Roma Traditions ~ 1 Day Cooking Class in Rome

Join Chef Barbara for six days in the Eternal City for hands-on cooking and culture in her private palazzo in the magical and historic city. Learn classic Roman cooking in your chef’s kitchen. Walk through ancient Roma with our English-speaking guide Maria, who takes you through the Eternal City and leads you in a private tour of the Vatican and Saint Peter’s Basilica. Rome, the largest city in Italy, boasts a spectacular beauty, robust flavors, and romance. Three thousand years of history are on display in this open-air museum, featuring ancient ruins – the Forum, Colosseum, Renaissance palaces, Baroque fountains and the Vatican.

Traditional Rome Cooking Classes

Chef Barbara welcomes each guest to her private palazzo and kitchen in the heart of Rome.  You’ll learn to cook traditional Roman classics from antipasto to fresh pasta and sauces, main courses and desserts with farm-to-table ingredients from the nearby outdoor market.

Chef Barbara shares her family recipes in making delicious Roman recipes with experience and technique that Chef Barbara has gained through years of experience.  She shares her knowledge of selecting the finest local seasonal ingredients at the market, then transforming them into Roman antipasto, fresh pasta, sauces, main courses and desserts.

During your hands-on cooking classes, you will learn how to mix and roll out fresh pasta that will be used to make lasagne, ravioli and gnocchi with seasonal sauces.  You’ll also learn the history and technique of ancient Roman foods as you slice, dice and cook with Chef Barbara.  Learn to cook delicious Roman cuisine while immersing yourself in the food, wine and culture of Rome.

In the traditional cooking class, you will create a full course menu featuring Roman fare with delicious stuffed artichokes and eggplant, carbonara – pasta served in a sauce with crispy guanciale, cured pork cheeks, tangy pecorino Romanocheese and eggs; gricia – carbonara without eggs; amatriciana pasta with tomatoes and cream; cacio e pepe, pasta served in a creamy pecorino and spicy black pepper sauce; and coda alla vaccinara, oxtail stew cooked in tomatoes and wine with cloves, black pepper, pine nuts and raisins.  Roman desserts are always delightful and include crostata ricotta e visciole, an open pie filled with a cherry filling, tiramisu and creamy gelato.

Following each class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the kitchen with a toast of wine included, and soft drinks for children.  Weather permitting, everyone dines on the terrace for a beautiful view overlooking the city of Rome.

Chef Barbara’s unique cooking style is hands-on while offering tips and techniques that will have you cooking like a Roman!  A recipe book is included.  Recipes  vary depending on the seasons, so we encourage each guest to bring a notebook to the kitchen.

Menu may include such traditions as:

Bucatini All’ Amatriciana ~ Bucatini are a long pasta, similar to spaghetti, but with a hole that runs the lenth of each strand. This traditional dish is said to come from Amatrice, a small town in Lazio, and has a base of guanciale and tomato, topped with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe ~ Spaghetti served in a creamy white sauce of sheep’s milk, Pecorino cheese, and black pepper. This is one of the few Italian dishes that calls for black pepper in abundance!

Pollo Alla Diavola o Alla Romana ~ roasted chicken served ‘devil-style’ or Roman-style

Porchetta ~ Roman-style roasted pork tenderloin

Carciofi alla Romana o alla Giudea ~ Roman-style or Jewish-style artichokes

As featured in Fall 2022 – Click here to read more!

Rome Market Tour, Shopping with the Chef and

One Day Cooking Class,

Also included is a trip to the outside Marketplace with Chef Barbara.  Visit rows of stands selling prized vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and artisan cheese, and experience the bustling marketplace that is the heart of Italian daily life. Meet Chef Barbara at the market and get ready as she leads the way shopping over baskets piled high with fruits, vegetable, fish, meat and cheese. She knows just where to go for the freshest and best ingredients. Shop with the Chef and learn about the regional products along with food notes on Rome’s past. After the market visit, return to her kitchen for a hands-on cooking class creating delicious Roman fare.  Transfers to the kitchen not included.  In each cooking class, food allergies are carefully respected and gluten free menus are available upon request.

