Custom Designed Italian Cooking Programs For Professional Chefs or Culinary Students

Two Sample Itineraries: Emilia-Romagna & Piedmont, Italy

In Emilia-Romagna, Italy

For two chefs who wanted only Italian cooking lessons. We designed menus they requested. We can add visits to producers of balsamic vinegar, parmesan, prosciutto and herbs.

Sunday Arrive at airport in Bologna, Italy. Private transfer to hotel in Bologna.

Monday Leave for a little town on the Adriatic with an ancient tradition of fish restaurants, among the best in Emilia-Romagna. 9:00 start Italian cooking lesson at one of the most prestigious fish restaurants in the area. Menu entirely of fish dishes with Italian chef and owner who belongs to the "Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe". After the lesson, lunch of the dishes you prepared. Return to Bologna with Marcello by private car.

Tuesday Leave for a smaller town about 40 minutes from Bologna to a restaurant where the owner is passionate about Italian aromatic herbs and specializes in cuisine with herbs. Lunch of your creations after the cooking lesson. Return to Bologna.

Wednesday After lunch leave for a small place in the hills about 45 minutes from Bologna, for Italian cooking lesson at a restaurant with the owner and chef, whose family has had the restaurant for three generations. 3:00 p.m. Cooking lesson on her best plates, featuring truffles and mushrooms. Dinner of your creations.

Thursday Leave for Modena, Italy, about one hour from Bologna for restaurant belonging to the most important balsamic vinegar producer in the world. The owner is a judge with the consortium that determines if your balsamic vinegar is of high enough quality to merit the label "Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena". 9:30 a.m. Italian cooking lesson of menu focusing on balsamic vinegar. Lunch in the restaurant. Return to Bologna.

Friday Two cooking lessons today on hand made Italian pasta and stuffed pastas (you can't escape tortellini), traditional ragu and condiments for pasta, "poor people's" cuisine of ancient traditions. You will do a morning and an afternoon lesson with cooks at the home of Marcello and Raffaella in the historic centre of Bologna. Your teacher is a "sfoglia", a professional pasta maker and a fabulous cook with passion especially for Italian home cooking. She will work with a cook from a good B & B restaurant at a winery in the country. She is "bravissima" especially for "piadina", strozzapreti (local "strangle the priest" pasta) and other rustic plates.

Saturday Afternoon-leave for Imola, about 30 minutes from Bologna, for Ristorante San Domenico, which began in 1970 and now is considered one of the best restaurants in Italy. The chef, Valentino Marcattilii, has for years been considered one of the best in Italy. He's professional, from a modest background, inventive and "simpatico" and he's a special cooking personality. For that evening you will be considered part of the restaurant staff. Valentino chose Saturday saying you could see much more that busy night. If you wish, you can have dinner with the staff in the kitchen. Marcello will return to take you back to Bologna.

This cooking program gives you a good panorama of all the types of plates in Emilia-Romagna from very simple cooking to very high level cooking...in only 7 days.

In Piedmont, Italy

Barolo & Barbaresco Country Cooking, Culture & Wine Itinerary for Culinary College Students

Sunday Private transfer to Novello, Italy, and your B & B for your week. Get settled. Dinner at a good, local restaurant.

Monday Walk down through vineyards about one hour, admire beautiful scenery of hills and valleys. Visit a fascinating private wine museum at the Ratti family winery. Enjoy a tasting with one of the family owners. Light lunch in a hilltown, Santa Vittoria on a restaurant's terrace with outstanding views. Hands-on Italian cooking lesson with Chef Esther, owner and chef for 10 years in her restaurant in the vineyards in Barbaresco. Rest. Dinner there.

Tuesday Visit ingeniously designed medieval castle in Serralunga, Italy, with more fabulous views. Visit and taste at a torrone factory--a nougat with local hazelnuts. Picnic lunch in a vineyard. Cooking lesson in the teaching kitchen of a hotel, summer home of Italian King Carlo Alberto in the 1850's in a hill town. Return later for dinner there.

Wednesday Visit the museum in the imposing medieval castle at Grinzane Cavour, Italy, a Barolo valley town. Focus on the truffles section. Drive to meet an Italian truffle hunter and his dog and go with him to hunt truffles. Light lunch at a B & B. Afternoon cooking lesson on appetizers (Piedmont is famous for its hot and cold appetizers) with Chef Franco at a restaurant with a private park. Dinner there.

Thursday Drive to Castigliole d'Asti, Italy, for cooking lesson 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 in professional kitchen of Italian culinary institute. Lunch of your creations there. Afternoon visit the historic Marchesi di Barolo winery in town of Barolo, Italy, (where Barolo began 100 years ago). Wine tasting there. Dinner.

Friday Drive to Castigliole d'Asti for cooking lesson 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 in same professional kitchen. Lunch of your Italian creations there. Visit the national headquarters of the Slow Food Movement in the city of Bra, Italy, formed years ago when the first MacDonald's opened in Rome. Dinner.

Saturday Visit Alba, Italy, the gastronomic hub of the region, (pop. about 30,000). Lively street market in the picturesque historic centre, and colourful, outdoor daily food market. Lots of Italian foodie shops like Peccati della Gola (Sins of the Throat). Drive to a family's farm, where mum and dad and 6 children grow, make and raise almost everything they need. Fruit, vegetables, herbs, cows, horses, chickens, goats, pigs, boars, cheese, salami etc. Bountiful Italian country lunch with them. Drive back to Turin for departure.

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