Culinary Insider Tours

Italian Culinary Insider Tour with Hands on Cooking in Puglia, Italy

2012 Departures:  Sep 12 – BOOKING NOW

Maximum 12 guests – One Week of Food, Fun and Friends! $2,900* per person

Passion in Italy takes many forms… love, food, family, fashion; the world agrees, that the Italians are a passionate culture.  And if you have been to our Supper Club, then you know Massimo’s passion is Food with a capital F!  He will tell you (whether you ask or not) that passion for cooking begins with a passion for the ingredients, keeping the preparations simple to honour those ingredients.  And cooking like an Italian begins with visiting Italy; Puglia Italy, to be exact!  

Cooking, Eating & Sleeping

You are invited to spend a week with Massimo, a crazy guy who loves to cook, eat and travel.   Throughout your 8 day, seven night culinary stay, he will share (because Massimo doesn’t teach)in his own words “all my cooking tips, everything I know about food and this it can’t be written into a program, it just comes out from my heart. When you cook with heart, everything tastes better. “

In cooking with Massimo you will enjoy authentic cooking and real Italian life in Puglia not like a tourist or student but like a member of his Family! Guests will learn the food recipes, but more important, the week will be about spending time at the table as a family far from the busy demands of the city and the frenetic lives left behind.

Your accommodations for the week are at Masseria Fumarola, in the heart of the Puglian countryside. Originally built in the 8^th century as a series of Trullos, the Masseria  is the largest of the Trullos as the main house with several smaller rooms for sleeping and entertaining.

The kitchen is set inside the main house and is where all cooking lessons will take place.

The Masseria includes 14 guest suites, equipped with: wireless internet, satellite TV, jacuzzi, air conditioning, and minibar.  Guests may choose from suites that provide the experience of sleeping in a “palmento”, the area once employed for the production of wine, or an apartment in which each room is a different “trullo”, the traditional cone structure that forms the basis of local architecture.

Cooking lessons take place in the Masseria kitchen with Massimo, and he will take you on a culinary journey into the history and heart of Italian food. As a native Puglian, Massimo grew up to the stories and legends that guided the food they ate.  Now living in Canada, it has been Massimo’s calling to preserve these traditions and let others experience this unique way of life where time and the fast pace of  the city are distant and unknown.  Massimo creates this environment in his downtown Supper Club and now invites you to experience his homeland, first hand, along with him.

Program Overview (see detail itinerary for day by day activities):

• Seven night’s accommodation in 4-Star Masseria Fumarola, based on double occupancy
• Daily Italian breakfast (pastries, meats, cheeses, coffee)
• Welcome dinner at a local pizzeria
• 2 Hands-on cooking classes (after shopping locally for ingredients)
• Olive oil tasting at Caroli Olive Farm
• Cheese making demonstration at a local dairy
• Wine tasting at Albea Winery with cheese and salami
• Excursion to Matera with lunch at a local Salumeria
• Excursion to Lecce with lunch at an important historical home
• Italian feast at Massimo’s mom’s house (homemade pasta and more!)
• Panzerottata dinner at the farm with family and friends

Detailed Itinerary: 8 Funfilled Days

The everyday routine will start around 8 am over coffee to plan what is needed for our daily cooking.  Then, on cooking days, its off to the market to buy the freshest local ingredients.  Back to the Masseria by 10 am and incorporating  these ingredients, the daily lesson begins, this is a hands on experience, so guests practice techniques and ultimately work for their lunch, because in Massimo’s words, “you don’t just think I’m here to cook for you!”.   Lunch will be ready by 1 or 2 pm and then time for a siesta until 5 pm.  Evenings will include a number of optional excursions to several local towns, everyone is welcome and transportation costs are included, just have fun!

Day 1 – Check-in & Welcome

Arrive at any time today, there are no activities planned. If you’re coming from the airport or the train station, Massimo can arrange a transfer to the Masseria. Just ask! Once you’ve settled into your room at the Masseria Fumarola, enjoy the chance to wander around the farm and get to know the beautiful surroundings. This evening Massimo will meet you and your fellow travellers at the hotel and take you into the nearby town of Martina Franca. In this pretty, whitewashed Baroque style town you’ll enjoy an authentic dinner at his favourite pizzeria. If there’s time, Massimo will show you around the shops and introduce you to some of the local characters.

Day 2 – The Cooking Begins! Menu del giorno

Let the cooking begin! After breakfast at the hotel, Massimo will take you into the market to find the freshest ingredients for lunch. With Massimo’s help, you’ll choose your produce, chat with the local vendors and learn all about the vegetables, meats, cheeses and olives you’ll be using for your meal. Exploring the local stores and markets with an Italian chef is the only way to do it! Afterwards, you’ll head back to the farm and have the unique opportunity to learn some of Massimo’s cooking secrets.

