Chefactory Market Tour in Florence+ 4 courses Cooking Class

What a great time! We went to the local market which was huge, and saw where all the fresh ingredients came from. We were treated to a little tasting before we went to the school and made our meal. We made tiramisu, hand made fettuccine, a sundries tomato pesto sauce and a dish with chicken and vegetables. It was all delicious! They also provided some Chianti wine with our meal. This was supposed to be a lunch but we were all completely stuffed for the evening. Everyone in our party absolutely loved it!! Thanks Katrina and Stefano!!

We expected much more cooking in this experience. We booked direct from their website and they described it as a “hands on cooking lesson” where “you will taste everything you made”. The reality is, after the market visit (where you try truffle oil, truffle paste, oil, balsamic vinegar & biscuit with wine - all at one location where a shop employee gives you samples and then you’re invited to purchase), then you try a tiny piece of cheese elsewhere, you walk back to the kitchen. In groups of 6 or so, you watch the chef prepare parts of a meal, your table of 6 then does the same thing- but not everyone does everything. It’s a community prepared meal where you might get to cut a tomato or an onion, stir some cream if you’re lucky. You’re then told how the meals are finished - you don’t get to see it because you go in another room where they being the completed meals to you. So our table of 6 cut some tomatoes, onion and garlic and basil - and the company then toasted bread, and one person then put the tomatoes on the bread - bruschetta done! For dessert, one person put gelatine sheets in water and then we watched the chef stir milk, add vanilla. One person then added the gelatine to the milk mix and another poured the mix into tiny cups- that’s desert finished. It was brought to us later with some compote on top (that someone else did). The pasta dish that the group made was in fact gnocchi. One person pushed pre-prepared potatoes through a sieve, another mixed pre-prepared flour into the potato mix. The one ball was cut into 6 and each person could roll it out and cut about 10 pieces of gnocchi. It was then put on a dish and we had nothing more to do with it. It was cooked by someone else (we didn’t see), combined with a sauce cooked by someone else (we didn’t see) and brought to the table in the other room where we were seated. We had a chicken dish which was more of the same. Pre cut chicken was seasoned and floured by one person, seared by another and veggies (that the group cut up between us all) were then added. Lid put on and the next time we saw it was when it was served to us in the next room. It’s simply not a cooking class, it’s more of a demonstration where participants get to do a few bits and pieces. Very disappointing!

My partner and i had a fun time doing the market tour and cooking class. The market tour was a good insight in to the produce they sell and cook with. We got to do some tastings. The cooking class was fun making 3 meals in 2 groups of 6