Tour Package Cost:
(8 days/8 nights) at Palazzo Fiumi-LaPlaca, Bettona (prices are per person)
$3,000pp double occupancy bedroom in shared apartment or B&B room
$3,300pp double occupancy in private apartment
$3,300pp single occupancy in shared apartment or B&B room
Package includes all classes, accommodations at Palazzo Fiumi-LaPlaca in Bettona, guided tours, most meals (there might be one lunch out on your own), pick up and return to airport (to meet one flight each way). Tour will accept up to 8 people. Airfare is NOT included
Accommodations:
Accommodations in a restored 17th century palazzo in the small hill town of Bettona situated between Assisi and Perugia. A variety of options for shared and private rooms are available and, if desired, additional private rooms are available in the town’s hotel, a few blocks away. Most lessons will be held in the palazzo’s wonderful kitchen with dining in the spacious rooms of the “piano terra.” (Accommodations for additional days are available for those who wish to stay longer or arrive earlier.)
Have a look at our other tours:
2016 Culinary Tours with Umbrian master chefs and local cooks
May 25-June 2: Infioriata and wine
July 13-21: Vegetarian Umbria
October 19-27: Olive collecting
8 days/8 nights (Tours are limited to 8 people )
aWeekinUmbriaCooks is happy to offer three extraordinary opportunities to experience Umbrian cooking up close and personal with a stellar cast of great chefs and cooks. If you’re looking for the best culinary tour of Umbria, this is it.
Thanks to a great response to our 2015 Culinary Tour, which sold out quickly, we are pleased to announce spring, summer, and autumn culinary tours in 2016 — each with their own theme. This time we are mixing it up even more by adding several new chefs and cooks giving both hands-on and demonstration lessons. (Yes, you will get into the thick of things.) Some lessons will be held in the palazzo’s beautiful kitchen and others in the kitchens of local restaurants. In either case, these extraordinary local cooks —all dear friends— will share some of the dishes for which they are renown.
8-Day all inclusive Culinary Tour package: $3000/$3300 per person. For more information go to Culinary Tours 2016 or write [email protected]
Join us for one of our fantastic 2016 Culinary tours:
Spring Tour: May 15-June 2, 2016
In addition to being a fabulous time to visit Umbria, our spring tour will include a visit to Spello for their spectacular Infioriata to see the incredible floral street paintings for which Spello is justifiably famous. Our local chefs will prepare homemade pastas with early vegetables (artichokes and asparagus), classic Umbrian dishes, and even a lesson using local fish. We will luckily also be able to partake of Umbria’s Cantine Aperte when many local wineries are open for tastings with live entertainment.
Vegetarian Tour: July 13-21, 2016
While famous for our pork, Umbria is also a wonderful place to discover the green heart of Italy, as we are known. This tour will focus on Umbria’s culinary diversity and meatless dishes traditionally a large part of cucina povera or peasant cooking. Homemade pasta (both with and without eggs) will be highlighted, as well as polenta, fresh soups and local lentils and farro, and several types of gnocchi. Learn a few of the palazzo’s specialty pestos and more in hands-on classes.
Autumn Tour: October 19-27, 2016
The October 19-27 tour will enable us to explore the ritual — from tree to table — of Umbria’s extraordinary olive oil. We’ll spend a day collecting olives (a rustic meal out in the orto will be a highlight) and then visit the frantoia where they are pressed. A very special treat indeed to pour fresh olive oil — just as it emerges from the press — over a piece of toasted bread. A dear friend will teach us how to make several different crostate using olive oil. And a new exciting morning will take us on a truffle hunt in the hills above Spoleto followed by a lunch of fresh truffles. This is a not-to-be-missed experience.
Sample Lessons: Great chefs, cooks, and friends
Villa Roncalli, Foligno: Our 2015 Culinary Tour lesson was supposed to be 4 hours and it stretched to 7 while Maria Luisa Scolastra prepared course after course. There was an amazing frittata with garden vegetables followed by a more than amazing filled gnocchi in two sauces, then risotto with roast pigeon in a fabulous sauce, then pork tenderloin in a Sagrantino (wine) reduction, and finally Marialuisa’s individual apple/pear cakes. It was all just too wonderful. Can’t wait to do it again with what’s in perfect season in 2016.
A morning with dear friends: Share a morning of raised dough and dolce. Luisella Reale, famous in Bettona for just about everything, teaches us two dolce recipes — torta della nonna and a crostata, Umbrian style made with olive oil. Loretta Bartolini teaches us the classic Umbrian torta al testo (Umbrian flat bread), cooked on a metal plate (a testo) on top of the stove and used traditionally for sandwiches. And, the treat of all treats, the amazing Margherita Sciattella, a 92 year old legend will share her recipe for the beloved zuccherini di Bettona, a traditional dolce found only, you guessed it, here in Bettona. A morning filled with local recipes and a chance to meet the real people that make living in Italy so memorable and the reason why Bettona is such a wonderful place to live.
Roberto Piergiovanni: Bettona is well known throughout Umbria as offering one of the best sagras (town festivals) featuring authentic local dishes. Who better to teach us how to make the classic sugo del’oca (goose sauce) than the delightful chef from our renown Sagra del’Oca (goose festival). Roberto will come to the palazzo to teach us how to make his famous sauce but also the traditional Umbrian umbricelli (fresh eggless pasta). Definitely a delicious treat for all.
Farm visit: Guests will spend a morning visiting the organic farm Fattoria Luchetti, in nearby Collazzone. Specializing in responsible meat production — Chianina beef, lamb, pigs, and chickens raised with an absolute commitment to a healthy farm to table philosophy. Tour the farm, see prosciutto preparation, understand the curing process, and watch sausage being made. The tour is followed by a wine tasting and outdoor lunch of grilled meats at the Terre Margaritelli winery in Torgiano.
Amanda Masoni of l’Osteria i Birbi opens her kitchen for a lesson in several of her most special dishes. First her wonderful vegetable tempura and battered bacalà and then her delicious faraona (guinea hen) stuffed with artichokes. Both are my favorites.
Your host, Michael LaPlaca, will certainly be in the act sharing some of the Palazzo Fiumi-LaPlaca’s special recipies like pannacotta with fresh fruit and vin santo, an amazing torta Caprese, as well as pepperoni jam, and other seasonal treats. His pasta workshop will focus on filled pastas and versatile sauces and one night we’ll whip up gnocchi for a relaxed dinner at the palazzo.
