Tuscany

Our cooking vacation in Italy is so much more than any run-of-the-mill vacation, it is a chance for you to learn the art of Italian cooking in the Italian countryside.

A vast estate, 150km south of Florence and 120km north of Rome, Santa Cristina Castle    is a wonderful and peaceful environment, the perfect backdrop to experience the traditional culture and lifestyle whilst picking up all the secret, techniques and skills required to cook a real four course Italian meal at home.

Supported my Slow Food Association, our cooking vacation at Santa Cristina Castle is taught by the talented chef Chandra Sina. A native, Chandra has strong international experience and skills in the area of traditional Italian cuisine and will teach you everything from antipasti and real home-made pasta to meat dishes and delicious local desserts.

With all the course ingredients being chosen by you from nearby farms and markets, you will be cooking with only the best fruit and vegetables, always fresh and seasonal, helping you to create real local Italian cuisine that will impress friends and family. Assisted by our expert sommelier you will also be able to compliment all your dishes with the highest quality local Italian wines.

So if you are looking for a cooking vacation that teaches real Italian cuisine in a relaxed and pleasant environment, Santa Cristina Castle is the perfect place for you.

Tuscany 2008 is an art and culture workshop adventure designed to bring you to your highest artistic vision. Offered are art workshops in watercolor painting, oil painting, clay sculpture. And this is not just a painting holiday; we also offer Tuscan cooking classes, Italian wine tasting and Italian language courses. The weeks spent with us will awaken your senses, bathe you in warmth and hospitality, and motivate you to bring out your best. You will be inspired and influenced by the art that shines everywhere, in the many exquisite medieval towns, in the countryside dotted with castles, villas and abbeys, and in the countless treasures created by the genius of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, and Cellini to name just a few. Combine this with warm, friendly people, and world-renowned cuisine, and you have the vacation in Tuscany you have always dreamed of.

2008 Workshop Dates: July 1- 8 and July 15 - 22

Our experience is purely Tuscan, and is one of the best personalized tours of Tuscany available. We have in-depth knowledge of the history and traditions which have combined to create this wondrous land and we do not want to keep it a secret! We have left nothing out, from the authentic Tuscan cuisine, the Chianti wine tasting, the motorcoach excursions, the art history tours to Florence, the Uffizi, and Siena, and comfortable accommodations in a 15th century villa padronale. Our instructors are world-class, and all are members of The American Watercolor Society. With our flexible schedule, you will be given individualized as well as group instruction and can paint or sculpt as much or little as you like.

In addition to the splendid days and nights at the villa, we will take three excursions by motorcoach. Our first stop will be Florence, capital of Tuscany and seat of the Renaissance. On a walking tour of Florence we will see the famous Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace and Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo of Florence with Brunelleschi’s dome and Giotto’s tower. We will also visit the medieval city of Siena.Florence
We will spend a morning at the Uffizi Gallery where we will be guided through the most important rooms and taught about the progression of Italian art from the 12th century to the 16th century. After a leisurely lunch at any of Florence’s great restaurants we are free to explore the great shopping treasures of this wonderful city, which include leather goods, jewelry and clothing found nowhere else in the world. In the afternoon we may visit the Bargello, national sculpture museum, or the Davanzati Palace, a perfectly preserved nobleman’s home from the 15th century.

Siena is a perfect medieval city, centered around the famous Piazza del Campo, where the Palio is run twice a year. A medieval parade in full costume precedes the race. Seventeen contradas compete to have their horse and jockey run a treacherous three-minute race around the ancient square. Each contrada has a special identity, colors, flag, and song. Children and adults proudly support their contrada all year long in anticipation of this exciting event.

Siena is an elegant town, from which the names burnt siena and raw siena are clearly derived. She has a long history of artistic rivalry with Florence. Siena boasts a magnificent Duomo which took over three hundred years to complete and is famous for its black and white striated marble. An artist’s dream, Siena is at once enchanted and romantic. We will take a walking tour of Siena, (comfortable shoes and ability to navigate hills a must) and sample her delicious specialties, panforte, ricciarelli and outstanding rustic cuisine.

TUSCAN COOKING SCHOOL offers a full-immersion opportunity to work with the finest chefs in Tuscany, creating characteristic recipes which have made Tuscany famous.

Tuscan rustic cuisine is simpler than most people imagine, and depends entirely on seasonal ingredients. We gather our herbs from the herb garden, and all local cheeses and meats come from the neighboring valleys.

In our program you are immersed in a culinary paradise, where you will live on the very farm where sheep graze, will walk the vineyards where the finest malvasia and sangiovese grapes grow and are harvested, to create ruby-colored perfect Chianti.

As a pre-requisite we recommend the TUSCAN COOKBOOK, to preview some of the Tuscan delectables you will be creating. The program includes four full days of cooking in a rustic Italian kitchen where we will learn recipes that can be easily duplicated at home:

Pappa al Pomodoro:     bread and tomato soup
Zuppa di Fagioli:     white bean Tuscan soup
Panzanella:     bread and vegetable salad with red-wine vinegar
Alla Brace:     grilled herbed meat delicacies
Carpaccio:     paper-thin slices of raw beef or fish served with Parmigiano-Reggiano and drizzled with olive oil
Cantucci di Prato:     traditional biscotti (twice-cooked) dessert bisquits
Tiramisù:     favorite recipe with custard, pan di Spagna and liquori (not Tuscan by origin)

Each participant will receive a printed recipe book with conversions from metric system.

WINE TASTING We will be visited by a local enologist and will sample the many traditional wines of Tuscany and beverages, such as Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcino, Morellino di Scansano, Vin Santo, Limoncino and Grappa.

What’s up with DOC? We will learn how to read a wine label, why wine tastes different in Italy, how to transport wine, which glasses are used for which wines, and why. We will know which wines to serve with what, and at what temperature, and when and how to decant wine properly. We will also study the geographic conditions necessary to produce great wine, and why Italy is one of the largest producers of the finest wine world-wide.