Cooking class in Tuscany

One of the highlights of the trip was the cooking lesson we took at the International Academy of Italian Cuisine in Lucca with Chef Gianluca Pardini. Chef Gianluca is warm, patient, and clearly enjoys sharing his love of good food. We worked together under his supervision and learned to make oven-roasted peppers, bread and tomato salad, home-made pasta with zucchini, herb-crusted chicken, and peach tiramisu. Everything was delicious and Chef Gianluca made us feel very comfortable. A great experience!

Michael H. and Tristan preparing the zucchinis.

Maggie and Alan working on the peppers.

Joy preparing the tiramisu molds.

Assembly line for the tiramisu, along with a visitor from Holland who joined us.

Listening to Chef Gianluca's instruction on how to make pasta.

He clearly loves to cook.

Joy working the pasta dough.

Tristan and Joy learning how to roll the pasta dough evenly.

Dorcas joining in under the watchful eye of Gianluca.

Some of the pasta was cut by hand, and some by using a machine.

Getting ready to assemble the bread and tomato salad.

Vicki and Tristan adding some fresh basil to the salad.

The salad is ready!

At the table outside getting ready to start.

The setting on the covered patio was lovely.

Vicki and Maggie attacking the chicken.

Vicki with her tiramisu.

Delicious peach tiramisu. Fresh and original.

A wonderful meal and new cooking skills that we hopefully might be able to use back in Toronto.

Mario