Sure, you can Instagram all the amazing dishes you’ll eat when visiting Florence. But why not bring the flavors of Italy home with you by taking one of these cooking classes in Florence?
We’ve found the best cooking classes in Florence that strike the sweet spot of being wholly authentic but in English instruction. Bring home the best souvenir of knowing how to prepare your favorite Italian dishes!
Learn to Cook Tuscan Food
The foundation of Tuscan cuisine is all about bringing together a few, high-quality ingredients for a simple yet delicious meal. When you learn the basics of Tuscan cooking, you’ll have a skill set applicable to any cuisine.
Train like a pro when you take a cooking class at the APICIUS International Hospitality School. The same professional chefs that guide culinary students through the award-winning programs at Florence University of the Arts will teach you and your friends how to cook like an Italian.
Choose what you want to learn with a fully customizable workshop, or hop in on a class with college students for a day. Email [email protected] for information about pricing, workshops, and cooking class offerings.
Looking for something different? Mother and son team Daniela and Stefano provide the ultimate cooking class in Florence experience called Learn to Cook Like an Italian Mamma. Over the course of a few hours you’ll prepare your own lunch from scratch like gnocchi or tortelli di patate.
Daniela and Stefano will also share culinary secrets like which wine pairs best with lasagna, and why Italians never drink a cappuccino after 11 a.m.
Pasta Classes in Florence
Making homemade pasta might sound intimidating and time consuming. But when you take a pasta-making class in Florence you’ll discover how fun it can be!
Learn to cook and navigate the market when you book a pasta making class with Ileana at The Dolce Vita Experience. Ileana left her NYC advertising job to learn to make pasta in Florence, and she’s more than happy to share her personal la dolce vita with you.
Choose the “by day” fresh pasta class to shop at the Sant’Ambrogio market with Ileana for your ingredients before cooking lunch at her Florentine apartment. If you’d rather have the day to see the sights, have Ileana do the shopping and meet her in the evening to make an antipasto, fresh pasta dish, and dessert with her “by night” class.
Take a quick journey across the Arno river for a pasta making class at the Florence Food Studio. Founded by a world-renowned Florentine chef and two young Florentine aficionados, all the classes at Florence Food Studio teach you skills for life through traditional Tuscan culinary heritage with a modern twist.
When you take your pasta-making class, you’ll meet at Piazza Santo Spirito before shopping for your ingredients with your professional chef instructor. Then you’ll head to the school and get cooking!
Pizza Classes in Florence
Make-your-own-pizza night is one of the best parts of growing up. Take it up a notch by booking a pizza making class in Florence!
With over 70 years of pizza making experience, you will learn from the best of the best when you take a pizza class at Ciro & Sons. You also get a wine tasting included with your class!
Under the friendly guidance of the family, learn how to prepare the dough, spread the sauce, place toppings, and even take a crack at using the peel to slide your creation into the traditional wood fired pizza oven.
For one of the most family-friendly cooking classes in Florence, try the pizza and gelato making class at Florencetown. Make memories that will last forever, leaving with a full belly as well as a recipe booklet to take home.
After learning how to make your pizza with the pizzaiolo, a gelato expert will walk you through making your dessert. They’ll teach you the basic gelato ingredients, how to apply natural colors, and how heating or freezing impacts the flavors.
Dessert Classes in Florence
After gelato, the next best-known traditional Italian dessert has to be tiramisù. With its delicate layers of creamy custard and lady finger cookies flavored with chocolate and coffee, tiramisù is a sweet treat you can learn to make at home!
2016 Bake Off Italia contestant Rossella welcomes you into her home when you take her traditional tiramisù class. She is friendly, speaks excellent English, and can even accommodate gluten-free eaters with specially made gluten-free lady fingers.
If tiramisù isn’t really your thing but you want to learn Italian pastry, consider the 2-day pastry class at Florence Food Studio. You’ll become an Italian pastry master as you’re guided through the basic pastry bases, doughs, cakes, cookies, and spoon sweets.
Verity Pryor-Harden is a freelancer of many talents living in the historical Tuscan city of Arezzo while studying Visual Communications in Florence. She’s a sucker for a cold spritz in a piazza on a hot day, enjoys making bizarre wine pairings, and is a Tuscan street food enthusiast. Follow along on Instagram @verityeph.
