Ecco la Cucina The Italian Culinary Experience
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cookbook cover

 

Ecco La Cucina Cookbooks Now Available!

The Ecco La Cucina Cookbook is finally ready for release and available to ship! Thank you to everyone who waited patiently.

The book is a collection of traditional dishes of the Siena area and is filled with information, helpful hints and interesting stories. Hardcover with a spiral binding, the book is also functional and easy to use in the kitchen.

More information...

 
 

Ecco La Cucina offers culinary tours focusing on the wine and foods of Tuscany. The culinary tours include hands-on cooking classes and offer an in-depth learning experience about the foods and wines of the Siena area. The small, intimate classes are designed to maximize your exposure to Italian foods and cooking techniques, allowing you to brush up on your skills or learn new ways of approaching food. The wine education exposes you to some of the most important wines of Italy and allows you the opportunity to taste many Tuscan wines.

Taught by Italian-American chef, Gina Stipo, this fun and informative week-long immersion style culinary tour and cooking class will highlight regional dishes, locally produced cheeses, olive oils and wines and includes excursions to the surrounding area to enhance your learning experience. True to the Italian way of eating, the meals prepared will focus on what is fresh and in season.

Both single day classes and week long courses are available.
   
   

Week Long Culinary Course and Tour
6 - 12 people maximum per Tour

This week long Tuscan Culinary Tour and cooking class includes four hands-on classes and demonstrations, followed by either lunch or dinner. Local wines are featured for an exposure to the many kinds of wine Tuscany offers.

When we’re not in the kitchen cooking, we will be taking day or evening trips to gain further understanding of Italian food and wine. We’ll visit an artisan goat cheese and Cinta Senese pig farm and taste their products, as well as a trip to taste Brunello’s in Montalcino and a saffron farm in San Gimignano. A whole day is dedicated to wine tasting in Chianti, with visits to cellars, castles and estates. A morning is spent at the market of Siena with a guided tour of this beautiful medieval city to follow.

Day trips remain flexible to take advantage of seasonal activities and so best expose you to all the best Tuscany has to offer.

 
   
 

Accommodations for the week long Italian Cooking Class are just a short drive from Siena, situated in an 18th Century villa and farmhouse, which have been carefully restored to maintain many of the original Tuscan architectural features. Open fireplaces, wood burning ovens, dining outdoors and swimming pools are all a part of our lovely surroundings. The estate is beautifully landscaped with gardens of lavender, herbs and flowers, as well as olive groves and cypress lined lanes for walks in the woods.

   
 

What do students say about Gina & Ecco La Cucina?

"This was the best culinary week I have ever been on - and I've done others in Italy and in France. Gina's insider's view gave us information not only on the food but of the culture and history of the Tuscans.

The whole week was so interesting and great. Every day we woke up and said 'yesterday was my favorite day', how will she top that?! And then by the end of that day we were saying this was our favorite!"

   
  Member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP)
   
  Ecco La Cucina's Chef Gina Stipo is profiled in the
August/September 2005 issue of Traditional Home Magazine!


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