Here’s a sample menu for the cooking class:

• Peceroni Ripieni (Stuffed sweet bell Peppers with pecorino and eggs)
• Pappardelle con purea di fave (Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with white fava beans)
• Dentice al Forno(oven baked Snapper with olives, tomatoes and garlic)
• Asparagi bolliti(steamed wild asparagus)
• Torta di Mandorla(Pugliese Almond  cake)

Day 3 – Taste your ingredients!

Today is a day of tasting. You’ll enjoy a visit to the Albea winery with one of Massimo’s friends, Mimmo. Here, Mimmo and Massimo will make sure you taste the wines and sample some of the best local cheeses and even some wild boar salami. Massimo will help explain the ingredients and the processes involved, so by the end of the tour, you’ll be a pro! Don’t forget to leave enough room for your next stop, at Caroli Olive Farm, for an olive oil tasting. Here, Massimo’s friend Antonella will describe how the best flavours are extracted from the olives, before you sample the most delicious varieties.

Day 4 – More Cooking!

Now that you’ve had a chance to visit the local area and learn about some of the most important ingredients, it’s time for another cooking class. After a visit to the market, you’ll be preparing a traditional Puglian meal for lunch. Then, after all your hard work, it might be time for a quick, refreshing siesta! Then, perhaps this afternoon you’ll have the chance to visit Massimo’s favourite local dairy for a tour and a cheese making demonstration.

The Cooking Continues! Another sample menu:

• Funghi Gratinati con rucola
• (Roasted Mushroom)
• Minestra di Riso e Lenticchie
• (Rice and Lentil soup)
• Gamberi alla Griglia
• (Grilled Shrimps with lemon and mint sauce)
• Tortino al Cioccolato(warm chocolate cake)

Day 5 – Day trip to Matera and then Dinner at Mamma’s!

Today you’ll be sampling a little bit of culture!  Massimo will take you out to the old town of Matera, a unique city carved into the soft stone of the region. Most of the old houses are literally carved into rock, and until the mid 50’s much of the town didn’t have electricity or running water. For the most part, these old houses are no longer in use, but the town remains a favourite for local tourists. Don’t forget to take your camera!  And, if you’re lucky, perhaps tonight will be the night you make a stop at Massimo’s mom’s house for a traditional pasta dinner - what more could you hope for? She’ll be expecting you, with loads of her famous homemade orecchiette and loads of love for everyone, Mamma-style!

Day 6 – Love Lecce!

Today Massimo takes you to the elegant, ancient city of Lecce, one of Puglia’s most important centres. Lecce is the home of Baroque art, and it’s famous for its many gorgeous limestone carvings and ceramics. But, of course, this is Italy, so Lecce also an important agricultural centre, producing some of the world’s best olive oils and wines. You’ll have a chance to explore, do a little shopping and enjoy lunch with one of Massimo’s friends, Inda, who will show you around one of the local historic homes which also serves as a museum.

Day 7 – Massimo’s style, I’ll make up a great day for you!

Day 8 – Fond farewells

It’s hard to believe that today is the last day! Now you’ve had a chance to see Puglia through the eyes of an Italian chef, you’ve had a home-cooked meal with an Italian mother. You’ve sampled some of the best meats, breads, cheeses, oils and wines in the world – and you may even have picked up some key phrases in Italian! But the best part of all is that you can go back home and relive some of these incredible memories through your own cooking. Memories like these cannot be purchased from a restaurant.

Please note: this is a loose itinerary all’Italia! The included activities will remain the same, but the timing may not be exactly as described.

Puglia a World of Culinary Delights

Puglia has a microclimate that ensures sunny weather for much of the year; certainly from April to October it is at least warm enough to wander around without a jacket. Il solleone, the so-called lion sun, and a fertile land allow Puglia to grow intensely flavoured olives, fruit and vegetables in abundance. Thus, it produces much of Europe’s pasta, presses most of Italy’s olive oil, catches the bulk of the country’s fish and makes plenty of good, strong wine – enough, in fact, to be the sixth biggest wine-making region in the world.

In this beautiful setting, guests will discover the art of “Cucina Povera”(The Poor Cuisine), the cuisine that represents most the south of Italy, made with genuine and unpretentious ingredients which describes  a way of eating as well as a way of life… just simple!

Bookings and questions:

Massimo Bruno
massimobruno@rogers.com
416.558.3360

Program Price

* $2,900 per person, based on double occupancy; airfare and taxes extra. For those choosing to travel solo and wishing a private room, the Single Supplement rate is an incremental $550 .  Please indicate if you are willing to share your room with another person of the same gender to avoid the Single Supplement rate.

For more information please contact Chef Massimo  at massimobruno@rogers.com, or ask your Travel Agent to Contact our Italian Tour Operator, Alitours International Inc. at  info@alitours.com.

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