Is culinary school an unattainable dream for you? Would learning from a chef in his own kitchen pique your interest? Does the idea of taking two years out of your career to pursue a dream mix fear and glee in your heart? Even if you can not pursue the dream of becoming a master chef you can still live the dream in smaller ways. Many of us have a love for cooking, but the rigors of taking it to the professional level and putting in 12 hour days on your feet are beyond what most of us are capable of.

There is a happy middle ground. The continued growth of agritourism has not slowed significantly, despite the current economic dampers on tourism in general. If you are escaping some Arctic winter temperatures by coming to Tuscany prior to peak season and will be here prior to the ninth of March there is a great event that the cooking enthusiast in all of us can appreciate, “Volterra Arte a Tavola 2009”. As this is the third annual running of the courses it appears as if coming years will offer the same option for the classes.

Basically what is being done is a series of cooking classes are being offered by chefs in their restaurants. So if learning to make pastries, pasta or pizza from an Italian chef in his Tuscan kitchen raises you pulse rate, fly into Pisa this winter (direct flights from JFK are available now) and spend a morning learning to make real Tuscan bread. Most of the classes have morning time slots, roughly 9am to 1pm but also include some other activities afterwards. You arrive at 8:30 and are welcomed with coffee and driven in a group to the location for the day. A little knowledge of Italian is good, although I was told English could be spoken, I would recommend some basic food vocabulary. I recommend email over the website, they appear to have some issues with the website.

DAL: 12 Gennaio 2009

AL: 9 Marzo 2009

INDIRIZZO: Via Fonda, 3

LOCALITA’: Volterra

PROVINCIA: Pisa

TELEFONO: 0588.86165

FAX: 0588.86102

EMAIL: icsvolterra@tiscali.it

SITO WEB: www.comprensivovolterra.it