7 nights

This program is scheduled from Saturday to Saturday, however you may check in and start your program on any day of the week. If you do start on a day other than Saturday, you will start your activities on that day, and all activities described will be included during your program.

Saturday: Benvenuti ~ Chef’s Tasting Dinner

• Pick-up and transfer from Naples airport or train station to the property. Check in to your room and review your program.
• Sit out on the terrace with a cool Prosecco and relax.
• Meet your Cooking Vacations’ hosts as we welcome you to Positano and introduction to your program.
• Followed by your full course Chef’s Tasting Dinner which is served at our favorite local restaurant. Dine on your Chef’s Tasting menu featuring fresh seasonal ingredients. Save room for dessert! (Wine, cold drinks, fruit juice, grappa and an assortment of after dinner digestives are available at a surcharge).

Sunday: Capri, Italy’s Glamorous Seaside Island and The Blue Grotto

• Breakfast is served.
• Full-day visit to the Isle of Capri, where you can choose to see the Blue Grotto – the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, or stroll along the port. The Blue Grotto has a special cavern entrance where the sunlight reflects on the water in the cave, tingeing it a dramatic Mediterranean cerulean shade of blue. Capri is Italy’s most popular and well-known seaside island and is just twenty minutes away. Once in the port of Capri, you can choose to take the funicular up to the famous Piazza Umberto. The square, better known as ‘la piazzetta’ , is perched high above the sea and offers a panoramic view of the Bay of Naples and Ischia. At the main Piazza, you will find many designer shops and luxury boutiques or you can simply sit at a café and enjoy a gelato or Prosecco Mimosa.
• A favorite place on Capri is Anacapri. This old world village that once captured the hearts of writers, artists and poets is dainty, delicate and quiet. Anacapri, the highest point on the island, virtually carries you back in time. Walk through narrow streets lined with Grecian-style whitewashed villas, ancient churches, and small bookshops. From Anacapri, take the chair lift up to Monte Solaro; pass the castle of Barbarosso, fields of Capri flowers and marvel at a clear blue sky that seems to turn 360 degrees above you.
• This full day excursion departs from Positano port at 9:00am.

Add-On A Driver:
While on land in Capri and if you want to see all the sites with ease, we suggest that you reserve a private car tour with Signor Costanzo our favorite driver. Costanzo will drive and guide you to each point of interest, while pointing out fascinating historical sites and facts along the way. He will drive to the highest peak in Anacapri, and to hidden gardens and villas where emperors once reigned. A 4-hour excursion in the driver’s sporty Capri Car is available from 1 to up to 6 people, upon request (The Capri Car driver’s fee is extra).

• After your stay on the island, re-embark on board with your Captain for a sail around the island. The boat tour includes a stop at the Blue Grotto (if open and weather permitting), and a swim by the White Grotto.
• Return to Positano in the evening.
• Evening free and on your own. Suggestion – dinner at Ristorante Mulini. Please tell them you are from Cooking Vacations; they will suggest a food lover’s menu and delicate desserts and gelato to follow. After dinner, take a walk to the beach and visit the fabulous café and music bar, “Music On The Rocks”, which is carved in a natural rock formation, dance under the stars, or sit outside one of the café tables by the sea. *This add on suggestion, must be pre-reserved when booking.

Monday: Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• Head into the kitchen for your Cooking Class 1. You will prepare traditional antipasto, pasta, main dish and dessert. Lunch follows and everyone eats the foods that were prepared in class. Toast with a glass of red or white wine. Linger for a long lunch as you dine on your cooking class creations.
• Afternoon free and dinner on your own. In the evening, walk along Spiagga Grande in Positano have an apperitivo in one of the breach front cafés, or shop at one of the artisan jewelry, sandal, or linen shops. Local artisans line the walkway with watercolors, sculptures and oils on canvas.

