About us • Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany

About Us Cuoche in Vacanza (Chef for your Vacation)

We have decided to work in an atmosphere of warmth, happiness, and flavors. This is what we love doing and we would like to do it with people who want to learn the “secrets” of traditional cooking.

erika from cuoche in vacanza

ERIKA

I was born in the Tuscan Maremma.

It’s a land rich in genuine, popular culinary traditions that recall the perfumes and flavors from the mountains, the sea, and the rolling hills.
I learned to cook from my grandmother, whom I watched as a child totally transfixed. As she prepared peasant dishes, she would joke with me, give me advice, and reveal the tricks of the trade. Thanks to my daughters and their friends I specialize in desserts and I love to prepare them with the children in the relaxation of jolly holidays.

PROFESSIONAL CHEF and PROFESSIONAL SOMMELIER

I got the Professional Chef Certificate! And this is the opinion of the Examination Committee after tasting my dishes:

ERIKA ELIA – PROFESSIONAL CHEF

Erika has amazed the entire Commission for the passion towards the kitchen consistently demonstrated during the course and in the examination and the extreme accuracy and precision in the preparation of her dishes. Passion and precision, flair and concreteness, all factors that Erika has demonstrated very well knowing how to use the stove. She made her debut with a starter of artichoke mousse with sea bass tartare in blackberry vinegar, followed by the first course of soup crab from Argentario with a shrimps and prawns bisque in a bread crust; all prepared with an impeccable technique. Passed with flying colors amazing the examination committee with her signature dishes, is now ready for a bright career!
My Job is my Passion and I think I’ll always have something to learn from this exciting culinary world!

PROFESSIONAL SOMMELIER

I got the Professional Sommelier Certificate! From F.I.S.A.R: Italian Federation of Sommeliers Hoteliers and Restaurateurs

EMANUELA

I’m Emanuela, but everyone calls me Lella.
I spent my childhood in the mountains above Venice and then on to Venice.
My passion for good food and traditional regional recipes opened up a world for me of dishes passed down from grandmothers to their daughters.
I have my vegetarian husband to thank for getting me to learn how to cook fresh seasonal vegetables and pulses in the most appetizing ways so that even children love them.

valentina

VALENTINA

I was born in Sicily, in Palermo where I lived until I had to leave my homeland as family duties took me far away.

First the United States and then Pisa – in Tuscany- became my new home.
My children tell me I’m a good “cooker” which makes me laugh a lot and explains about me and what I love doing.
I like to experiment with food revisiting it and adding my personal touch. Along the way, I fell in love with the art of pastry and now I spend some time studying it and making cake decorations too.

Cooking Classes in Tuscany: you’re bringing home the best kind of souvenirs!

WHAT WE LIKE TO DO

Are you on holiday in a B & B, Resort, Villa, or Apartment …?
Do you want to taste some excellent traditional dishes?
Call us, we’ll do the shopping, we’ll come to you and we’ll show you how it’s done.
We offer you the opportunity to learn how to cook traditional Italian and Tuscan food.

The atmosphere of the courses and dinners is fun and we promise that you will enjoy everything that we prepare together.

We pay the utmost attention to the seasonality and authenticity of all the ingredients and choose our local suppliers according to the highest standards of quality.

Respect for Nature is paramount and is fundamental to Tuscan home cooking.

We have HACCP certification, to ensure the utmost care in selecting local suppliers and maximum hygiene both in the preservation and in the preparation of the products.

Are you planning a holiday in Tuscany?
Call us to enjoy fantastic dinners directly at your home in Tuscany.
Have you already booked a B & B, a cottage, a holiday home, an apartment?
Call us, and we’ll come directly to you at your place of residence
Haven’t booked yet?
Call us and we will be delighted to recommend some addresses of Resorts, Villas, and Cottages that we know personally.

About us: Cuoche in Vacanza the Adventure…how everything started

Even the longest journey begins with one small step.

About us: First the disappointment

Well, it all started on a winter afternoon while sitting on a bench waiting for my daughter to finish practice in fencing, I wondered what I would be when I’ll be an “adult”. Yes, because I left a couple of months, a research firm (I’m a sociologist), selling the shares to my friend and partner, and I had still in my mouth the bitter taste of disappointment. I had believed in that project, in three companions accustomed to working together. Furthermore, it was 2009, and the crisis began to peep, and expenditure increased at the expense of revenue. So who was financing the “social research”? Documentaries, videos, and various publications … were not a business. That’s why I thought just to stop that idea. Anyway, in the idleness of those rainy and slow afternoons, I started to look for a positive aspect of being without a job … everybody knew the negative aspects…too well, indeed, like thunder rumbling through my head of despair.

About us: Then the joy to be free

So, in one of those “research days” I spoke with Lella, another mother of the gym who had recently moved to Lucca, and, because of the work of her husband, had gone from managerial to home. Not that she was sorry, but felt the need to invent something for herself.
While Lella was speaking, it was more and more clear the positive aspect I was looking up and… then I found: “we are free,” I said, “Not everyone can freely choose to do something … we do not have time constraints, apart from family commitments, we will start again at zero … or remain at zero, and so if we restart … let’s start again from our passions, as well as from our expertise.
” Well! I must say that the appearance of “Food”, or the kitchen as a “research and expression of love,” immediately jumped out, and after a while ‘days of brainstorming, next to what appeared the English, the desire to socialize and to transmit to others, our great little “secret” in the creation of a dish.
Tuscany is a land rich in traditions, beloved by everyone, but especially sought after by those who appreciate the quality of ingredients.
We tried our free and twisted passions and our project was born: Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday), cooking classes, in fact much more.
That’s how the adventure began…
…and the Adventure never ends.

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