From Farm to Fork: Rome's Countryside Cooking Class

This was my 2nd visit to Rome, had done all the normal sites so wanted to get out of town and experience something new and fun. This was a fabulous experience. Let me start off by saying, I'm not a big Italian food lover, but that's not why I did the class, wanted the experience of making fun dishes and meeting new people. Our chef, Eugene, was great and very patient with us non-chefs, thanks for making the class a delight. The town where we went for the class, Mazzano Romano, was exactly what I wanted in a small Italian village, loved every moment of our time there. If you're looking for a fun, laid back, new experience in Rome, pick this adventure, you won't be disappointed.

The tour started with pickup in the center of Rome driving north and around 40 minute trip to a small town called Mazzano Romano. Eugene and Tamara were the chefs, patient and friendly, and took us to small food market including a butcher to gather ingredients to make gnocchi, ravioli and cavatappi pasta. The five hour cooking class including making fresh pasta including ravioli with ricotta and artichokes, cacio pepe gnocchi and cavatappi with red pepper and pomodori sausage sauce, baked potato and thin slices of veal and prosciutto. Dessert was homemade tiramisu. The tour also include bottle of white wine. In my opinion, the tour was not worth $456 USD. You can find a cheaper cooking class in the center of Rome for half the price. The cost of ingredients may have cost around 60 Euros. Perhaps the price was high due to cost of gas making the trip to and from Mazzano Romano.

Went on this excursion in December with a friend. It was by far the most fun we had. There is a maximum of 8 people, but it ended up being just my friend and I. We were driven to a small town outside of Rome where Roy took us shopping at a few local shops to pickup ingredients for what we were going to make. Then we went to an apartment in a castle to start preparing our meal. We made several dishes some of which were ravioli and tiramisu. I can’t speak more highly of Roy and Tamara. They were both patient and just wonderful instructors. I would suggest this to anyone who wishes to do something unique.