Tuesday: Food Trails Along The Amalfi Coast, Marketplace ~ Mercatino & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Join in for an early morning departure for a Food Trails Tour to a bustling Marketplace. Italians shop day by day, and our Food Trails Tour along the Amalfi Coast will show you how! The town of Amalfi is rich in culture and history. The small town, perched on the coastline, is dominated by Amalfi’s Cathedral and its main streets are lined with small shops and elegant bars. Merchants display their wares outside and nothing could be more pleasant than browsing through stalls of herbs and spices, jewelry, shoes, the beautiful handmade Amalfi paper, and local lemon specialties such lemon soap and lemon liqueurs. Italians carry on their daily lives at these little markets, doing their daily shopping and exchanging the news of the day. We share food notes on local products. Tastings included.
• First we visit our artisan Bread Baker. Italy’s bread is baked daily by artisan hands and then into wood-burning, brick-ovens. Soft dough bakes into crusty rounds and loaves great for olive oil dipping, making a tasty panino and always with each meal. There is the local, pane cafone; or rounds of braided country-style bread baked with prosciutto & mozzarella; focaccia, tomato topped pizza. Tastings included.
• Following we take you to a Mercatino-Italian marketplace shop, and you will see and learn about the many dried pastas and their history. Italians always called pasta, which translates to dough, macaroni. Neapolitans were once nicknamed macaroni-eaters, because of their love for the poor-man’s dish eaten and served on the streets by hand. During our mercatino visit, you will see and learn about the Prosciutto, salumi, spices and daily ingredients of the Mediterranean diet and southern Amalfi Coast cuisine. Farmers and shoppers share their recipes and knowledge on artisan cheese, produce and spices. They often can tell you if a melon is sweet from 6 feet away! Figs burst with burgundy pulp; cherry red tomatoes–the sweet fruit that is a staple in Neapolitan cooking – are piled high in baskets; Italian pumpkins line the shelves, black velvet grapes hang on their vine; and zesty yellow lemons, and cedri – the famous melon-size citrons, are everywhere. See baskets of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables piled high. Tomatoes, garlic, lemons and oranges line colorful carts that are rolled in every day by the farmers.
• Next stop is with our family-owned traditional Cheese Shop, Caseificio. Here you will see old-world artisan cheese including such examples as mozzarella, provolone, ricotta and more. Artisan hands turn milk turn into a creamy cheese and then some are weaved into braids, twists and hard forms and shapes.
• Next stop is a Wine Enoteca & Shop. This shop stocks a variety of local wines along with apertivos and digestivos. This last stop will give you just enough information for the next time you raise your glass to “salute!”
• Next we visit the famous fish market that offers several varieties of local fish – the very best of the fishermen’s daily catch. See baskets of vongole, sweet small clams, lampughe, soft blue fish, astice, Mediterranean lobster, pezzogna, sweet white sea bream and alici, anchovies.
• We stop to see the ancient art of paper making, -which was first brought here from the Orient by the Arabs. The famous Amatruda paper, pressed with a watermark, is still made the old world way.
• Then it’s on to see a Gelato maker. Gelato is everyone’s favorite spuntino in Italy, and this gelato café has over 25 fresh flavors. From chocolate to café, and fields of strawberry to summer watermelon, whether in a cone or cup-everyone has to have a taste. Learn about the making, freezing and keeping it just at the right temperature, as this Italian family has been making the creamy treat for 50 years.
• Last stop, we visit a small artisan Pasticceria who has been making sweets since the 1800’s. Sfogliatelle, cannoli, marzapane, torta di pera-Ricotta pear pie, limoncello, and gelato. Taste a limoncello chocolate drop, or Avola almonds covered in chocolate. A look inside reveals a sweet showcase of chocolate drenched eggplant flavored with pine nuts, liqueur and orange; fragrant ricotta pear tarts; candied lemon and orange dragged in dark chocolate; or festive pastries of the day! Whatever you decide to order, take a seat outside in the piazza at one of the small café tables that overlook the greatest people-watching site on the Coast. Tastings included.

Amalfi

The town of Amalfi is rich in culture and history. The small town, perched on the coastline, is dominated by Amalfi’s Cathedral and its main streets are lined with small shops and elegant bars. Merchants display their wares outside and nothing could be more pleasant than browsing through stalls of herbs and spices, jewelry, shoes, the beautiful handmade Amalfi paper, and local lemon specialties such lemon soap and lemon liqueurs. Suggested is a stop in at one of the oldest and most famous pastry makers in southern Italy- dating back to the 1800’s. A look inside reveals a sweet showcase of chocolate drenched eggplant flavored with pine nuts, liqueur and orange; fragrant ricotta pear tarts; candied lemon and orange dragged in dark chocolate; or festive pastries of the day! Whatever you decide to order, take a seat outside in the piazza at one of the small café tables that overlook the greatest people-watching site on the Coast. Ravello follows. This quaint town, often called the city between ‘Sea & Sky’, is suspended high above the coast, with sweeping views that span everything from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the mountains inland.

