Cooking and Gastronomy Exploring in Italy's Secret Region:
the Marche Countryside
Tour # LC

Sample Itinerary
Tour dates and prices
To Reserve

Region: Le Marche

Setting:
Le Marche is a yet to be discovered region east of Umbria, beginning in the mountains and sloping through farm land to the Adriatic Sea. In the rugged Sibiline mountains, you find hardy grapes, wild boar, venison, hare, wild fowl, many kinds of mushrooms, fresh water trout, and shepherds tending sheep and making creamy-sharp pecorino cheese. Local prosciutto and salami mature in cellars next to the wines. The coastal plain produces top quality olive oil and Verdicchio wines. Along some of the cleanest Adriatic Coast, the fishermen catch a huge range of fish and seafood including sea bass, snapper, swordfish, tuna, shrimp and sea snails.

Le Marche is so unspoilt by tourists and other visitors that it has remained almost in a time warp. Everyone has a piece of land where he grows his own vegetables, keeps chickens for eggs, and, if there is room, grows grapes for wine and olives for oil. The pace of life is slow. It is not unusual to see donkeys used for transport or to have to stop your car and wait for the sheep to cross. No one gets frustrated by these little delays. It's part of the charm of the place.

Camerino, due east of Perugia in Umbria by many kilometres, is the closest town to the cooking school. The town has cobbled, narrow streets with medieval fortification walls and housed the famous 14th century Camerino school of painters. There has been a university here since 1336. With the high population of educated food lovers, the restaurants, food and wines of the region are innovative, combining old rustic traditions with new schools of thought.

Cooking School
English born Angeline, now resident in Italy, runs the cooking school out on a lovely country property. The building is a grand 17th century 'casa padronale' lovingly restored by her family and situated in a sleepy farming hamlet with stunning views of the mountains, forests, fields and hills. The grounds include a kitchen garden, vineyard, formal garden, fruit trees and hillside meadow for sun bathing and walks. The traditional rustic style kitchen has stone walls, a wood burning range stove and a more modern gas oven with six burners. A connecting bridge has been converted into a small preparation and washing up room using old chestnut doors for work surfaces and the scullery is done in local pink stone. You dine outside in the courtyard with an old grape treading vat now used as a fountain. In the cold weather you dine inside in the salone, decorated in blues, greens and gold with traditionally hand painted doors and local stone floors in earthy tones.

Partners or friends not too keen cooking their delicious meals can enjoy swimming in the lake, walking in the hills, horseriding, or absolutely nothing at all. Bring a book and soak up the mountain quiet. The beauty of Le Marche has created a haven for artists who come from as far as New Zealand, America and Britain to be inspired by the tranquil, stunning views. Angeline can arrange painting horseriding, mountain walking and quad biking for non-cooks.

Food Experts
Angeline's truffle and norcineria (meat, sausage, salami) expert, Luca, has his own Italian luxury food export business. He supplies prestigious London restaurants as Il Teatro, Locanda Locateli and Nobu with their truffles and norcineria. Angeline also has a resident wine expert who gives a lesson on tasting, background for Le Marche wines and outlines the various characteristics of the different wines that you taste with each meal.

Country Accommodation

You stay in one of three "agriturismo", old farmhouses restored by their family owners to down to earth country rooms all with private bathrooms--great for enjoying peace in the rolling hills and wood lands and getting a taste of traditional Italy. All are within walking distance from the cooking school, but Angeline is happy to drive you back and forth too. Angeline has specially selected them so you'll sleep with a happy smile in the peace and tranquility of your farmhouse abode.

La Cavallina, run by a family raising Arabian horses, overlooks nearby Lake Polverina from a wooded hill, green paddocks and vegetable gardens. The three or four spacious, comfortable rooms are decorated with local handicrafts, wooden beams and terracotta floors and have private bathrooms, independent entrances, phone and TV.

Le Casette is up on a hill within walking distance of Lake Fiastra and sits on the edge of the owners' vast areas of mountain pastures where their sheep graze. Rooms have private bathrooms and are decorated in traditional style.

