Culinary Tours with Umbrian master chefs and local cooks

Reserve now:
July 1–8, 2017 : Umbrian Culinary & Wine Adventure

In addition to offering small private tours, each year aWeekinUmbriaCooks plans one all out spectacular week — July 1-8. This is your opportunity 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.

Our hands-on lessons with local chefs and cooks are the authentic culinary experiences guests keep asking for more of. And 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 friends will share some of the dishes for which they are renown.

7-Day all inclusive Tour packages:
$2800 per person

(double occupancy in shared apartment or private B&B room. $350 surcharge for private room if available.)

Package includes all classes, accommodations at the beautiful Palazzo Fiumi-LaPlaca in Bettona, guided tours, most meals (there might be one lunch out on your own), wine tastings, pick up and return to airport (to meet one flight each way). Tour will accept up to 8 people.  Airfare is NOT included.

For more information write [email protected]

Join us for a special 2016 tour:

Sample Lessons: Great chefs, cooks, and friends

Villa Roncalli, Foligno: Our last 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 with my chef friend Jennifer McIlvaine. Fattoria Luchetti, in nearby Collazzone, specializes 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(among other delicacies Jennifer will whip up for us) 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.

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.)

Go to Accommodations pageFor more information write [email protected]