Cooking Classes

One Day Classes

Cook In Umbria
Let’s cook in Umbria offers cooking classes, winery tours, gourmet tours, excursions to artisan chocolate and olive oil producers, truffle hunting and very popular cooking vacation programs that include accommodations and excursions to remote villages throughout Umbria and Tuscany. Let’s cook in Umbria offers a great opportunity to live for a short break in Umbria, learning about authentic Italian food, touring beautiful art sites, relaxing in the luxuriant garden or at the pool. Raffaella’s approach to cooking is simple, seasonal, and local. Many options available from one day to 7 day classes, and can include gourmet tours as well. Reservations are on request for any day, year round, based upon availability, for a minimum of three people. Classes begin at approximately 10AM and are about 3 to 4 hours long and include the preparation of a multi-course meal, which you enjoy with wine at the end of the lesson. The one full cooking day can be reserved any day of the year for a minimum 2 people.

Umbria Cooks 4 U
In Tita’s state-of-the art kitchen, she shares her family secrets for traditional Umbrian dishes. Under her guidance, students of her cooking school can prepare local specialties using the best ingredients the region has to offer, including olive oil, prized lentils, cured meats, mountain cheeses, and a variety of wines. Tita will cater the menu for your visit to your own personal tastes and preferences, accommodating both meat-eaters and vegetarians alike. Upon request Tita can also come to you, providing cooking lessons at your villa rental. And in the dining room of Tita’s hillside home, they also serve full-course Umbrian meals to groups as small as four and as large as ten.

Madonna Del Piatto
The atmosphere of Letizia’s classes is friendly and informal, providing a blend of traditional and modern Italian cooking techniques. You will first learn how to select the best Umbrian ingredients during a shopping excursion in the nearby village. You will then use these delicacies – and other ingredients picked up locally and in our own herb garden – to prepare an authentic Italian meal. With a view of the garden, our spacious and professionally equipped kitchen is a perfect setting for a gourmet experience for you and your cooking companions. Cooking classes are available twice a week on weekdays. Programs are offered year round for a minimum of two people.

Aroma Cucina – Private, Hands-on Cooking Classes in Your Holiday Villa
Aroma Cucina offers customized private cooking classes and market visits designed specifically for you. Classes start at 50 euro/per person, group prices available. Not interested in learning to cook but would love a personal chef to come to your holiday rental and cook for you? Relax and enjoy the view while Aroma Cucina prepares an unforgeteable experience in your Italian villa. Great if you are traveling with children or would like some wine with dinner and don’t want to worry about driving. It is just like having a full service restaurant come to your door!

Life…Italian Style
Jennifer, a professional chef for over 15 years (working in Philadelphia, Seattle, London, and Foligno, Italy) offers a wide range of services to help visitors to Umbria see the best we have to offer from an eno-gastronomical point of view. Highlights include:, Cooking Classes to explore the simple “cucina” of Umbria, Private Chef in Guest Villa, Horseback Riding & Wine Tasting, Farm Tours, and Bicycle Tours through the Umbrian Valley! Cooking classes are held in a restored 16th century villa in the small village of Cannara, located in the heart of Umbria between Asissi and Spello or in guest home/villa. They are based around the best local ingredients in season from the Valley of Umbria: meats from Bevanga, cheese & salumi from Assisi, wine from Torgiano, olive oil from Trevi, and eggs & vegetables from a small farmer in Cannara! Hands-on class includes making antipasto (appetizer), primo (soup or pasta), secondo (main course), and dolce (dessert) followed by a lunch (eating what we just made, of course!)

Judith Greenwood
Judith teaches Italian cookery for groups at their villas all through central Italy, or in small numbers in my own kitchen at Città di Castello. Judith also work as private chef for meals and banquets up to 20 people throughout central Italy also.

Love Umbria
Take a cooking class with a professional chef and then enjoy the results of your efforts over lunch or dinner in the unique surroundings of a restaurant housed in part of a Roman theatre dating back to the 1st Century. Why not combine your cooking lesson with a Sagrantino wine tour in nearby Montefalco? The exact menu will depend on what is in season and available at the time of the lesson but is likely to consist of one primo (entrée) (such as a pasta dish or gnocchi) and one main course (such as braised veal in Rosso di Montefalco wine sauce). Following an aperitivo, lunch or dinner will consist mainly of the food you have prepared at the cooking lesson. Love Umbria also offers 5 day small group culinary/cooking tours as well as truffle hunting and wine tasting tours.

Sono Marcella
Small classes of no more than 6 persons with personalized menus. Focus is on the freshest seasonal ingredients and typical Umbrian specialties such as truffles, Pecorino cheeses, and Torta al Testo. Traditional pasta dishes, specialty desserts, and distinctive local wines and olive oils are also featured. Technique classes on specific subjects (hand-made pastas, gnocchi, desserts, sauces, porcini, and truffles for example), as well as 2 to 5 day sessions are also available by special arrangement. Classes typically begin at 10AM and last approximately 6 hours, and after the students get to enjoy the meal they helped to prepare. Classes are available mid-May through mid-October, Monday through Saturday. Market visits beginning at 9AM may also be pre-arranged any class day.

