Picture this. Trips to a farmer’s market, a country farm and an olive oil press. Walks, bike rides and beach walks. You and your kids in a well-appointed kitchen creating fabulous meals inspired by all you’ve seen and under the tutelage of knowledgeable chefs, with lessons infused with a light dose of food facts and subtle healthy-eating messages.
Now, imagine you’re doing it all in Italy.
Cooking Vacations offers four different family programs that inspire with their names alone: Secret Garden Positano, Roman Holiday, The Fabrizio Tuscan Estate and Kiddies Culinary Calabria. Each program offers the chance to explore a different region of Italy and to learn from a local chef. All offer the opportunity to make new friends while learning to cook up a storm.
For instance, a pizza-making class may teach you and your kids how to mix, knead and roll dough to create a variety of pizzas using local seasonal ingredients. Along the way, you may hear the story of how Chef Raffaele Esposito, a Neapolitan chef and baker, created the world’s very first pizza for Queen Margherita using tomato, mozzarella, and basil, the colors of the Italian flag.
Or, imagine your child’s surprise when she learns that pasta does not always come from a blue box in the grocery store. Instead, kids can learn how to prepare and shape dough into fresh pasta and craft delicious sauces to top each one.
And of course, no Italian cooking program would be complete without homemade gelato, a class which might begin with a blindfolded, gelato taste test.
Each of the four different kids cooking programs offers a different itinerary. All offer many excursions and plenty of time to connect with the local culture. And Cooking Vacations promises to take care of all of the details. Mangia! www.cooking-vacations.com