Ravello

Drive along the famed Amalfi Coast headed to Amalfi and the hilltop village of Ravello for our landmark tour. Along the way, stop to visit our artisan ceramic maker. You will see old-world ceramics like table tops made of volcanic rock and hand painted in soft colors with seascapes, grapes and lemons, romantic angels and Mediterranean scenes. This family-owned producer of ceramics also ships worldwide.? Ravello is hailed the ‘International City of Music’ and is known for its precious panoramic view from the gardens of Villa Cimbrone. The town is perched 350 meters over the rocky spur of the Amalfi Coast separating the Valle del Dragone from the Valle del Regina. Today, Ravello is world-famous for its outdoor music concerts. Visit Villa Cimbrone, once the residence of Greta Garbo, wander through the lush gardens and the Terrazza Della Rosa, or stroll down the path that leads to the Terrazzo dell’Infinito (Terrace of Infinity). This natural balcony is adorned with imposing marble busts. From this unique vantage point you can see the distant Cilento Mountains and the Licosa beyond the sparkling sea, the lush Amalfi Coast, its distinctive terraces of colorful lemon trees, and the typical whitewashed houses that cling to the rugged coastline. Stroll along the streets and alleyways and discover little gems of churches, chapels, and noblemen’s residences. Also see the Cathedral, Villa Rufolo, San Giovanni del Tauro, and Santa Maria.

• Cooking Class 2: Tie on your apron and get ready for your second hands-on cooking class. Start with our antipasto, then get busy creating pasta, a main course and dessert. Lunch or dinner follows on the foods prepared in class after the cooking class. Toast with a glass of red or white local wine, and end with a sweet dessert, both included. (Additional wines, beverages, after dinner drinks and more are available at a surcharge).

Wednesday: Mozzarella Making & Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Mozzarella Making: Italian Cheese, made by artisan hands, is always an important part of our Regional cooking. Experience fresh cheese making and see creamy milk weaved into braids and twists with a family who has been making it for over 100 years. Here you will learn the steps in making old-world artisan local cheese including mozzarella and more. Then try your own hand at this artful craft. Tastings follow.
• Then continue in the kitchen for your Cooking Class 3. Tie on your apron and get ready for your third hands-on cooking class. Lunch or dinner follows and everyone eats together the foods prepared in class on the terrace by the sea. Toast with red or white wine, and end with a sweet dessert.
• Afternoon is free to relax, or in your free time, take the water taxi on your own to the village of Conca Dei Marini. A water tour excursion will take you to the Emerald Grotto and enjoy the art & culture that surround these pretty villages on the sea.

Thursday: Cooking Class 4

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning is free to relax. Suggestion: take a walk through the winding streets of Positano on your own, and venture off to Fornillo at Ferdinando’s Beach. Ferdinando’s, lined with colorful beach chairs and umbrellas, is where the locals go. Guido will guide you to your beach chair, while Mamma Celeste is in the kitchen preparing the specials of the day. Stay for a bite, take a swim or sip a limoncello. Walk the sands where Diane Lane’s love story took her in the film “Under The Tuscan Sun.”
• Cooking Class 4: Later it is off to kitchen where you will participate in a Neapolitan pizza or fresh pasta class. Roll up your sleeves to knead and roll the dough. Learn the art of stretching and rolling the delicate pizza dough into creations that are cooked in the wood-burning brick oven and go to the table for tasting. If you prefer, you can also choose the pasta class, where you will go through the art of making an assortment of fresh pasta and sauces, such as gnocchi, ravioli and more.

Friday: Cooking Class 5 ~ Olive Oil & Wine Tasting

• Breakfast is served
• Cooking Class 5: Tie on your apron and get ready for your fifth hands-on cooking class. Lunch or dinner follows and everyone eats together the foods prepared in class. Toast with red or white wine, and end with a sweet dessert.
• Olive Oil & Wine Tasting: Join us for a tasting of our locally produced Extra Virgin Olive Oil and locally produced wine. At Cooking Vacations we make our own first-cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from healthy olives that have been tended and cared for all summer long. We use only the first cold press Virgin olive oil. It means that the oil we bottle is pressed only one time giving it a clean fresh taste. Virgin means it is pure and not mixed with anything else. It is DOP-Denominazione di Origine Protetta, ‘origin protected’ domain of production-and “made on site in Italy.” Grown under the warm Mediterranean sun, in rich volcanic soil, and with salt sea winds, our olives make perfect olive oil. We respect the old world process of picking just at the right time, just in October and not too late in the season. Always organic. Our olive oil it is made without chemicals or preservatives, we promise. The informal tasting provides a bit of insight into tasting, buying and using olive oil. An informal tasting of artisan wine and limoncello made by a famous local producer is also included.
• Evening is free and dinner is on your own. Suggestion: Don Alfonso, the Michelin Star award-winning restaurant.

Saturday: Check Out & Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Departure transfer to airport or train station.

*Note: This schedule may vary due to inclement weather, saint days or festivals. All activities, in the event of rescheduling, are always included during the week.