Annes Italy
Join Anne for a cooking class of Umbrian rural cuisine in her Assisi farmhouse. Start with market shopping and a visit to the local caseificio to taste and select freshly-made cheeses, a stop to buy vegetables from farmer Novella and then on to the butcher. A stop for a taste of Giovannino’s wine and prosciutto is also a must, followed by a visit to a farm neighbor to buy fresh eggs. Classes at Anne’s Assisi area farmhouse are fully “hands-on”. Depending on the season, such ingredients as wild asparagus or wild field greens might be foraged to add to the meal. Cooking classes take a couple of hours and the meal will be enjoyed by all afterwards. During the class, Anne will share Umbrian gastronomical lore and rural life stories, as well as insights into the rural restoration norms. Cooking classes in our home are generally limited to 8 persons.

Active Gourmet Umbrian-Tuscan Cooking Classes
Enjoy hands-on cooking classes at a breathtaking villa set in the rolling hills of Umbria. This holiday is dedicated to offering you the chance to learn traditional Italian recipes. Your instructors will provide you with an explanation on exquisite recipes using traditional cooking methods. Following the class you will enjoy the prepared food accompanied by a selected wine. Over the years the villa has been home to nobles and has been lovingly taken care of as it still retains its large fireplaces, frescoes, ancient cotto floors and period furnishings. Your instructor along with a translator will teach you the secrets of Umbrian and Tuscan cuisine, using the freshest ingredients of the season. Learn to cook traditional dishes that you will easily be able to re-create at home for your friends and family.
– Cooking classes are held on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays only.

Cooking In Umbria
COOKING IN UMBRIA offer week-long cooking holidays and vacations in one of Italy’s most beautiful, ancient and unspoilt regions. Excellent accommodation in a three star family run hotel. Hotel Villa San Donnino built in the 18th century has an historic past. It was once used as a summer retreat for cardinals from Rome and has been run by the same family since it’s conversion into a hotel in 1980. The hotel is situated in the hills just outside the walled town of Citta di Castello in Umbria. The cooking tutor, Claudio Covelli, is passionate about sharing his 30 years of experience cooking authentic Italian food and makes the classes a lot of fun.

Italy Loves To Cook
Classes are held at “Villa Vincara,” an elegant, antique villa of the early 1800s located in Deruta, a medieval town known world-wide for its finest ceramics, just a few km from Perugia, Assisi, Todi. If you are renting a property in Umbria, they also offer classes on location, and will come to your rental villa. Italy Loves To Cook offers hands-on cooking classes in a fun and friendly atmosphere. The classes will be offered in English. Non-participant friends & family are welcome to join the group for lunch for a small fee. Owners Zoila and Tiziana both come from a long tradition of hospitality in the travel industry as well as in the restaurant field. Classes begin at 10:00AM and end at 2:00PM, and include lunch.

Umbria’s Country Table™
Join Executive Chef Giuseppe in Trevi, Umbria for hands-on cooking classes featuring traditional Umbrian dishes. The Chef’s motto is: ‘respect tradition and the territory.’ His Umbrian classics such as stringozzi or strangozzi – a thick pasta type served with wild asparagus; handmade tagliatelle; chestnut soup; or risotto with asparagus represent just a few samples from his repertoire. Both meat and fish reign in this part of the world where products from the green hills and local lakes are staples; so if you like carne, meat, there is roasted rabbit, boar, venison, goose, duck, and ‘drunken chicken’ slow cooked in local wine. Fresh water shrimp, trout and perch are also prepared in our hands-on classes, and lunch or dinner always follows with the foods that were prepared in class. Truffles, both black and white, also grow in abundance in Umbria. This prized tuber is used to top pasta, salads, cheese, omelets, and you’ll find it in cheese and even desserts. After class, lunch follows on the foods prepared in class. Wine and beverages available at a surcharge.

Le Preghiera
Cooking classes organized by La Preghiera in Umbria are “hands on” where guests learn to make delicious regional dishes. Choose from the half day, or full day cooking courses available. The cooking classes offer guests the opportunity to experience the feel of a real Italian kitchen, learning to prepare recipes that have been handed down over generations. Classes can be combined with a visit to a typical, bustling, Umbrian market plus an excursion to search for the highly prized “Tartufo”, which is a speciality of our region, the Alta Valle Tevere. La Preghiera is in the Upper Tiber Valley, Umbria, Italy on the border with Tuscany. Five minutes walk from the village of Calzolaro, the nearest towns are Trestina, Città di Castello and Umbertide. Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is half an hour away.