As featured in December 2011 – Click here to read more!

Roman Market Tour, Shopping with the Chef and Cooking Class

Tie on your aprons for a Roman hands-on cooking class and market tour and shopping with the Chef in the heart of the Eternal City.

Rome’s fresh-produce markets are treasured reminders of a more traditional way of life. There’s generally a dazzling array of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish stalls, artisan cheese, ham and salumi fare, and wine.

Visit rows of stands selling prized vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and artisan cheese, and experience the bustling marketplace that is the heart of Italian daily life. Meet Chef Barbara at the market and get ready as she leads the way shopping over baskets piled high with fruits, vegetable, fish, meat and cheese. She knows just where to go for the freshest and best ingredients. Shop with the Chef and learn about the regional products along with food notes on Rome’s past. After the market visit, return to her kitchen for a hands-on cooking class creating delicious Roman fare.  Transfers to the kitchen not included.  In each cooking class, food allergies are carefully respected and gluten free menus are available upon request.

One Day Pasta Class

Join Chef Barbara in Rome for an exclusive fresh pasta making cooking class in her Palazzo in her private kitchen in the heart of Rome.   In this one-day cooking class, you will learn the Roman tastes and traditions in the heart of Rome.

Chef Barbara welcomes each guest to her private palazzo and kitchen in the heart of Rome.  You’ll learn to mix the flour and farm-fresh eggs, roll out the delicate pasta, then stuff and twist into beautiful shapes.  Learn how to prepare seasonal sauces while discovering techniques and immersing yourself into the art of Roman pasta making.

Chef Barbara shares her family recipes in making delicious Roman pasta while spending the day in her Roman palazzo cooking, enjoying cuisine of the Eternal City.

During your hands-on pasta making class, you will learn how to mix and roll out fresh pasta that will be used to make lasagne, ravioli and gnocchi with seasonal sauces.  You’ll also learn the history and technique of ancient Roman foods as you slice, dice and cook with Chef Barbara.  Learn to cook delicious Roman pasta while immersing yourself in the food, wine and culture of Rome.

Following each class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the kitchen with a toast of wine included, and soft drinks for children.  Weather permitting, everyone dines on the terrace for a beautiful view overlooking the city of Rome.

Chef Barbara’s unique cooking style is hands-on while offering tips and techniques that will have you cooking like a Roman!  A recipe book is included. Recipes vary depending on the seasons, so we encourage each guest to bring a notebook to the kitchen.

Transfers to the kitchen not included. In each cooking class, food allergies are carefully respected and gluten free menus are available upon request.

As featured in December 2011 – Click here to read more!

History of Pasta

Pasta has been an Italian tradition for hundreds of years. To passionate Italians, pasta is poetry. They’re so devoted to their national dish, there’s even a pasta museum in Pontedassio, Italy, filled with antique pasta-making implements and dried specimens of pasta dating back 100 years.

Italian explorer, Marco Polo, has been given credit for introducing pasta to Italy. However, there’s evidence that the ancient Etruscans in Italy were eating pasta at least 1600 years before Marco Polo was born. Not to mention the Chinese, who were eating noodles in 3000 BC. The Ancient Greeks and Romans had discovered the simple delights of pasta long before Marco Polo. In fact, Greek mythology suggests that the Greek God ‘Vulcan’ invented a device that made “strings of pasta dough.”

Pastas

From spaghetti to maccheroni and ravioli, pastas are delicious and infinite. Italy’s pasta list includes:

• sedani-a long tube shape
• route-little wheels
• mezze penne-small tubes cut on an angle
• cannelloni-large tubes and filled with cheese
• orecchiette-small little ear-like shapes
• maccheroncini-small narrow tubes
• malloreddus-rolled little shells
• farfalle-butterfly shapes
• bucatini-thick spaghetti
• caserecci-narrow thin folded-over twists
• cavatelli-thin narrow boat-like shapes
• garganelli-coils
• conchiglie-small snail-like shaped shells
• fusilli-short twisted strips
• ditaloni-fat tubes
• conchiglioni-large shells – great for stuffing
• trofie-thin twists, pipe-curved plump tubes
• pappardelle-long wide strips
• linguine-thin strips
• pizzoccheri-short cut strips
• reginette-ridged edge wide strips
• vermicelli-rounded spaghetti-like
• bavette-flat thin strips

There is a book dedicated to the very many pasta of Italy – these are just a sample!

