 Free Italy Food & Wine Travel Ideas, Tips & Recipes! Join Mama Margaret's News. |
  
  How to Choose the Right Cooking School Holiday in Italy For You Buon giorno! Here you’ll discover:
18 Questions to Ask Yourself To Find the Right Cooking School Tour in Italy For You 1. What is most important to me in a cooking tour? List what's important to you in your cooking tour. Read tour itineraries critically with the mind of a detective. If an itinerary seems vague, ask the tour operator detailed questions. Here are some examples of what may be important to you and what to look for in tour itineraries. A. Lots of wine visits? How many winery visits and wine tastings are in the itinerary? Where do they take place? In wineries with the producer? In wine shops with a knowledgeable staff member? B. Lots of stimulating food visits? What kind? Cheese and olive oil producers? Truffle hunting? Make sure the itinerary has visits that make YOUR mouth water. C. Immersing yourself in Italian life? How many different local people do you meet and how many different towns or locations do you visit? What kind of Italian cultural experiences delight you? Meeting an artist in his ceramic studio? Cooking in a family's home and dining with the family? Are these events in your tour? Prices for a six or seven day cooking tour package vary from about $2000 to 5100 Cdn or $1700 U.S. to 4295 U.S. Four day tours go from about $1360 to 3400 Cdn. or $1150 to 2800 U.S. 3. What kind of accommodation am I looking for in Italy? A four or five star hotel with all the amenities you could ever want? A pretty, three star hotel with private bathrooms? A family’s villa or nicely renovated farmhouse B & B which may have private or shared bathrooms? A self-contained apartment you rent for a week? Some people are happy in simple, clean rooms in B & Bs with minimal decor because they're hardly ever in the room. They prefer to put their money towards special food and wine experiences. Is this you? If you’re travelling in warmer seasons, do you want a pool? If you’re looking for air-conditioning, you’ll find it in four star hotels and not in most historic, family properties. If you're a larger person, most Italian owned hotels don't have king or queen sized beds. You may want to ask the tour operator how wide the bed is, with measurements if necessary. Does the room have a good sized shower stall? Some hotels' shower stalls may look like a larger person may get stuck in them. 4. What kind of Italian cooking tour package suits me best? Cooking lessons and accommodation so your room, breakfast and big meal are taken care of? You just have to think about your lighter evening or midday meal and can decide where you want to explore. A good balance of both organized and independent travel. Or an all inclusive tour package with Italian cooking lessons, accommodation, meals and excursions so you just sit back, never touch your wallet, let someone else make all the decisions and get totally pampered? Great for people who do lots of decision making and organizing every day and just want to get all taken care of for a change. 5. What kind of excursions do I want on an all inclusive tour? Is this your first time in Italy or in this particular region so you prefer sightseeing? Or are you a real foodie hungering for Italian gastronomic visits? Are you an Italian wine lover who’s always wanted to visit small and big wineries and get to know the owners who take your intimate little group around and sample a variety of wines with you? If you’d like a bit of it all, how much sightseeing and how many food and wine visits do you want? Check the tour itinerary. Often cheaper trips offer sightseeing where you explore and shop in medieval towns and admire beautiful country panoramas. More expensive ones give you exclusive gastronomic visits where you watch artisan producers making ricotta or tour wineries with owners who tell you all you ever wanted to know about their wines and give you special tastings. 6. What regions in Italy do I want to explore? For example, if you love beautiful countryside and red wine, Tuscany may beckon.You might love learning cooking secrets with a Tuscan chef whose restaurant in a small mountain hamlet is famous for its mushroom dishes. If you love seafood, beautiful coasts and ancient ruins? Sorrento may be for you. It's close to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Want to explore more than one region in Italy? Some cooking tour operators offer tours to two regions or three regions. If you like both Barolo and Brunello wines with a splash of refreshing white wines, consider a Cooking, Wine & Walking Extravaganza in Piedmont, Cinque Terre and Tuscany. 