Taormina: Sicilian Cooking Class with a Chef

Our group of 4 really enjoyed the cooking class, including our husbands! We made pasta, eggplant parmesan, salted whole sea bream, sardine "birds" and breaded swordfish rollups. Great to see how Sicilians cook and everything was delicious! In addition to what we made, we enjoyed a cheese and bread platter, local wine + cannolis and lemoncello. A real feast! Highly recommend!

Perfect activity to begin our holiday. Learning about the different food, how to tell its freshness and then learning all of the different techniques for preparation and cooking. We made parmigiana, macaroni and tomato, fish baked in salt and swordfish rolls. It was a delight for all of the senses. Despite the fact there must have been almost 20 of us there, we were all well looked after and encouraged. The accompanying wines and good company made this a wonderful luncheon with our new family.

I did this activity with my 17 year old son a Ng d we both really enjoyed the activity. Paolo was our chef that day and he was very engaging and knowledgeable. At the Market he gave told us about the differences with some of the local produce and introduce us to his nan who worked there. We prepared 4 dishes - making pasta, swordfish croquettes, salt baked fish and aubergine gratin. One student had a food intolerance to some items and the menu was adapted so they could be fully involved. The food was great, the wine was plenty and the group chatted til the wine was gone and there was no pressure to move on. My son and I went back to the restaurant a couple of nights later and aolo was there and he made a point of coming over to speak with us a couple of times before his shift finished, which was very thoughtful. Well worth the price

Chef Paolo was entertaining and a joy to spend time with. Unfortunately, they didn’t have us on the list of participants, so we waited around for almost 30 minutes to be added to another group that never materialized. We were added to the original group (about 20-25 people) late and missed most of the market tour. That said, we really don’t feel that the market tour was much of a loss. We made and ate several dishes, all of which were really tasty. Had molto vino and great conversation with some of our fellow participants. Group size could have been a bit smaller as there were multiple classes happening at the same time, which made for a really crowded space. Disappointed with the start, but had a fabulous time once everything got sorted out.

We started at a restaurant where they offered us free water right away, which was really nice !! My sister and i were in a group led by Luka and Anthony. We were first at a market where Luka explained little more about the groceries. Then we went to another restaurant where we started with the cooking. Luka was trying really to entertain the group. I expected that we will be cooking one dish, but we did more. And to my surprise we even cooked FISH!!!! I am huge fan of any kind of fish dishes, so this was realy nice surprise. We made 3 dishes, and got a desert from them at the end. It was a really nice experience. :)))