Advanced Fundamentals of Tuscan Cuisine
Information on the Program

Five days of intensive hands-on instruction for advanced home cooks and professionals
Five days of intensive hands-on instruction in the advanced fundamentals of Tuscan cuisine using professional equipment. All 32 hours are taught by Sandra Lotti and her staff of chef instructors.

Skills taught include:
-Pasta shapes and how to marry them with sauces, plus the effective use of different flours and recipes
-Pasta sauces and fillings, including the essential ”soffritto” method for making Tuscan sauces
Basic sauces and soups
-Fish: cleaning, boning, filleting and preparation
-Chicken: boning, quartering, stuffing and preparation
-Pastry, cakes and custards, doughs and breads. Includes puff pastry, pate à choux and pasta frolla
-Vegetables: carving, stuffing, preparation
-Meats: lamb, hare, wild boar; how to roast, deep-fry and braise

Other highlights:
-Wine, cheese, truffle and olive oil tastings
- White Truffle hunt with Cristiano Savini and Truffle tasting menu at his restaurant
- A visit to our shepherdess Lidua and cheesemaking lesson, then visit to the central food market in Viareggio
- Wine tasting and Lesson with Emiliano Alessi from the celebrated Cennatoio Winery in Panzano in Chianti
- Every meal will be paired with the greatest wines of Italy

Toscana Saporita Cooking School announces its seventh annual Advanced Course, five days of intensive instruction in the advanced fundamentals of Tuscan cuisine, including pasta, sauces, soups, fish, meats, desserts, pastry, vegetables, cooking with wine, and wine pairing. All 32 hours of instruction are hands-on using professional equipment under the guidance of Chef Director Sandra Lotti and her staff of chef instructors.
A food and wine experience geared for both the advanced beginner and the professional chef, the Advanced Course takes you from the kitchen to the table to reveal the essential techniques behind Tuscany’s famed cuisine, and each day includes two leisurely meals featuring sumptuous dishes expertly paired with delicious Italian wines. In this course you’ll work with the key ingredients that are indigenous to Tuscany and indispensable to its cuisine, including game meats, Mediterranean fish, Tuscan vegetables, truffles, cheeses, olive oils and vinegars.

In addition to hands-on daily culinary instruction, the week includes wine, cheese, truffle and olive oil tastings, plus an amazing morning spent Truffle hunting with Cristiano Savini and hsi dog Giotto. Other excursions include a visit to the central food market in Viareggio .

The Advanced Course builds on Toscana Saporita’s 17 years of successful culinary instruction, having taught so many people the fundamentals of Tuscan cuisine. It all takes place on a charming country estate where for a week at a time, guests ”live like true Tuscans”, living in fully updated 16th-century rooms and enjoying leisurely meals on the estate’s sun-drenched lawn.

* Excludes airfare and is based on double occupancy with en suite bath, plus some limitations on air/rail transfers. For details, please refer to our Terms and Conditions.

The week’s itinerary is as follows:
SUNDAY
Arrive at Toscana Saporita
Welcome Lunch
Relaxing afternoon
Dinner and wine tasting

MONDAY
Continental breakfast
Morning lesson (4 hours)
Lunch
Afternoon lesson (4 hours)
Dinner with cheese and wine tasting

TUESDAY
Continental breakfast
Truffle hunt with Cristiano Savini
Lunch at Savini s
Afternoon lesson
Dinner

WEDNESDAY
Continental breakfast
Morning lesson (4 hours)
Lunch
Afternoon lesson (4 hours)
Dinner with wine tasting

THURSDAY
Continental breakfast
Morning excursion to Shepherdess and to Viareggio Market
Lunch
Afternoon lesson (4 hours)
Dinner and wine tasting

FRIDAY GRADUATION DAY
This day is dedicated to the students who will have to prepare a 5 course dinner as part of their graduation. They will cook all day with the supervision of the chef instructors. TS chef instructors will prepare lunch.

Continental breakfast
cooking
lunch
cooking
Graduation Dinner with wine pairing prepared by students

SATURDAY
breakfast
Depart Toscana Saporita