Culinary & Wine Tours> Italy> Tuscan Cooking in Lucca

Italy: Tuscan Cooking in Lucca
(Option: Day Cooking Classes)

Lucca, Italy - 7 nights

 

Lucca invites you to a great Tuscan Cooking and Wine vacation in the Heart of Tuscany with Chef Paolo Monti. In this comprehensive "Hands On" cooking and wine tour, you will learn the best of "Tuscan Cooking and Living" with 4 exciting Italian cooking classes: traditional, Tuscan, pasta and fish cooking classes with effervescent Chef Paolo Montiall together more than 45 recipes!

During the week you will visit fish and vegetable markets, wineries, excursions to Lucca, Parma, Modena and Siena.

Your accommodations for the week is The Hotel Carignano, located 2 miles from the center of Lucca but at the same time in the tranquillity of the Tuscan countryside.

Completely renovated June 2006, it is located near the main art cities like, Pisa, Firenze, Siena, San Gimignano. All 26 spacious rooms have air-conditioned, with shower or bathtub, hair drier, telephone, in-room safe, air-conditioning, minibar, TV with satellite channels, and International News.

Day One - Sunday - Welcome to Italy!

Check in at Hotel Carignano in Lucca.

Meet the other participants at 7.00 pm for aperitifs.

Welcome Dinner with Chef Paolo Monti.

Day Two - Monday - The Main Ingredients and Sauces Class

9.45 am Hands on cooking lesson with Chef Paolo Monti followed by lunch. This class is very important, we will start with lesson on the origins of the Cucina Italiana, the main ingredients, fresh herbs, an Extra virgin Olive Oil seminar, explaining how extra virgin olive oil is made and taste a dozen different olive oils to recognize the differences according to where they are produced. We will then start cooking some of the most important sauces of Italian and Tuscan cooking. Have a light breakfast because we will make 14 recipes and we will taste all of them!

Afternoon excursion to Lucca and guided tour of the city. Visit an "enoteca" for wine tasting and dinner.

Day Three - Tuesday - The Fish Class

8.00 am Trip to see the fish and vegetable market, for Italian vegetables, herbs and fruit, salami and cheeses, but mainly to learn how to recognize fresh fish and less then fresh fish! See different types of fish and what they are used for.

Return to the hotel and start the cooking class with Italian seafood recipes.

In the afternoon visit a local winery for wine tasting.

6.30 pm hands on cooking to prepare some more fish dishes for dinner.

Day Four - Wednesday - Proscuitto, Parmigiano and Balsamic Tradizionale di Modena

6.45 am Trip to Langhirano (Parma) for to visit Bertinelli Parmigiano Reggiano Dairy and a "Proscuitto di Parma" maker.  

Drive to Modena to visit Acetaia Pedroni  and lunch at the "Osteria di Rubbiari" with fresh home made pasta and local specialties, meet the "eccentric" owner!

After lunch we visit the barrel rooms where the original "Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" is made, an ancient tradition going back to the Roman Times...and of course taste it!

Return to Lucca for dinner.

Day Five - Thursday - Tuscan Cooking

10.00 am Hands on Tuscan cooking class about typical Tuscan Cuisine. We will make crostini ai fegatini, crostini alle melanzane, al pomodoro, Panzanella: the famous tuscan bread salad. We will hand make the local vegetable ravioli and a delicious aromatic meat ragù from Lucca with unusual spices, for main dish Arista di Maiale: loin of pork with typical tuscan herbs. For dessert we will make Cantuccini also know as "Biscotti".

Afternoon: free to relax, perhaps with a bicycle trip along the river or free to walk about in Lucca.

Dinner in a typical restaurant.

Day Six - Friday - Visit Siena and Chianti Wineries

8.30 am departure for Siena, we stop over in Greve in Chianti to visit this famous village in the Chianti region. Visit a Chianti Castle and its cellars followed by wine tasting and light lunch.

After lunch we go to Siena for a guided tour of this beautiful medieval city, famous for the Palio Horse Race. There is time to relax and shop, followed by dinner in a typical restaurant in Siena.

Return to Lucca after dinner.

Day Seven - Saturday - The Risotto, Carpaccio and Scalloppine Class

9.30 am the final Cooking Class with Chef Paolo

You will learn four risottos, four carpaccios, four scalloppini and three delicious desserts followed by light lunch.

Afternoon free.

8.30 pm Graduation Dinner and presentation of certificates.

Day Eight - Sunday - Departure

Breakfast and departure.

For further inquiries or to register, click here.



CANCELLATION POLICY

If client cancels less than 45 days prior to tour start date, deposit will be forfeited.

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