Cooking With Maria
Maria Maurillo, owner of the Malvarina Country Inn, located on the slopes of Mount Subasio 4 miles outside the Medieval walls of Assisi teaches Umbrian home cooking to small groups of food lovers in her own kitchen. From simple sauces to exquisite truffles, Maria delights in showing participants how to use the traditional Umbrian ingredients to prepare regional dishes with remarkable flavors. The class includes one cooking lesson, a recipe book and apron, and dinner with wine after class. Classes are available Monday through Friday and generally last 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Multiple Day Cooking Classes

Cucina Della Terra
Take a unique cooking vacation in Italy and acquaint yourself with all that the Umbrian and Tuscan regions have to offer. Cucina della Terra, a cooking school in Italy located in the heart of Umbria, offers all of the above. Satisfy your inner-foodie with daily cooking classes in our their private kitchen. Capture the heart, soul and stomach of Italy’s Umbrian countryside. The cooking school is located in Umbria, Italy near Lago Trasimeno, close to the regional capital of Perugia. The school is approximately 5 minutes up the road from the town of Castiglione del Lago. Week long, all inclusive programs are offered.

Villa La Rogaia
Maestra Ornella teaches the classes, initiating Villa La Rogaia guests for many years into the secrets of Umbrian cuisine. Participants will cook five complete dinners from Antipasto to Dolce, under the guidance of Ornellai, a maestra of Umbrian home cooking. For her simple but delicious meals, she prefers fresh products directly farms, markets, meadows and woods around La Rogaia. The group will also accompany a truffle hunter with his dog to witness how these precious delicacies are found. The classes take place at Villa La Rogaia, an outstanding old Umbrian countryhouse with many gardens. It is situated near Lake Trasimeno between Rome and Florence. Participants stay in individually crafted double or single rooms (shared bathroom for two bedrooms) or in holiday apartments (for two persons), partly at the village of Castel Rigone 4 km from La Rogaia. The number of participants of the cooking class is limited to 14 persons. Language of instruction is in Italian with English translation. Week long all inclusive courses only.

The Institute di Arte Culinaria
Learn to cook at the Institute di Arte Culinaria with Executive Chef Lorenzo Polegri Chef Lorenzo, who will teach the adventurous participants to the real deal of cooking, directly involved in the guided search for the basic products at the various local markets, wineries, oil mills, pasta factories and vegetable gardens located in the Orvieto’s area and its countryside. This course is a full hands-on great experience! 9 Days, 7 nights.

Cooking With Maria – 3 Day Classes
Maria Maurillo, owner of the Malvarina Country Inn, located on the slopes of Mount Subasio 4 miles outside the Medieval walls of Assisi teaches Umbrian home cooking to small groups of food lovers in her own kitchen. From simple sauces to exquisite truffles, Maria delights in showing participants how to use the traditional Umbrian ingredients to prepare regional dishes with remarkable flavors. The class includes three cooking lessons, three nights accommodation, a recipe book and apron, and dinner with wine every night after class. Classes are available Monday through Friday and generally last 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

La Chiusa
Cooking classes are designed for two to eight people and last four days. Classes are held Monday through Wednesday in the afternoon and on Thursday morning 15 km from Città di Castello. You will learn traditional Italian cooking including how to make pasta, gnocchi, bread, and many other dishes. In every class we will create a full meal-from the first course through dessert. This structure helps the students to learn the details of cooking preparation and timing. The lessons, coupled with individual recipes, teach techniques and secrets that will permit you to transform any ingredient into an exquisite dish. The reservation comes complete with an abundant breakfast of our own bread and jam, eggs, sliced meats, yogurt, and lots more.

Italian Delights
Cooking courses at la Corte del Poggio, in the countryside near Lake Trasimeno. You can choose among different courses over one, two or three days: a complete Italian menu; pizza, vegetarian menu, rustic menu, etc..

Umbria Cucina
Learn to cook traditional Italian cuisine with a master chef, and enjoy a holiday in a beautiful medieval village in Umbria. The cooking classes will take place in the newly renovated facilities of Il Grottino di Zio Toto restaurant in Monte Castello di Vibio with professional chef Massimo Costanzi. The restaurant is located beside the medieval walls of Monte Castello di Vibio. The menu for the course will include antipasti (starter), primi (pasta and sauces), secondi with contorno (main course meat and side dishes), and dolci (dessert), with each of these 4 courses held on successive days. The first lesson will be “introductory theory of ingredients and wine choices”, with a sommelier present. 7 days in an Italian restaurant and cooking school in Umbria, Italy. You will explore Umbria, its flavors and heritage while learning to cook classic Italian and traditional Umbrian dishes in the surroundings of a medieval borgo.
This cooking holiday consists of:
5 half day cooking classes in Monte Castello di Vibio.
Enjoy tasting wonderful local wines, olive oil, and food.
4 ‘gastronomic’ excursions to the beautiful towns of Todi, Orvieto, and Montefalco, for sightseeing, combined with visits to tastings of local food and wine produce.

Regional Cuisine of Umbria
This three night program is designed for independent travelers who would like to learn the basics of Umbrian cuisine while enjoying the gracious hospitality of the Hotel Palazzo Bocci, located in the center of the historic medieval hilltown of Spello. The hotel is owned by the Buono family, who also own the world famous restaurant, Il Molino, which showcases the regional specialties of Umbria. Cooking classes are conducted by Mamma Maria at La Malvarina farm, located in the beautiful countryside just outside of Assisi, 10 km from Spello. Typical Umbrian dishes are explained and prepared utilizing local products and seasonal fruits and vegetables.