7. When do I want to travel in Italy? Are you keen on the wine harvest? Food lovers swarm to Italy for the wine harvest in September and October when you have a large number of cooking tour choices so reserve early. Is warm weather important? Generally in most parts of Italy, mid May to mid October are warm to hot. July and August in some parts of Italy may be too hot for you, like Sicily at 40 degrees C in August. Would you like a quieter time when chefs and winery owners can give you more personal attention? You'll find a good choice of cooking tours in May and June. In steaming mid August most Italian businesses shut for annual summer holidays. Cities empty out. Masses flock to the mountains or beaches, leaving cities like Florence to the tourists. You'll find less cooking school choice in August.8. How many Italian cooking lessons do I want? Do you want to focus on cooking? You’ll find cooking tours with two to five lessons in six days. Would you like less cooking and a bigger mix of other Italian food or wine related activities? 9. How many people in my Italian cooking class? Six or eight? You'll get to prepare the whole menu. Ten or more? You'll join the "eggplant" or "tiramisu" team and not learn how to make the other dishes. But the more the merrier! A larger class also may give you demonstration style, not hands-on lessons. Which do you prefer? 10. What level of Italian cooking teacher and class do I need? You can savour once in a lifetime experiences with a great home cook on her farm in Tuscany. If you're a really good cook, you may prefer a restaurant chef. Check cooking teachers' qualifications. Ask about class level. Most classes are geared to gourmet tourists, who range from great cooks to rank beginners. If the thought of cooking with people who can't separate eggs gives you nightmares, gather a group for a private tour or take private classes, especially if you're a professional level cook or chef. 11. Where is my Italian cooking teacher from? Do you prefer a local Italian chef who presents genuine regional dishes and gives you a little peek into his every day life in Italy, perhaps regaling you with stories about his family? Or do you prefer a well known Italian restaurant chef or owner from London or New York, who can act as a bridge between the two cultures for you and give you a taste of life with the famous? 12. Does my cooking teacher work with an interpreter? Does matter to you if your cooking teacher speaks only Italian and teams up with a good interpreter, or speaks fluent English? Often the interpreter and the chef make a good comedy duo. If you’re learning Italian, you get the cooking tips first in Italian and then in English so you pick up more Italian. However, if you’re not comfortable with the delay of explanations via an interpreter, ask if the chef works with an interpreter or speaks good English. 13. What kind of Italian cooking lessons do I like? Hands-on lessons where you put your hands in the flour, or demonstration style classes where you watch the chef’s expert moves and ask lots of questions? Many demonstration classes tend to be large--10 or even 20 people. Julia Childs reportedly had 40 disciples watching her in classes at the five star Hotel Cipriani in Venice’s lagoon and following her in a long snake-like line through the Rialto fish market. 14. Where do we eat on our Italian cooking tour? Do you want to eat in a variety of local trattorias and restaurants, so you get a real flavour of different cooking styles and locales in Italy? Or do you prefer quieter meals at your home away from home, at your country villa or estate, where the chef turns into an Italian family member? Less expensive cooking tours feature most meals at home, while more expensive ones take you to more restaurants. 15. Do I want to travel with a guide or independently in a rented car? What kind of trip are you looking for? One where you relax, sit back and just enjoy while someone else makes the decisions and looks after everything? And you have no worries about who is the designated driver. A guided tour is for you. Are you the independent type who enjoys exploring on your own, stopping on a whim and thinks getting lost if part of the fun? Take an independent tour with no guide and follow the itinerary arranged for you by your tour company. 16. What is included in the price of my cooking tour in Italy? Some tour itineraries don't make it crystal clear what's included. Some say "optional" excursions or lunch "on your own" which mean you pay extra. Some say "evening at leisure" which means free time and dining on your own. 17. How much free time do I want? Is a certain amount of free time to unwind, hang out in the piazza or take a siesta essential? Check the cooking tour itinerary. How much free time is there? Some offer an excursion every other day so you can relax and do your own thing, but also see a variety of art, architecture, historical places, and lovely scenery, and learn about local food and wine. Others cater to those who want to see absolutely everything that region in Italy has to offer, and offer a full excursion program every day. Some itineraries build in siestas and some go non-stop. Which suits you best ? 