Tuscany Slow Cooking™

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Join  Fabrizio at his family estate for a week of cooking and touring in Kids and Family Cooking.  Check into the beautiful farmhouse villa located in the heart of the Tuscan countryside.  The Tuscan cooking classes are held in the villa’s private kitchen and feature traditional recipes from the region with our Chef Cati.  You will learn how to prepare Tuscan antipasti, pasta, main courses and desserts.

Kids will love the spacious fields, horseback riding area, and swimming pool set in the heart of the Tuscan countryside and just minutes from Florence. The entire family will be making pizza, pasta and gelato with Chef Cati. Her kind, energetic personality guides children and families in rolling out handmade pasta and pizza dough, and creating delicious Tuscan desserts in hands-on cooking classes designed for families and children. This is an opportunity for children and teenagers to use farm-to-table ingredients while learning about biodiversity and organic farming.

At the Villa, Fabrizio’s energetic personality, along with Chef Cati’s talented cooking skills, makes this cooking program our best-seller for Tuscany. The entire staff, along with Fabrizio and his family, welcome you for a fun-filled cooking experience in the heart of Chianti!

Set among tall cypresses, rolling vineyards and olive trees stretching for miles, the Tuscan villa is an extraordinary place for your hands-on cooking experience – meeting new friends and enjoying farm-to-table food together. Learn the traditions of Tuscan cuisine from century-old recipes with our chef. Wake up and walk to the kitchen while relaxing in a dream-like place of beauty. Your cooking classes take place in a working kitchen with a a wood-burning bread and pizza oven in the garden. During your cooking tour, you will make traditional Tuscan favorites followed by joyous dinners where everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in class.

When you are not in the kitchen, walk through the property’s vineyards, olive groves and beautiful gardens. In summer, take a swim in the outdoor swimming pool or relax by the outdoor terrace. You can opt to bike through the Tuscan countryside on e-bikes or have a picnic lunch in the vineyard.

Join Chef Cati for Kids’ Cooking Tuscany

~ Kids Under 10 Half Price***

Children will tie on their aprons and learn and participate in hands-on cooking classes – mixing pasta dough, rolling it out, cutting it into shapes and preparing seasonal pasta sauces.  Learn how to mix, knead and roll our pizza dough, then add your favorite topping – artisan cheese, garden eggplant, cherry tomatoes, olives and basil.  Watch it bake in the wood-burning oven in 90 seconds.  Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the class with wine included for the adults and soft drinks for the children.

Tuscan Cooking Classes and Outdoor Market Tour

Experience the delights of the traditional Tuscan lifestyle while attending fun-filled cooking classes and discovering Tuscan towns and villages. You will learn to prepare Tuscan antipasto, pizza and breads, hearty soups, homemade pastas and sauces, meats, fish, vegetables and desserts.

On the menu –antipasti includes bruschetta, toasted Tuscan bread garnished with farm-fresh tomatoes, or black olives and garden-picked squash flowers stuffed with fresh ricotta and flash-fried to a perfect golden.  Fresh pasta is a must – think tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and Florentine gnudi, hand-made gnocchi stuffed with spinach and ricotta.  Artichokes are delicious and are stuffed  with herbs, bread and mozzarella.  Beans, farro and lentils are an important staple in Tuscan cuisine with recipes such as an Etruscan fagioli all’uccelletto, slow-cooked in white wine.  Desserts tempt with twice-baked cantucci, almond cookies, dipped in Vin Santo, blessed wine, tiramisù, and schiacciata con l’uva, Tuscan cake garnished with red grapes and rosemary.  This is a simple sample of Fabrizio’s family recipes.

You will learn the secrets of making gnocchetti verdi di patate con pomodorino fresco e basilico, green potato gnocchi with fresh tomatoes and basil, filetto d’orata al gratin di patate, fish with potato gratin or sea food risotto.  Chianina meat is a main staple in Tuscany, and if you like this one, we prepare it on the menu. Desserts are beautiful, and include semifreddo alle nocciole con cioccolato fondente, ice cream cake with dark chocolate and nuts, cantucci, and open-faced crostata, fruit pies made with the fruits from the garden.  Following each cooking class, everyone enjoys the foods that were prepared together with wine from the estate.  Each cooking class is hands-on and includes traditional Tuscan cuisine. The estate’s kitchen is located in the main villa, formerly the family’s wine cellars.

Experience a visit to the vibrant marketplace with our host as scents of just-baked bread, artisan cheese, and morning-picked produce from the nearby farms stir your senses.  Listen to the sounds of sellers calling out their daily catch – prime cuts and daily specials.  Shop along rows of passionate purveyors who have kept the Old World way of farm-to-table.

Certaldo

During your stay, discover Certaldo – an excursion to this magical Tuscan town has you stepping along cobblestone paths lined with small coffee bars brewing up perfect espresso and cappuccinos, and pasta shops making handmade fresh pici, pappardelle and ravioli.  Open the doors of ancient churches, visit churches and landmarks with ancient art and stained-glass windows while experiencing the beauty of Tuscany.  Visit the  home of the great Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, who wrote “The Decameron” and “On Famous Women.”

Family Tradition

Fabrizio and his family have a long history of wine-making and continue to pioneer their craft producing organic bio-dynamic wine at the property.  This superior wine is made in the Chianti region under the warm summer sun with a harvest in the fall leaving beautiful grapes to be pressed.  Tradition and modern approaches merge with wine-making technologies yielding production of 30,000 bottles a year. The award-winning wine boasts the Silver Label, awarded at the Tuscan Gastronomic Show in New York City 2005 and 2006, and in the VIII edition of the Tuscan Wine Selection in 2008.

