Italian Home Cooking

Visit Tuscany to have true culinary experience


Learn home cooking from a cooking expert whom Florentine gourmet buff trusts.

Florence is one of pre-eminent treasures of Europe, and it is a time to honored Mecca for sightseers from all over the world. But as a city, it can be Early Renaissance and retains many of impeccable fortresses like features of pre-renaissance Palazzi, whose facades were mostly meant to keep intruders out rather than to invite sightseers in. The typical Florentine exterior gives nothing away, as if obsessively guarding secret treasures within. "Florence –Firenze in Italian– was discovered" in the 19th century by the first historians. It became a Mecca for travellers, particularly the Romantics, including Keats and Shelly, who were inspired by the grandeur of its classism. Allure of Florence lay in its artistic treasures: They were captivated by Boticelli’s smile, impressed by the graceful dignity of Donatello’s bronze David. As the sun sets over the Arno and as Mark Twain described it, "overwhelms Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city into a city of dreams". It’s hard not to fall under the city’s magic spell.

The essence of Italian cooking is home cooking by Mamma. Tuscany is a treasure source of food material. Italy has so much different types of regional cooking and Tuscany’s cooking is known as amalgam of both aristocratic and simple peasant cooking, thus, because the reason why it is called "gastronomic city". Florentine home cooking reminds us of the fact that our taste buds are so used to aesthetic aspects of appearances. The reverence and amore (love) for the nature is the source of Italian art as well as cooking. Real beauty of the tasteful Italian food can be found in Mother’s cooking of which affectionate care and attention. As our home cooking instructor, Senora Fiametta says, "Home cooking should be handed down from a generation to generation. Its taste should be preserved in both tradition and in progress of culinary culture". The lessons are filled with a touch of lightness and humor that remind us once again of time our mothers used to show us the way of things. You forget your sense of time as you take these lessons.

Home cooking is an essence of Italian gastronomy.

You can learn Italian way of life as well as cooking recipe. Florence surrounded by nature’s bliss, rolling hills of grapes and wheat field. Mother’s affections, people’s smiles and tasteful food waits for unexpected guests at the dinner table. We are once again reminded that home cooking gives a place where friends and loved ones can give a blessing of life to each other. Home cooking doesn’t drive from state-of-art restaurant kitchens but is borne from regular kitchens from regular home. Instructors wished students would use their own kitchens at home after they return home from lessons.


"Home cooking should not be overdone. It has to be something you don’t get tired of, when you eat it everyday. Also it’s importance lies in the fact that it can be prepared easily".

Study from home cooking expert/teacher.

Recipe includes more than 65 items for one-month course

Florentine home cooking has a long history since Renaissance time. It has been developed by Etolrians from pre-Roman time on breeding method of chianina beef, meat dishes using gallina and rabbits. Others include dolce, vegetable cooking developed by aristocrats, sensitive attention given to traditional recipe mixed with simplicity of peasant cooking added with a personal touch of mother. Instructor will teach you at least 4-5 items for the full-course everyday. You will learn from 65 to 85 recipes for a month.


"As you already know, Tuscany’s climate is best suited to wine making, Chianti, Brunerro di Montarchino are too famous to mention for their red. It is fun to matching recipe to wines."

Tuscan Winery

Tuscany is wine producing region and a home of Chianti wine. It’s imperative for wine lovers to visit many wineries in this area. It’s a breath taking to see wide stretching wine farms on the rolling hills of Tuscany. Visiting these wineries, spending sometime with local people and learning about Italian wine and finally join in wine tasting make you feel overwhelming power of Tuscany.

Visiting winery (Extra fee)

If you are looking for the experience in tasting fresh food, agri-tourism is the best way. You can stay in farm lodges where they run farm, ranch and winery –experience Tuscan organically grown foods and wines in the famous Tuscan pasture along with cypress tree lined paths. Only Stoic and progressive Tuscans can create this environment, preoccupied with health concerns; you can experience country cooking of Tuscany.

Learning Italian Cooking by Mamma

How to register

Calendar
 We offer One, Two, Three weeks, one and two, three months session.

Tuition & Fees

Courses:
(A) Full course on home cooking.
(B) Cooking in specialized area, you can combine pastry course, Home Baked Bread and Pizza Course, Home Made Pasta and Dry Pasta Course and Hors d’ oeuvre for the Party Course.
Example Recipe

3-8 person-small-class made it easy.
There are many advantages on small classes in which students can practice many important technical ingredients, for example, you can always pose questions directly to teachers: anecdotes, wisdom, having a coffee time with her, taking field class in the country to see chickens and rabbits at farm. You can only do these when you have intimacy in small classes. On nice summer days, classes could be held at country house. We set the limit on number of students to 3 - 8 people, since we do believe the small unit is the best environment for learning. In addition to small class format, we accommodate English-speaking assistants to your learning needs to make your communications effective and will be able to make your conversation with other Italians and friends fun.

Take glance at Italian food market
Let’s take a walk to the Florence Central Market with your instructor. Colorful red, all the vegetable, yellow Paplica, variety of cheese, salami and rabbits sold at the meat market-all crowded together. "Finding the most suitable fresh material is a key to the recipe that is fitting to the season", that’s what you hear from Italian Mamma. Students get not only good advises on compatible food ingredients to recipe but gaining some basic insights into food selections.

Field lessons at restaurants (Extra Fee)
We sponsor filed lessons at one of the most prestigious membership restaurants, "Pentola Deroro" where only members can eat. This is a great opportunity where you can directly get lessons from one of the best leading chef in a creative gourmet field, who is greatly admired and respected among others, who are involved in Italian culinary. You will use actual restaurant kitchen and will be able to learn professional cooking techniques.
*The shef made the recipe for the movie "Hannibal".

Do you want to experience a whole Italian gastronomy, not only recipe oriented cooking alone. That’s why you live in Florence.

Lodging in Florence
It is the most desirable to be able to stay in a living environment of the city where life is lived. You can stay in these apartments. These apts are to be shared with other students. These apts have kitchens where you can actually practice your own home cooking with freshly shopped foods from the market.

Local staff’s support
Our local staffs will welcome you, they are there to consult with you on various issues on living abroad. They will handle insurance issues, medical arrangements in case of emergencies and will attend as interpreters. It's comforting to know that you are in good hands of local staffs.

Instructors
Cooking instructors in Accademia Riaci are people who are in charge with restaurants in reputable hotels and popular agri-tourism and cooking consultants, who are authors of famous cooking books. Their professionalism in cooking are widely recognized, and their attractive personality has gained much confidence and made many fans from participants.

One of the teachers
Sig.ra Fiametta
Ms. Fiametta is a popular cooking teacher and cooking consultant. She came from a long linage of artistic family. Her late husband was Janfranco Frettsuori, well-known painter. Her father-in-law and grand father-in-law are also painter and her youngest son, Cojimo is currently Video Artist, and namely she has a long linage of artistic family. Her grandfather and grandmother, father and mother are from aristocratic family in Pistoia. She spent a graceful youth in Paris and Rome when she was young. Ms. Fiametta is currently using ex-art studio for her own apartment. This studio was used to be occupied by many famous painters and sculptors from many countries. There was an artist's community led by the late Janfranco Fretzilini who invited his fellow artists friends in good old days and had a lively conversation on art every night. The street lead to his apt came to be name as "Artist’s Path". She is a currently serving as a consultant to some restaurants in Florence and is in charged with popular agri-tourist restaurant. She specialized in Tuscan home cooking, but you will learn a variation of many regional Italian cooking.
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