18. What about asking for references? If you want to feel reassured you've chosen the right Italian cooking tour, ask the tour operator for names of past tour clients and their e-mails. Contact them to find out first hand if the itinerary delivers on what you want to experience. 5 Popular Myths about Cooking School Tours in Italy1. You have to win the lottery to afford to go. True for some but not all! There are many reasonably priced Italian cooking school tour packages. How does an all inclusive week in Sorrento cooking with an Italian family at their friendly B & B with professional chef dad sound for 1350 Euros (about $2200 Canadian or 1800 U.S.) Lots of food and sightseeing excursions too! 2. You have to be a gourmet Italian cook to go. No! Most Italian cooking classes are geared to the gourmet traveller who enjoys cooking and eating or just hanging out with food and wine lovers sharing wonderful food, wine and conversation in Italy. You’ll enjoy the down-to-earth atmosphere of most classes with a mixed level of cooks. 3. Tuscany is THE place to go in Italy. Yes, Tuscany is well endowed with breathtaking scenery, world famous wines and magnificent Renaissance art and architecture. But the rest of Italy offers so much!! What about cooking with great restaurant chefs in Piedmont in northwest Italy, like Chef Alessandra at the Real Castello (former summer home of King Carlo Alberto in 1840s) and drinking red, robust Barolo or elegant Barbaresco wines, that rank right up there with the best Tuscan wines like Brunello or Vino Nobile di Montepulciano? What about sitting out on a patio of a restaurant above the sea on the island of Stromboli in Sicily watching the sun set in orange and red over the darkening blue sea? As the sky blackens, you look up at the live volcano on the mountain above and watch it hurl its fire into the sky like a spectacular fireworks show. 4. Cooking classes may not be in English. No! For all tourist cooking classes in Italy, the chef either speaks good English or works with a good interpreter. You usually get recipes in English to take home too. 5. Classes take place in actual schools. Fortunately, your “school” is more like a kitchen in a villa overlooking the Mediterranean or lovely wine country hills, in a beautifully renovated farmhouse, in a fine Italian restaurant. You cook in a real life Italian kitchen! 1. How many cooking tours in Italy run in the summer? More cooking tour companies are offering classes in July and August. Try to avoid mid August when all of Italy goes on holiday and you have fewer choices. 2. What if I just want to take one cooking class in Italy? Prices for an Italian cooking class plus lunch and wine run from $100 to $295 U.S. Mama Margaret no longer sells or features cooking classes but is happy to refer you to her Italy specialist travel agent who offers a nice selection of cooking classes by the day in Italy. 3. Will people travelling alone enjoy themselves on an Italian cooking tour? Yes! Many single women, women without their husbands and a few single men go. Italian food and wine lovers are usually down-to-earth types all on the same “joy of life” wavelength, so people have lots in common and quickly make friends in the group. And here’s a well kept secret! Single men should flock to cooking tours in Italy. Many more single women than men go on these romantic holidays. The perfect place for a man who loves food, cooking, wine, beauty, art, sensuality, travel, very human, down-to-earth folk, to find the woman he’s been searching for all his life...in Italy. 4. Who goes on cooking tours in Italy? Generally you’ll find women, either alone, with mothers and daughters or with women friends, couples, and a few men on their own, aged 40 to 65. People in their 30’s go too. Mainly Americans but also Canadians, Brits, and Australians. Groups of friends or family celebrate 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays, 10th, 20th, 25th or 30th wedding anniversaries or long standing friendships with those they love. 5. What if one of the two of us likes Italian cooking, but the other doesn’t want to take part in the lessons? Most cooking tour operators in Italy have a flexible program. Nobody “has” to do anything. Non-cooks can go off and enjoy country walks, strolls in town, or just hang out and relax, peeping in the kitchen now and then. Some cooking tours have slightly reduced prices for non-cooks who participate in everything except the lessons. If they don’t, ask them. 6. Will cooking tour operators custom design an itinerary for me? Many Italian cooking tour operators like a group of four or more, but many are happy to design a trip for two people. Then you get exactly the tour in Italy you’ve always dreamed of. Enjoy your trip to Italy! Buon viaggio!! Buon appetito! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mama Margaret & Friends Cooking Tours in Italy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For any questions on cooking tours in Italy, call or e-mail Margaret
Cowan
 
|