Tuscan Villa Accommodations

The private Villa has recently been restored, respecting its Old Word charm  while adding modern comforts with traditional Tuscan furnishings.  Set on a working vineyard, the property is surrounded by rolling Tuscan hills in the heart of Chianti set in fields of olive groves.  An organic vegetable garden produces beautiful tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and a bounty of seasonal fruit.  Guests are invited to pick the fruits and vegetables, which are then used in the cooking classes.

The Villa offers large apartments and spacious superior rooms, traditionally furnished and newly renovated with modern conveniences including air-conditioning.  Each room has comfortable bedding, Tuscan linens and a private ensuite bathroom, telephone, full kitchenette, refrigerator, satellite TV and wifi.  Accommodations offer either a private garden or spacious terrace.

Step outside your door and into a lush garden set with a caffé-style terrace for dining, reading or painting. There is an outdoor wood-burning brick oven for our pizza making class, an over-sized swimming pool and terrace on the property. Majestic Murgesi horses are bred on the premises if you would like to ride with the horse trainer.

Breakfast is served daily in the farmhouse’s spacious dining room and outdoor terrace where you will enjoy your Tuscan breakfast featuring artisan breads, salumi, Prosciutto, artisan cheese, fruit, homemade jams, biscotti and cakes baked, and espresso, cappuccino and tea each morning.  Traditional Tuscan lunch or dinner is also available.  E-bikes are available at the property for peddling through the Tuscan countryside.

Family-style suites and apartments are also available upon request.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

 

Itinerary: 8 Days, 7 Nights

Day 1:  Welcome & Tuscan Dinner

• Check in, relax.  Enjoy your Cooking Vacations’ Welcome Bag with Prosecco, and introduction.
• In the evening, enjoy a Welcome Dinner with a full course Chef’s Tasting Menu including local fare with Chianti wines produced by the property for adults and soft drinks for children.

Day 2: Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• In the morning, meet the family along with Fabrizio and Chef, your hosts for the week who will take care of your every whim.  You will have an introduction to your cooking week. Take a walk through the property, vineyards, and horse stables – horseback riding is also available on the estate and all levels are welcome.  Relax by the pool, take a swim, weather permitting, or sip a cappuccino in the property’s dining table set on the terrace.
• In the afternoon, tie on your aprons for your Tuscan cooking class 1.  Enjoy hands-on cooking classes as Fabrizio shares family recipes making an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, a main course and dessert.
• Dinner follows and includes the food that was prepared in the cooking class with wine and soft drinks included.  During the cooking class, learn about our Tuscan extra virgin olive oil, its growing season, how it is bottled and how it is used in cooking.  The property produces first cold pressed virgin organic olive oil.

Day 3: Classic Tuscan Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, tie on your aprons for your Tuscan cooking class 2.  Enjoy a hands-on cooking class as Fabrizio shares family recipes making an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, a main course and dessert.
• Dinner follows and includes the food that was prepared in the cooking class with wine and soft drinks included.

Day 4: Florence Walking Tour and Gelato Tasting

• Breakfast is served.
• After breakfast, meet your driver for a day in Florence, the City of Art.  When you arrive, meet your English-speaking guide for a Florence Walking Tour and Gelato Tasting.   Enjoy a two hour tour with a tasting of gelato along the way.  With your guide, discover Florence’s history, piazzas and food culture with a gelato tasting included at the most famous gelateria in the city.
• You can also choose to visit the Uffizi with works by DaVinci, Caravaggio, Botticelli; or the Accademia with its prized Michelangelo’s David. Learn about Florentine life with historic notes, myths and mysteries surrounding Florence’s incredible art collections. Take time out for lunch on your own in Florence, suggestions provided upon request, and some time for shopping in the renowned leather market of San Lorenzo or the glittering Ponte Vecchio.
• In the evening, enjoy dinner in Florence, suggestions included.
• Following dinner, meet your driver and return to the Villa.

Day 5: Cooking Class 3 and Pizza Party

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning free to relax or do some exploring. Lunch on your own.
• Afternoon – return to the kitchen for Cooking Class 3 – Pizza Making. Great fun this afternoon as kids and adults get busy kneading, rolling and tossing their pizza dough, then choosing their favorite toppings. Just a few minutes in the wood-burning brick oven and out come toasty, crisp pizzas that will disappear in seconds. We think you’ll agree that nothing tastes more delicious than a pizza straight from a wood-burning oven!
• Pizza Party follows and includes the foods prepared in class, paired with soft drinks & wines from the Villa (soft drinks for the children).

Day 6: Cooking Class 4

• Breakfast is served.
• Return to the kitchen for Cooking Class 4 – Gelato Making. Kids and adults alike roll up their sleeves and get ready to create creamy gelato, sorbets and semi freddo ice creams with Chef Luciana. Kids learn how to make cream-based Italian gelato, fruit-based sorbets and toppings to garnish.
• Lunch follows on the foods prepared in class, paired with soft drinks & wines from the Villa.
• The afternoon is free to relax, enjoy a swim in the pool, or explore your surrounding.
• Dinner on your own. Reserve in advance at the Villa or suggestions provided upon request.

Day 7:  Discover the Tuscan Town of Certaldo

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your driver and discover Certaldo.  Take your camera as you drive to Certaldo through cypress-lined roads and along vineyards and olive groves.  In Certaldo, discover the town and all it has to offer.  Take time out for lunch on your own.
• Following the visit, return to the Villa.
• Dinner on your own. Reserve in advance at the Villa or suggestions provided upon request.

Day 8: Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Check out and departure transfer to Florence Airport or Train Station.
• Arrivederci Firenze!

*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.