Tuscany Cooking School: A Week with The Tuscan Chef

A Week with The Tuscan Chef at the Villas of Vorno
Lucca, Tuscany

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About the location: Discover a little piece of Tuscan heaven and savor the very best in Tuscan living gathered together in our kitchen and around our table. The Tuscan Chef is based in one of a number of wonderful private villas in the area near Vorno, a small town outside of Lucca. Your week-long Tuscany cooking tour might take place at the Villa al Boschiglia, while other weeks may be held at the charming Casa Matteucci or another equally wonderful private villa. The villas are all of the same caliber, surrounded by wild and stunning olive grove terraces or fruit orchards reaching out over Monte Pisano with views across lavender and lemon scented Italian gardens towards the enchanting walled town of Lucca. They each feature a small selection of wonderfully outfitted rooms (usually only 6 to 8 rooms) with private en suite bath or shower facilities. Your cooking classes are held in the charming Tuscan kitchen of your villa, with meals served in the elegant dining room. During your free time you can enjoy the lovely grounds or the gracious Italian living areas.

About the cooking lessons: Our hands-on cooking courses are under the guidance of professional Italian chef, Valter Roman, one of our top collaborators for many years! If you asked Valter what he wanted to do when he was a child, he would have always said “be a chef.” Like, many, he began his “studies” at the side of his mamma and grandma learning the traditions and kitchen culture that are today the essence and basis of any successful Italian chef. Valter studied professionally at the Instituto Alberghiero di Casargo, which led to many successful positions in renowned restaurants throughout Italy and the world. His mentor, Ugo Amato, trained him in London in the art of pastry where he created some of the most sought after pastries and cakes and even supplied the British Royal family. He has also studied with the formidable Tuscan chef Alvaro Maccioni and after three years of study has achieved his sommelier status to accompany his vast kitchen knowledge. Craving the “bella vita” life of Italy, Valter returned to Tuscany with his English wife, Julia, where together they have teamed up for the last ten years to create the ideal cooking vacation.

The classes are fun, informative and full of tips and tricks of the trade. You will discover and explore the tastes and textures of some of the finest ingredients from fresh home-made pasta and plump potato gnocchi with their various complimenting sauces to truffles, fragrant garden Italian herbs, porcini mushrooms and wild asparagus, freshly pressed olive oil, creamy pecorino cheeses and classic Italian wines. Kitchen studies are enhanced and complimented by a special touring program to some of the most enchanting and personally selected towns, markets, vineyards and other hidden treasures of Tuscany.

A Week with The Tuscan Chef at the Villas of Vorno Itinerary

Day 1 - Sunday

Sample itinerary (itinerary may vary slightly according to season).

  • Transfers from Pisa or Florence airports or train stations (or from Lucca train station) for arrival at your accommodation on the outskirts of Lucca around midday for a welcome buffet lunch prepared by your Italian chef for the week, Valter Roman.
  • During lunch, meet your hosts and cooking colleagues with time to settle in and relax before your first hands-on cooking lesson.
  • Hands-on cooking lesson with preparation of dinner:
  • Fiori di zucca ripieni and fritti con cestini di parmigiano — Ricotta filled zucchini flowers with oven crisped parmesan baskets
  • Risotto ai Carciofi o Funghi Porcini — Artichoke or Porcini Mushroom Risotto
  • Cantucci di Prato — Almond biscuits from Prato
  • Welcome aperitivi and orientation before dinner.

Day 2 - Monday

  • After breakfast, a specially themed cooking lesson of pasta and its sauces.
    • Tagliolini al pomodoro ciliegino and basilico — Long thin pasta with a cherry tomato and basil sauce
    • Ravioli di asparagi selvatici con una salsa tartufata di stagione — Wild asparagus filled ravioli with a seasonal truffle butter
    • Lasagna dello chef — chef’s special lasagna
    • Mostarda — Jam making for cheese tasting
  • Lunch al fresco followed by a short guided tour of Lucca where you will visit gourmet suppliers and producers for tastings.
  • Hands-on cooking lesson and preparation of dinner.
    • Zuppa di Farro — Spelt grain soup
    • Melanzane alla Parmigiana — Oven baked layers of eggplant, tomato and parmesan
    • Pesche amaretti e gelato di cannella — Amaretto peaches and cinnamon ice-cream
    • Limoncello di Nonna Maria — Grandma Maria’s lemon liqueur

Day 3 - Tuesday

  • Breakfast available.
  • Depart for a Chianti adventure stopping off at an enchanting market town as well as renowned vineyard for wine-tasting and lunch.
  • Leave Chianti and return home for an informal pizza supper in the lively village trattoria, just a short walk from the villa.

Day 4 - Wednesday

  • After breakfast, enjoy a chef’s tour of the bustling market town of Pistoia to choose fresh produce for a kitchen challenge where students and chefs work together to prepare a buffet lunch with items found at the market.
  • Lunch followed by free time to relax and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the villa.
  • Hands-on cooking lesson and preparation of dinner.
    • Gnocchi con Pesto — Potato dumplings with a pesto sauce
    • Tagliata Fiorentina con funghi porcini and rucola and fagioli zolfini — Florentine steak dressed with a porcini mushroom sauce or rucola topping and served with zolfini beans
    • Sformatino di Gianduia con una salsa di cioccolata bianca and vaniglia — Warm chocolate and hazelnut pudding with a white chocolate and vanilla sauce

Day 5 - Thursday

  • Breakfast available.
  • Gourmet adventure in the Garfagnana visiting a cheese producer and a salami/cured meat specialist with a Tuscan tasting lunch at an old mill.
  • Hands-on cooking lesson and preparation of dinner.
    • Tagliolini di Pesce — Seafood pasta
    • Pesce in cartoccio — Fish in a bag
    • Sorbetto di limone and salvia — Lemon and sage sorbet
  • Aperitivi and dinner.

Day 6 - Friday

  • After breakfast, your hands-on cooking lesson specializing in pastry and dessert techniques.
    • Tiramisu — A little ‘pick me up’
    • Florentines and Petits Fours.
  • Lunch followed by a short visit to see the Leaning Tower in Pisa.
  • Hands-on cooking lesson and preparation of dinner.
    • Crespelline Fiorentine — Fiorentine spinach and ricotta crepes with a walnut sauce
    • Ossobuco alla Milanese con riso pilaff — Beef shanks in a citrus vegetable sauce and pilaff rice.
  • Farewell drinks, graduation ceremony and celebration dinner.

Day 7 - Saturday

  • Breakfast available and transfers to Florence or Pisa airport or Florence, Pisa or Lucca train station. Goodbye, until the next time!

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