Private Cooking Classes
Our private cooking classes were rated as EXCELLENT.
Please enquire for a private cooking class at your villa in Puglia Southern Italy. Class will be just for you and your group of friends! You may also ask for a private wine tour in Puglia.
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“Wonderful food, Delicious wine & Great company!”
It’s not often on Tripadvisor that you see an attraction that has been rated “excellent” by everyone, but having experienced it for ourselves we can see why. We arranged for Cinzia and Marika to come to our villa to provide a cooking lesson for us on two seperate days, the first day for lunch and the second day for dinner. They brought all of the food and wine with them and after a four hour very entertaining and extremely good lesson we got to sit around a large table in the courtyard and enjoy a wonderful meal whilst learning more about Puglia from these special ladies. Their teaching style is so calm and relaxed, they feel like old friends. Their knowledge on the local produce is incredible. They share great family secrets with you and teach you recipes and skills that you can take home with you to impress your friends.
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“Great food and fabulous wines”
In June I had the pleasure of going to Puglia – a beautiful, unspoiled region of Italy, Puglia! What a great discovery! Fabulous wines to consume and olive groves as far as the eye can see, yet “wired” with all the modern conveniences.
When my friends invited me to join them for a cooking class in the Puglia region I was hesitant to accept, because I was not familiar with that part of Italy and my bias was toward Tuscany and it’s cuisine.
When I arrived in Squinzano, I did not know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. It is the home of Stile Mediterraneo, the cooking school I attended. A real treasure! I met Cinzia and Marika Rascazzo the sisters running the cooking classes and exposing the participants to authentic cuisine. The sisters are a joy, each of them adding a personal touch to the teaching and our experience. Each is charming in their own way, highly educated and speaks English as if it were their native tongue.
Marika, a practicing cardiologist, gives the experience an added touch with health information while Cinzia, who returned to Puglia after a Harvard MBA, pours out her knowledge of wines, olive oils and more. We felt privileged to spend time with them. They have a passion for food, especially food from their home region. The pride they have in their culture radiated through out our stay.
I enjoyed learning new recipes exploring new techniques and drinking good wines. Cinzia and Marika were very well prepared thorough patient and importantly the recipes were easy to follow. Learning and doing was fun but the best was eating the “art work” we created. The meals are balanced, delicious and varied. We made things like “sweet and sour peppers”, Agnolotti pasta, a half moon shaped stuffed ravioli. Years ago I had sworn I would not make any fresh pasta ever again, but this was so easy and so much fun it was worth the extra effort. The “lamb with fresh peas and pancheta” was also a real hit. I have since served it to my guests here at home. Fun to practice what you learn and receive the side benefits of so many compliments.
The class was small, just three students making it a comfortable, personal, fun and pleasant experience. They told family stories and on the last day shared a very special family recipe for “Torta di Mandorle” an old recipe their great grand mother created and only shared with the grand daughters. We felt quite special and the entire meal was extraordinary.
The visit to Puglia was a fabulous experience and I hope to return next year, in October, when Cinzia will guide a special cooking and wine tour to a castle in Puglia, visits local producers and markets and expose participants to the richness of the Puglia region.
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“Cooking, learning, exploring, new friends!”
I recently spent a week in Puglia and was pleasantly surprised that it rated as one of my best holidays. I have travelled extensively, usually off the beaten track. We stayed in amazing accommodation, a 13th century tower with our own turret. We had 5 days with Cinzia and Marika doing all sorts of fun things ranging from superb trips to Gallipoli and Leece; fabulous artisan visits and of course time in the kitchen. This was a happy place, we learned huge amounts about local produce, wines and olive oils. Cinzia is a wealth of knowledge and eager to share all she knows. The sisters were so much fun and put up with 5 New Zealanders trying to sing Italian opera while rolling pasta!! The whole experience was a pleasure, I loved sitting down to eat our creations and sharing stories and much hilarity and laughter with Cinzia and Marika. Our group will definitely be going back for more and have even starting making pasta in NZ. The whole package that CInzia sorts out (accommodation/cooking/local attractions/artisan visits) can not be faulted. I urge anyone thinking of going to Pulgia to get in touch with Stile Mediterraneo.
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“Cook, eat, laugh, live”
4 day spent cooking, laughing and enjoying life in Sqinzano. A fantastic way to spend time in this little known area of Italy. Cinzia, and her sister Marika, are passionate about their food, wine and olive oil from their region. Their knowlege is superb, and passion for passing this on is infectious. They are patient for those of us pasta novices. I can’t recommend this experience enough.
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