Mamma Wanda is chuckling as I roll out the pasta.  I’m trying to mimic her rapid rhythmic movements but it’s tricky with a one metre long wooden rolling pin.
She’s been showing us how to make strangozzi, (shoelaces‚ to you), an ancient Umbrian pasta made with a mixture of spelt and doppio zero‚ (OO‚) flours mixed with water and a little salt.
The class is being held in a large terracotta-tiled room at Mandorli, an enchanting agriturismo‚ on a hill just outside Trevi in south-east Umbria.
 “It’s easier to roll out egg pasta,” she laughs. “You just need to practise a little.”
A sturdy vital woman in her middle years, she first learnt to make this pasta standing on a little stool beside her nonna‚ (grandmother).

She takes over again and deftly rolls it out to fit the size of the table, dusts it with fine polenta so it doesn’t stick then rolls it up and cuts it into ‘shoelace’‚ size pieces. These are then placed  on a clean hemp cloth and handed to one of her daughters.
“Which bed shall I put them on to dry out?” she asks.
It’s not the sort of question one expects in a cookery class but then Wanda’s classes are unique.  The dishes she teaches and the techniques she employs have been passed down from generation to generation and the ingredients used are grown on the farm.
“We call it cucina dei poveri‚ or food of the poor,” she explains. “Many people call it cucina povera‚ but that’s incorrect because it’s not poor food.  All the ingredients are fresh and grown locally.”

The sun-drenched hills around Trevi are studded with olive trees and produce some of the best olive oil in Italy. Wanda’s family have lived and worked on the 45 hectare farm since the sixteenth century and she now runs it with her three friendly daughters. Olives, cereals, vegetables and fruit are grown on the farm and there is also a fully-restored 17th century olive press.  During October and November guests can participate in the olive harvest.  Cooking classes here are available on request and include authentic local dishes like Trevi black celery with sausages, torta al testo (stone cooked rustic flat bread) with various savoury and sweet fillings, panzanella (tasty bread salad), tagliatelle al tartufo‚ (home made egg pasta with black Umbrian truffles) and zuppa di lenticchie‚ (lentil soup).   A few days at Mandorli‚ and I felt fully immersed in the food culture and history of this unspoilt area.

Being welcomed into someone’s home is a real treat because not only do you learn the local specialties, you also get to meet and mix with the locals. Occasionally such locals include members of the aristocracy like the Marchesa Anna Tasca Lanza di Mazzarino who runs a school at Regaleali, her magnificent family estate in the heart of Sicily. Classes are held in autumn and spring at Case Vecchie, an old stone compound in the middle of extensive rolling vineyards.  Her charming white and blue-tiled demonstration kitchen is full of fresh farm produce where dishes - like panelle‚ (chick pea chips), pasta con le sarde‚ (pasta with sardines and wild fennel), sfincione‚ (Sicilian pizza) and cassata are prepared and then paired with the estate’s wines.  
A five-day stay includes daily cooking classes plus side trips like a tour of the winery by a wine expert, a visit to the weekly market of Vallelunga and lunch at a local trattoria to sample special dishes made with wild asparagus or wild mushrooms.

The Marchesa, who has written three books on different aspects of Sicilian food, speaks English well and is very knowedgeable. Up to 12 students can be accommodated in her home or in the home of her sister Costanza and a stay here offers a glimpse into the life of one of the grand families of this fascinating island.

Also in Sicily on the southern coast at Menfi is Villa Ravida, a chic frescoed 18th century villa where Ninny Ravida and her daughter Natalia teach unusual Sicilian recipes like pasta con i broccoli in tegame‚ (pasta with saffron cauliflower, dried raisins and pinenuts), spatola in agrodolce‚ (sweet and sour belt fish), ditalini con la borragine‚ (ditalini with borage) and cuccia‚ (wheat pudding with chocolate and cinnamon).  Their dishes reflect two Sicilian cookery traditions – that of the sophisticated 19th century French-Sicilian baronial cuisine with the more earthy peasant tradition.  The family produces award-winning olive oil from the olive trees at La Gurra, their estate just outside the town. Classes take place in the kitchen of the villa and outside in a leaf-strewn courtyard around a large marble table. Some accommodation is available at the villa and the Ravidas go out of their way to make you feel at home. Side trips to the colourful fruit and vegetable markets in Palermo can be arranged plus visits to Agrigento and Marsala and the local markets at Menfi.  

For Elizabeth Grey, a Sydney-based IT project manager, attending a cooking school in a foreign country is a great way to travel as a single woman.
“It makes it really worthwhile if they offer side trips because I don’t like to drive in Europe on my own,” she says.
Last year Grey went to La Combe in the Perigord Noir region of South West France. Set in a beautifully restored farmhouse, classes are conducted by guest chefs like Damien Pignolet (Bistro Moncur, Sydney) and Di Holuigue (The French Kitchen, Melbourne).
“I took the week long program and ate and drank myself silly,” she says. “The classes were hands-on and we cooked frightfully unhealthy dishes like duck confit and used local products like foie gras and black truffles.
“Side trips to the Sarlat markets, a chateau- vineyard in Bergerac, the Lascaux caves and Rocamadour really made it worthwhile for me.”