One Day Pizza Class

Join Executive Chef Eugenio in Rome for an exclusive hands-on cooking class in his authentic Roman-style kitchen making pizza. He will teach you the history, technique, and skills to making pizza. Learn the tastes and traditions of authentic pizza with Italy’s most colorful and acclaimed chef in the heart of Rome.

Chef Eugenio’s family, originally from outside of Naples, immigrated to the Eternal City in the early 1900s. Though still very connected with his countryside roots, Chef Eugenio is 100% Roman and allows no exceptions in his kitchen. Learn how to cook without recipes, timers, measuring cups and scales, but with the smells, instinct, and technique that only Chef Eugenio has gained after years of experience. He cooks with his eyes, like most Italian chefs, using his senses and know how.

His philosophy is ‘to experience the action in the kitchen – look, try, and learn, and not focus on the steps in a recipe.’ In fact he does not use recipes, as he works the kitchen turning out antipasti, pasta, main courses and pizza. In this unique cooking class, he will teach you his philosophy of cooking, techniques of the kitchen, along with passion and love for food.

He takes you up close to the classical cuisine of the Eternal City, while transforming dough into a delicate golden crust topped with Italy’s finest tomatoes, Mozzarella, basil, olives and anyone of the delicious pizza toppings. You too can become a Pizzaiolo, pizza maker, for a day.

As featured in December 2011 – Click here to read more!

Pizza School

The Pizza making class brings you up close with our Pizzaiolo showing you how to mix, knead and bake a true Italian pizza. Learn the technique of dough making, rolling & driving the dough for the perfect pizza. Then slice into your Roman style pizza garnished with your choice of tomatoes, assorted cheese, grilled vegetables, salumi, ham or more!

The morning class starts at 10am with a welcome and introduction followed by the preparation of authentic Italian pizza. Join Chef Eugenio for this intense pizza cooking class as he takes you through the technical steps to making perfect Italian pizza. Lunch follows on the foods prepared in class.

A recipe book is included with compilation of Chef’s Eugenio’s creations; recipes may vary depending on the seasons, so we encourage each guest to bring a notebook and camera into the kitchen.

The History of Pizza Margherita

The story of how pizza became more than a peasant’s dish is quite a story. In 1889 Queen Margherita accompanied her husband, Umberto I of Savoia, on an inspection of his Italian Kingdom. During her trips around the kingdom she saw many peasants and poor people eating a flat bread which they called “pizza.” While in Naples, the curious queen summoned her guards and asked them to bring her a piece of this flat bread. The queen liked what she ate and would eat this flat bread every time she went out of her palace.

The queen developed a great liking for their pizza and became extremely popular with the masses. This taste was considered somewhat undesirable in court circles.

One day in June, on the Queen’s insistence, Chef Raffaele Esposito was summoned from his pizzeria to the palace to bake a selection of pizzas for the Queen. Raffaele, in order to honor the Queen’s desire for his pizzas, created a special pizza with tomato, mozzarella, and basil (the colors of the Italian flag – red, white and green). The pizza was a great hit with the Queen, and Esposito was summoned to create this specialty pizza regularly. When the news got out that the Queen’s favorite was tomato, mozzarella & basil, she not only became an even greater hit with the public, but also started a trend for the “Pizza Margherita.” To date, the Pizza Margherita is Italy’s most popular!

2024 Dates: Cooking classes available throughout the year. You can reserve your cooking class for any day of the week. Rates are subject to change based on currency exchange. Call for updated rates. Airfare not included. Group transfers for any cooking tour or tours that include transfers, are for the group and are not private. Transfers before, after or to another destination outside of your cooking tour are not included in the program price. If you would like to add on a private transfer or transfers, let us know and we will send you pricing.