The Grain and Grape

You never really need an excuse to visit Florence, Italy, but when your cousin and his wife will be there during your 4-day weekend, it’s a perfect reason to go. We arrived in time to see them for a fun dinner, with lots of catching up and lots of pasta. It was nice to connect with some of our favorite people while traveling, the opportunity to do this makes us happy to live abroad. They flew out early the next day, and we headed to a Cooking in Tuscany Class.

Cooking in Tuscany

We had no idea what a treat we were in for with this cooking class. We started with a tour through the Florence Market Hall, with Chef Luca leading us and sharing informative and funny bits of information about Italian foods and cooking styles. As we went along, we caught on quickly that we were lucky to be with a top showman for a guide.

Chef Luca’s personality, comedic style, and non-stop energy created a fresh and engaging mood for the class. He called us by celebrity names like Barbra Streisand, Robert de Nero, and Queen Elizabeth, and made sure everyone was involved. Our group of 26 quickly became close through shared laughter and sheer amazement of the event.

With purchases from the market in tow, we all headed out to the Tuscan farmhouse. Not far from Florence, this is a gorgeous property, with views of rolling hills, villas, and churches. The teaching kitchen is set on a hill overlooking olive trees, an absolute dream setup. We met our second chef, Carmela, who works in perfect tune with Luca, with lots of singing and hilarity. They directed us in creating bruschetta, a ragu sauce, a pork loin, hand-made pasta, and tiramisu.

What a wonderful day, with so much laughter, learning, delicious foods, and new friends.

Chef Luca’s Cookbook

We highly recommend this Cooking in Tuscany tour both for being informative and constantly entertaining. Chef Luca has a cookbook available on Amazon, you can purchase it below. We are happy to own a copy, it’s full of clear, easy-to-use recipes, with QR codes that connect to his cooking videos. It also includes gorgeous photos of Tuscany, and of course, Luca, who is impossible not to love.

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Salute!

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