She’s also been to classes at La Mirande in Avignon, France and Villa Lucia in Lucca, Italy and is now busy planning her next culinary jaunt to either Crete or Morocco through Sue Wilson, a Melbourne-based culinary travel consultant.

 

Closer to home, Janet De Neefe welcomes people into her seductive Honeymoon Guesthouse compound in Ubud, Bali, where she has been holding cookery classes for well over a decade.  Married to a local Balinese, Melbourne-born De Neefe has spent years learning the customs and cuisine of this “island of the gods” and has compiled a cookbook (Fragrant Rice‚) detailing her experiences and insights. Classes are held in an open-air pavilion in the spacious tropical grounds of her garden and include a morning trip to the local markets which are crammed with exotic spices and foodstuffs. Depending on what’s available at the market you might learn dishes like ayam gerang asem‚ (sour chicken stew), pepesan ikan‚ (grilled fish in banana leaves), urab pakis‚ (fern coconut salad ) and rujak‚ (chilli-tamarind fruit salad).
“Traditional Balinese food is an important aspect of the culture,” she says.  “It is surrounded by complex customs related to the meaning of food, the function of food and the distinct value systems of the people.”
Sitting in her pavilion surrounded by spicy cooking smells and sipping home-made chilled bright pink hibiscus tea is as close as you’ll get to heaven.
Such culinary holidays are not to everyone’s taste.  Serious foodies like Elise Pascoe (who runs her own up-market cooking school on the south coast of NSW) seek out professional schools like Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.  The basic three month course will set you back 7000Euros and the Grand Diplome 30,000 Euros.  A day course is 139Euros.
“That’s where I  learnt the most,” she says. “It was the most professional with the best equipment and the only school where I had seriously demanding exams.  For example in my patisserie exam I had to make a croquembouche for a wedding with a nougatine base to stand it on, 100 choux pastry balls filled with three different flavoured creams, a top-knot with Paris almonds for fertility hanging off it and all spun in a net of golden toffee.
“I also made some lifelong friends who were as interested in cooking as me.”
Twelve week Certificate Courses are also available at Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork Ireland.  Founded by Darina Allen in 1983, this highly regarded school offers a wide variety of shorter classes including “New Trends in Cooking”, “Brilliant Breads” and “Irresistible Breakfasts”.  About half of the students taking the 12 week Certificate Course go on to become professional chefs while the others acquire the knowledge and skill to cook at a professional level.
“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,“ says Zita Coleman, a Sydney-based travel consultant.  “The spacious light kitchens are a joy to work in. And the ornamental fruit and vegetable gardens are staggering. There were herbs in the formal herb garden that I’d never heard of. Plus it’s all organic. They grow everything they cook including cattle, pigs, ducks, chicken and sheep.”

But maybe you really want to challenge yourself with instruction from a Michelin star chef?
Nine star Michelin chef Alain Ducasse (3 restaurants/3 stars each) opened his Paris-based school, complete with stylish hi-tech kitchens, in 2004. It quickly became the best place in town for serious amateur cooks who want to learn new techniques and add ambitious recipes to their repertoire.  Most of the teachers have cooked in Ducasse’s restaurants and the courses are an intelligent reflection of what we are eating now (like bistrot and brasserie food).  The catch is that classes are in French, though translators are available (at a hefty price).
At Oxford in the U.K.,  Michelin star chef Raymond Blanc conducts hands-on “maximum reward with minimum pain” courses at Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons. Set in a lovingly restored English manor house, the new look classes allow you to choose between residential and non-residential.  If staying in-house, don’t be surprised to find your chef’s whites laid out on the bed of a morning before starting class. Visits to the vegetable garden will make your stay even sweeter.

Then there’s our very own Michelin star chef David Thompson whose wicked sense of humour adds spice to any class.  He conducts Thai cooking classes at The Sydney Seafood School and Simon Johnson in Sydney and Black Pearl in Brisbane.  He also takes a ten day culinary tour through Thailand starting in Bangkok then moving north to the magnificent Four Seasons resort at Chiang Mai.  Here, in a fabulous outdoor pavilion, students learn about the rugged jungle food of this mountainous regions with dishes like venison stir fried with basil, catfish deep fried with garlic and peppercorns and spicy curries with aubergines and wild ginger. The tour finishes on the southern tip of Koh Samui where you fish from a boat for tropical fish then grill and eat it with chilli and lime sauce on one of the sparkling beaches.  
Before you make any bookings, make sure you know what type of class is being offered: is it demonstration only? hands-on? does it involve gutting and preparing fish or plucking game or rolling out pasta (not to everyone’s liking)? who is teaching – is it a professional chef or cook or someone who knows the local cuisine well? does the programme allow free time so that you can tour around the area? is the accommodation on-site or in a nearby hotel (and included in the cost)?  Are the classes in English?
Oh yes, and what length are the rolling pins? Only joking.
 

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