Syracuse Hands-On Sicilian Street Food Cooking Class

Excellent time with Hectore. HE made the event!! The meeting location was switched on us within 24 hours of the event to a location more than a 30 minute walk away, so we thought we were in for a bad day, but it turned out amazing because it the care and detail that Hectore put into it. We have so much fun making Arancini and a wonderful strawberry salad, then had a great meal of our creations afterwards. Very good day!!

The chef was great. There was a mixup with the meeting place. We were at The Bar Christina 15 minutes before the specified time of 12.30. But the chef called the other couple & asked to collect them at 12 instead. We kept asking the bar staff & eventually they called the chef who told us to get a taxi to where his kitchen was. So we were an hour late through no fault of our own & missed shopping in the market.

We very much enjoyed our time with Ettore. He took us around the street food market and seemed to know everyone there, many of whom offered us samples as he picked up the items needed for our cooking class. We had fun making three different types of arancini and realized there is an art to it, as ours turned out quite oversized with a heavy rice to filling ratio. I’m sure we’ll improve with practice. All in, a very fun activity for the whole family.

We had a wonderful afternoon with Ettore, who walked us through the market and introduced us to his many many friends and showed us the great Sicilian ingredients (no pressure to buy anything and Ettore buys all the ingredients you need for the cooking). We then went back to the seafront restaurant and learnt how to make arancini on the terrace overlooking the sea which was amazing! Ettore was so knowledgeable and welcoming and the food tasted delicious!

The whole experience was wonderful! Ettore was an excellent guide and chef, and was particularly great with our six year old daughter. We got an excellent tour of the market, where we sampled different foods and got fresh ingredients. Then we made three kinds of delicious arancini and a strawberry dessert. Overall fantastic experience that we would highly recommend!

An outstanding experience beginning with a walk/tasting through the marketplace. Our Chef Ettore was just wonderful. Informative, knowledgeable, gave clear instructions and made the class fun. Made it seem very easy but we know it was his expert skill level. We look forward to going home and putting our cooking skills to work. Thank you so much. Corinne, Karen and Aurora

This was a great few hours spent with our Chef! He took us through the market for a small shopping trip first. Headed back to the kitchen where we made arancini and cannoli! Delicious and so much fun. Highly recommend this for anyone seeking to do something outside of the normal sightseeing tours, and to absorb some food culture of amazing Sicily!