Alti Pascoli, situated in a quiet hamlet, is famous in the hunting season for a warm welcome and tasty game dishes. The four rooms are comfortable and withing walking distance of the cooking school along the old donkey road.

Chef Chef Angeline has been passionate about Italian food and culture since her first visit to Italy when she toured out of the way villages in little known areas, meeting with little old ladies, grandmothers; in short, the people who really know how to cook, who have worked the land for years, use their own produce when it is abundant and in season, and have the most exacting of food critics: their husbands! After graduating in Classics, Angeline turned to her real love in life: cooking. She has worked for a variety of prestigious restaurants and catering companies in London, and the diplomatic community in Rome as chef, manager and organiser. She has her own catering company - La Culinaria Catering - in Italy and the UK, and is a menu consultant to various restaurants and holiday companies in London and France. Her philosophy on food is simple: Excellent ingredients, prepared with real enthusiasm make excellent food. You may also hear her sing, as she is passionate about opera singing and studies Bel Canto in Rome.

Sample Dishes You Could Create: This list will make you want to go every season! Spring: Garden runner beans, fresh peccorino and home salted anchovies, Black olives marinated with blood orange and fennel flowers, Steamed artichokes with anchovy & garlic dip, Risotto with gorgonzola, walnuts and courgettes, Radicchio, basil & ricotta cappeletti with asparagus cream, Roast lamb with garlic and rosemary roast potatoes, zucchini and zucchini flowers, Local trout and river prawns on the char-grill in green sauce, Panna cotta with sour cherry syrup and sugar cage. Summer: Stuffed zucchini flowers with ricotta, grated pecorino & prosciutto on san marino tomatoes, Roasted artichoke stuffed with mushrooms, garlic and parsley, Home baked garlic & rosemary foccaccia stuffed with figs and prosciutto, Risotto with trout, arugola and smoked cheek of pork, Home made tagliolini with a shellfish and pachino tomato sauce, Traditional seafood stew with garlic crostini and aioli, Herbed and garlic sea bass in newspaper, Cold strawberry soup with biscotti, Watermelon, aniseed and chocolate granita--chip ice, Strawberry liqueur. Autumn: Chick pea and tomato minestrone with homemade chili bread, Pumpkin and cicerchie beans with garlic bruschetta, Porcini mushroom risotto with parmesan shavings, arugola and summer truffles, traditional local oven baked pasta dish made with lasagna flavoured with marsala, zucchini and potato gnocchi with a walnut sauce, Seasonal game stew with truffled potato puree, Baked ricotta cheese cake topped with caramelised plums, Green walnut liqueur Winter in January: Porcini mushroom consommé with toast topped with truffled wild mushrooms, Lentil and pancetta risotto with smoked scamorza cheese, Home made farro--buckwheat tagliatelle with rich hare and tomato sauce, Potato gnocchi with ciauscolo, white wine, cream, broccoli and white truffle oil, Roast venison with blackberries, Wild boar in red wine flavoured with rosemay and juniper, Roast chicken breast with wild mushroom cream sauce on soft polenta, Chocolate spaghetti cake. Group Size: minimum 5, maximum 8. Type of Class: hands-on

Saturday:
Private transfer from Ancona airport, Fabriano or Camerino railway stations to your accommodation.
7.30 pm . Welcome at the cooking school with local aperitifs and prosecco.
Dinner is prepared for you and served al fresco in the stone courtyard next to the old grape treading vat and finished off with herb flavoured digestivi or grappa.

Sunday:
8.00 - 9.00 am . At your agriturismo a breakfast of fresh seasonal fruit, yoghurt, bread still warm from the village bakery, jams and preserves made at La Culinaria and cappuccino. (same time every day, except one day)
9.30 am . Arrive at the school for an introduction to the course, schedule, welcome pack to include recipes of everything you will taste and cook, course notes and your apron. Tour of the vegetable garden and vineyard. Short cooking class. 1 00 p.m. Lunch of your creations.

