Extra Virgin Cooking Classes / Countryside Mill location

Cannot recommend taking this class with Giuseppe enough! Giuseppe is a fabulous chef and instructor, and our family spent a wonderful day at his family’s mill, learning, cooking, and devouring a four course meal. I’m a vegetarian, and he made sure that we prepped recipes that also fit within my dietary requirements, or made sure to prepare an alternative (I.e., vegetable sauce rather than meat ragu). Beautiful location; really, not to be missed if you’re in this part of Tuscany.

Giuseppe is a chef with lots of knowledge to share. We made an ambitious menu of delicious typically Tuscan and other dishes with him, including a local soup, gnudi in meat ragu, risotto, and a fabulous vanilla and lemon custard. The setting is gorgeous in his family's old olive mill, right on a stream in the countryside, while inside the house itself looks like a magazine with gorgeous dining room, warm hearth and a kitchen to die for. We were part of a large group, which made it challenging for all to have hands on for everything but I don't think most people would be bothered by this. Before the class we had a visit to the local marketplace to buy ingredients and the kind vendor there even gifted us a bag of cherries!

This class was one of the highlights of our trip to Italy! Giuseppe is very welcoming, engaging and full of life. The class was excellent, cooking three Tuscan dishes, and the setting was beautiful - in his ancestral family home, which was formally an olive press by the river, with much of the buildings over hundreds of years old and fantastically preserved and maintained. It was authentic, informative, and most importantly, fun. I will be coming back to do this again someday.