An exclusive experience: food market, private chef and lunch!

My two daughters and I meet Clara early in the morning by her apartment and walked to her local outdoor market. Clara was very welcoming and personable and we felt comfortable right away. It was clear from her interactions with the vendors in the market that they had an excellent relationship. We liked her philosophy of buying local and organic where possible. She even found goat Gorgonzola as I am lactose intolerant but to my surprise the vendor correctly told us that Gorgonzola even made with milk from a cow is lactose free. We walked back to her apartment where we met her husband Fabio and proceeded to cook her Winter seasonal menu. I have taken numerous cooking classes through out travels and found Clara's to be one of the best. She is very informative and makes you feel comfortable in her kitchen. It was a lovely mother-daughter activity. After finishing our cooking we ate our meal starting with some Prosecco and excellent wine pairings. All courses were delicious! We look forward to making all the recipes in Toronto.

An early Saturday morning start with a rendez vous set up at 08h30 with our hostess. We were meet by Clara our hostess and her husband Fabio. Clara explained our morning visit, with first a visit to her local butcher shop and then in to the local market. At the market most of the stalls had made an effort to decort their stands for Halloween. Clara explained to us the vast range of fruit and vegetables available from Italy and Clara was very keen to only buy Italian products and products in season. After our market visit we went back to Clara's house where we all washed out hands and moved into the kitchen to start cooking, we mad our own fresh pasta, a pumpkin and leek rissoto with cannoli shell filled with ricotta. Everything was done in a very orderly fashion and with plenty of enjoyment by everybody, at the end of cooking class we got eat everything we had cooked. At this stage I would warn everybody that you should eat only a very very small breakfast beforehand. Fabio and Clara are excellent hosts and the whole family realty enjoyed this cooking experience.

Cooking with Clara was one of my best experiences in Milano, she is so great! We cooked a vegetarian meal, all the dishes were excellent and I learned a lot from the cooking process with her. She is very helpful and professional. It's in her home so it makes it even more authentic. I definitely highly recommend this experience with or without the market walk which was also very nice.