Afternoon at leisure--perhaps a siesta at your agriturismo or stroll through the grounds of the school estate, or to the lake for swimming or sunbathing, or just soak up the quiet.

5.00 p.m. Talk by Luca, the prosciutto and salumi and truffle expert. Cooking class. 8.00 p.m. Aperitifs. Dinner of your creations.

Monday:
8.00 - 9.00 a.m. Breaksfast
9.30 a.m. Pasta making class. We learn how to make the perfect sauces to accompany the perfect dough which we roll out thin enough to read a newspaper through.

1.00 p.m. Lunch of your creations.

Afternoon siesta.
5.00 p.m. Wine tasting and talk on wine production, characteristics of Le Marche wines and a general overview of Italian wines. Short cooking class.

8.00 p.m . Aperitifs. Dinner of your creations.

Tuesday:
9.30 am . Visit two vineyards. First, Belisario: a large cooperativo where we can see commercial wine production on a large scale. They make good wines which we will taste in their enoteca. Then on to Monacesco, small producers who make excellent, prize winning wines.

1.00 pm . Lunch out in a mountain refuge.   Walk through the mountains to see the wild flowers famous in this region.
Afternoon siesta
5.00 pm . Cooking class
8.00 pm . Aperitivi . Dinner made by you

Wednesday:
9.30 a.m. Pizza lesson to learn to make pizza dough and suggest toppings.
1.00 p.m. Marvellous, ridiculous fun!. Travel to a local farm where you each cook a pizza in the traditional wood oven, taste each others and argue over which is best.

Afternoon at leisure. 5.00 p.m. Olive oil lesson. Cheese lesson. Cooking class.
8.00 pm . Aperitivi. Dinner made by you.

Thursday:
9.30 am . Local contadino demonstrates cheese making. Cooking class: how to bottle fruit and vegetables, make jams, preserves, pickles and relish.
1.00 pm . Lunch made by you
Afternoon at leisure
Shopping in Camerino
7.00 pm . Dinner in a mediaeval tavern
9.00 pm . Mediaeval procession to open the Corso alla Spada
11.00 pm . Digestivi and home

Friday:
9.30 a.m. Trip to Montecavallo to see traditional prosciutto and salume production.
Short picnic class in the hills. 1.00 p.m. Picnic lunch.

Afternoon at leisure. 5.00 p.m. An introduction to liqueur making. Cooking class. 8.00 p.m. Aperitifs. Farewell dinner of your creations.

Saturday: Departure for Ancona Airport after breakfast.

2007 Dates		2007 Prices Per Person
Autumn Nov 10-17 2008 Dates Winter Jan 5-12 Jan 12-19 Spring May 10-17 May 17-24 Summer June 21-28 June 28-July 5 July 5-12 Autumn Aug 30-Sept 6 Sept 6-13 Sept 13-20		1350 pounds sterling, about $2849 CAD, $2445 US. Single supplement: none. Includes: 9 cooking lessons short & long all meals 7 nights accommodationall excursions in itinerary transfer to/from Ancona airport or Ancona/Camerino train station

To Reserve:

Reservation policy: In order to confirm your space the booking form and deposit must be faxed to us 7 days from when you received it. Otherwise we may cancel your space on the cooking tour. We will only re-confirm your space once we receive your booking form and deposit. Deposit: 200 pounds sterling at the time of booking. Deposit is non refundable. Balance due: balance due no later than 60 days before the start date. If the balance is not paid 60 days before the course starts, the school reserves the right to cancel the booking. Cancellations and Refunds: Deposits and final payments are non-refundable. Cancellation insurance is strongly recommended. No exceptions for any reason including personal emergencies. Cancellations must be made in writing by the person who signed the booking form and will be effective from the date the school receives the cancellation notice. There is no refund for leaving the program early or arriving late.

Prices may be affected by international exchange rates fluctuations.

Do you have questions? Just e-mail or call "Mama" Margaret Cowan

E-mail: margaret@italycookingschools.com
Phone: 1-800-557-0370 or 604-681-4074 (Pacific Time)

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