How your private cooking class in Florence unfolds, step by step
A self-contained three-to-four-hour evening, structured like a private masterclass that ends with a real Italian dinner — your chef is yours alone for the whole time. He arrives at your Tuscan villa, holiday apartment or farmhouse rental forty minutes before the class start, sets up the kitchen and the patio table himself, and lays out flour, eggs, semolina and rolling pins one station per guest.
The first two hours — the Pasta Class. The chef teaches you the well, the kneading rhythm, the rest, and you roll your first sheets of fresh pasta together. Two shapes from the Tuscan repertoire (typically tagliatelle, pappardelle, ravioli or pici). Floury hands, mistakes corrected one by one, no demo, every guest works their own dough.
After the Pasta Class — the Dinner. While you sit down on the patio with a glass of Chianti, the chef plates two antipasti (crostini neri toscani, marinated vegetables or pecorino selection), drops your fresh pasta into salted water, finishes the two sauces — typically a slow-cooked ragù bianco and a butter-and-sage or pomodoro fresco — and serves the two pasta courses back to back. Closes with a homemade tiramisù assembled in front of you with a spoon of espresso poured at the last moment.
Then he cleans the kitchen and leaves the space exactly as he found it. You leave with the muscle memory of the technique and — in many Tuscan villas — a sunset on the patio that the photos will never quite do justice to.
The set menu of your cooking class in Florence
A fixed, deliberate menu — five dishes, one dessert, all built around the fresh pasta you produce during the two-hour Pasta Class:
Two antipasti. Crostini neri toscani with chicken-liver pâté · marinated zucchini and pecorino flakes with Tuscan olive oil (or seasonal variants like fig and prosciutto in late summer, pinzimonio with new-pressed oil in November).
Two fresh pastas with two sauces. Tagliatelle al ragù bianco di Chianina (slow-cooked white ragù, no tomato) · pappardelle al burro e salvia with grated Parmigiano (or seasonal swap to ravioli ricotta-spinaci, or pici cacio e pepe).
One dolce. Homemade tiramisù assembled in front of you with savoiardi, mascarpone and espresso poured at the table.
Wine pairing is an optional add-on, separate from the experience — you can book it together with the chef (Chianti Classico, Rosso di Montepulciano, Brunello, with or without a dedicated sommelier) or skip it and bring your own bottles from your villa cellar. Two to twelve guests, beginner-friendly, kids 6+ welcome on age-appropriate steps.
The set menu is fixed by design — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy adaptations always available on request.
