Cooking tour in a castle
Overview | Pictures | Itinerary | Location | Reserve & Availability | Contact | Reviews: rated as EXCELLENT |
Learn how to make the orecchiette fresh pasta with your thumb.
Shop for pecorino and fresh fava broad beans at the local market.
Taste excellent wines and olive oils.
Enjoy the beautiful gardens and relax by the huge swimming pool. Cook and have fun meeting new friends!
Overview
-HANDS ON and fun cooking classes;
-15 people max (please enquire for larger groups);
-simple recipes;
-highest quality ingredients;
-excellent wines and extra virgin olive oils to pair dishes;
-two teachers
Cinzia is also a professional wine sommelier and certified extra virgin olive oil taster.
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Itinerary
This is a special cooking program: days will be filled with cooking classes, a market tour and several activities. For detailed itinerary and prices please contact us
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Location
What makes this culinary tour in Puglia Italy so special is our location: a beautiful 17th century Castle, which is privately owned by a local aristocratic family. The castle is in a little town 10 min drive from the beautiful Otranto and the Adriatic sea. From the castle you can walk to the main square where you can have a coffee with the locals. The countryside is just 15 min away.
The Castle has a big kitchen, a huge swimming pool and many beautiful gardens and terraces where to enjoy al fresco meals.
Reserve & Availability
This special cooking tour in Puglia is ONLY available the weeks of June 23-29, 2012, September 15-21, 2012, September 22-28, 2012.
Reserve
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“Best Italian experience ever!”
If you want to discover the original cuisine of Puglia and learn how to make delicious, light and simple yet bursting with flavors, home-made Pugliese food, you MUST attend Cinzia’s and Marika’s cooking classes.
We spent a culinary week at old baron’s vila/castle in Salento region of the southern Italy with Cinzia and Marika. In a cozy setting, we so much enjoyed the cooking: designing your own orechiette, stuffing calamari, slow cooking tomato sauce, talking about the healthy aspects of cooking and all the used ingredients, tasting the best pecorino and olive oil, visiting the best wineries and local markets and restaurants. And, as a bonus, we had SO MUCH FUN while learning lots of facts about Puglia’s history, architecture, traditions, customs and of course – food.
We still had time to explore lovely beaches and costal towns. Cinzia and Marika were incredible hosts – they are top professional yet you feel as if you were in your friend’s kitchen. We’ve been to Italy dozen times but this was the first time we really felt home. Well, there is no better way to get to know Puglia but over a heap of the most delicious pasta and a glass of dark dark negroamaro.
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“Amazing”
Ventured for the first time half way around the world by myself and was truly amazed!!! ( Felt incredibly safe.) Cinzia and Marika welcomed me as one of the family and I enjoyed many fabulous moments both in the kitchen and on our tours. These two women were so professional, but also really fun at the same time….a great balance. I really loved the small group and was blessed to be surrounded by incredibly fascinating and intelligent people….lots of laughs.( Now have many new friends from all over the world.) We were all hands-on cooking fabulous dishes from a beautiful and untainted region. We not only learned about the local cuisine, but it was refreshing to tour/experience where a majority of the ingredients were produced/harvested. Stile Mediterraneo is an incredibly professionally run school and you’ll be considered their number one priority. Sign up and enjoy it for yourself!!!!!
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“Puglia: Eat Drink Dance”
I am a food writer and lover of Italian cusine who spent a week with the Stile Mediterraneo wine and cooking school in southern Puglia in September.
It was a dream-come-true vacation. Cinzia and Marika Rascazzo are passionate and generous and very proud of their native Puglia, its people, food, architecture and above all its cuisine.
They shared their favorite restaurants, foods and wines, hidden beaches and local markets with us.
They meticulously researched every meal we ate, every wine we drank, every place we visited.
Our home base was a glorious 500-year-old castle in the sleepy town of Spongano, which was great for poking around when we weren’t off adventuring or in the palace kitchen taking cooking classes, using recipes from the Rascazzo sisters’ grandmother.
The castle itself was set amid an ancient citrus grove and formal gardens, with a big beautiful pool and many stone couryards for eating al fresco or just relaxing.
The rooms were all bright and sunny, with air conditioning and newly-renovatied ceramic-tiled bathrooms. I’d go back again and again and again.
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“Up Close and Personal”
Having been to Italy several times in the past we were looking to bypass the macro view of overcrowded, tourist meccas in favor of a more personalized traveling experience. We had heard that Apulia was an, as yet, undiscovered gem and the description was spot on. We also desired hands-on cooking classes as opposed to “cooking demonstrations”. This wonderful seven day tour was magnificent in all respects. Our ten traveling companions were a collection of really fun people of differing ages and backgrounds and the small group size and relaxed pace afforded an opportunity for personal interaction as well as providing the opportunity to visit local venues, artisans, and enjoy dining in some of the finest local restaurants. We were housed in a charming 16th Century villa in Spongano in the Puglia region of Italy. The villa features spacious rooms with updated amenities such as modern bathrooms, fully functional air conditioning, and a pool of huge proportions. Housekeeping and linens are rigorously attended to on a daily basis by friendly and accomodating staff. A picturesque town is situated within easy walking distance and features shops, restaurants, and a supermarket. The venue served as our base of operations for daily excursions to places of interest in the area. For example, we actually took part in a grape harvest in the vinyard of a famous and award winning regional wine producer (the owner greeted us and autographed our wine purchases) and witnessed papier-mach’e and ceramic demonstrations by local artisans. The villa also provided the kitchen facility for our two extensive cooking classes. The covered courtyard and subdued lighting were the perfect surroundings for group members to relax each evening over fine food and wines and relive the events of the day and the hour to retire grew later with each day. The barbecue on our final evening at the villa featured a ten piece Pizzica band with vocalists and dancers. Group members savored the fine cuisine and took part in (our version of) the Tarantella. Our program leaders and Stile Mediterraneo co-founders Cinzia and her sister Marika are warm, friendly, and charming representatives for all this region has to offer. They share their knowledge of recipes learned from their Grandmother with sincere dedication to teaching these skills to tour members. If you are seeking a cultural experience combining the perfect balance of touring, cooking, and dining, look no further than Stile Mediterraneo.
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