Highlight of our vacation - LOVED this experience. It was the highlight of our vacation. We came in with Celebrity cruise but took this independent tour. Chef really let us get hands on but we did feel overworked 🙂. Food was AMAZING. Exactly what I expected from a small Italian restaurant.

Good experience - Very good, highly recommended. Host was very nice and patient with us. The group was small and composed of five people. We had a wonderful time.

True Italian experience! - Perfect day as a couple. We met our chef at the fresh outdoor market to get all our ingredients! Learning about all the local fish available the all the Cheeses was an experience itself! The whole class took approx 3 hrs and we learned so much. Making fresh pasta, fish dish , and topped it off with a fabulous dessert!

Grate-FULL and happy to have had this experience - For my entire adult life I have remembered places by their cuisine. I always lead with my tummy and on this, my second trip to Italy, I promised myself that I would learn how to make some Italian staples from an Italian. I have always suspected that the true secret to good Italian food was not in the number and variety of ingredients, but in the quality of those ingredients. This is absolutely true! After a short walk through the local market with Daria to collect a few items, I was taken to a local restaurant and shown how to make 4 dishes. Three of these dishes had potatoes (an ingredient I had not previously associated with Italian food). Under Daria's direction I peeled, mashed, mixed, whipped, kneaded... and when I was done I had made a pureed cod and potato patty with olives and pine nuts, gnocchi with pesto (both from scratch), roasted sea bream with olives, tomatoes and potatoes and a mascarpone cream dessert with chocolate shavings. All credit for the presentation goes to Daria who plated and presented my meal, which was served with a very nice local white wine. I am really thrilled and grateful I decided to do this class and Daria was a charming, friendly, patient and a great teacher. Highly recommend this experience.

Wonderful Private Cooking Class - We loved our day with Chef Daria Massa! We shopped the open air market, went back to her restaurant (Al Solito Posto), and learned to cook a wonderful lunch in the restaurant kitchen. She was fun and informative - plus we ate the best lunch! It was also great just talking about life in general, what it's like to own a small restaurant, and our common love for food. Can't wait to return.

I would highly recommend this experience. - My married daughter and I attended this cooking class in La Spezia and thoroughly enjoyed it. We met our guide, Darie close to the open air market where we picked out fresh vegetables and fish for our 4 course lunch. We were put to work in Darie’s kitchen by preparing the gnocchi and fish of the day, and this was followed with savoring every wonderful bite in her fine restaurant. We loved the experience of cooking and being educated by such a genuinely, lovely and business savvy Italian lady. She even hand wrote the recipes for us so that we could bring the memories home to the US.

Wonderful 10/10 - We had a wonderful time at our cooking class! We first visited the market and then headed to the restaurant where we were taught a 4 course meal that was delicious. We started with a cod, potatoes and olives appetizer, then a pesto gnocchi, followed by cod with tomatoes and potatoes and finished with a delicious marscapone and rum dessert. Everything was amazing and we would definitely do it again!

A delicious day that you will love! - A fabulous day with the Osteria Della Corte team - the market visit - choosing our beautiful produce to be cooked up; cooking with Silvie and her amazing team and cooking up a feast of 3 courses to eat; and then finally getting to eat all of it! With a lovely bottle of Ligurian white wine and a taste of the delicious desert too. Thank you for a lovely town and a fantastic introduction to your local specialities - absolutely delicious - cannot wait to go home and try the recipes that you shared in our own kitchen.

Very simplified cooking class experience - After some initial communication issues we met up with Dalia by 10.45am. The market tour was very brief as we only got basil and potatoes. Following we walked to the restaurant kitchen close by. For prep we got to peel potatoes and plug basil for the pesto. We made a savory bread pudding containing some mussel meat, followed by preparation of pesto. While the potatoes were boiling we worked on a very simple apple sheet cake. Dalia showed us how to make the pesto, gnocchi dough and we also prepared some shaved carrots for the main course. Then we were excused and seated with a bottle of wine. The food started to arrive within 10 minutes. Presentation was very nice- the dishes overall were very simple and would benefit from more seasoning. We got a beautiful coffee and amaro to close out the meal. The recipes were very disappointing as they consisted of one sheet of handwritten measurements and no instructions. If you know your way around the kitchen they can serve as a basic guide but they are by no means printed recipes .

Not a cooking class - This was an Eating Experience not a cooking class. It was also a cultural immersion experience, to be with a wonderful cook and her husband. This was not the cooking lesson and experience we had hoped for. We booked this for a Saturday not knowing the markets don’t operate then. The locals know this and still allowed us to book. We booked months in advance so we’re surprised the shopping in the market part of the experience could not be completed. The actual shopping and cooking has already occurred and it was delicious! Did I mention this was not a cooking class. In fairness, we did get food explanations, a few recipes, and the ability to ladle batter into a pan. The food was great but also too much to eat. We never experienced the pasta with pesto or the eggplant parm. We were already full. We did eat the pasta pancakes, mushrooms & pasta (the mushrooms were hand picked from an area the locals know 60 kilometers away), Focaccia bread, apple tort and homemade wine! It was definitely an immersive experience as only the wife spoke English. We were picked up in La Spezia and driven to a private home in the suburbs then returned to the train station (we were staying in Levanto). Wonderful food and cook. Did I mention this was not a cooking class! Below was what we signed up for: Learn to make 1 iconic Pasta type Learn to make the famous Tiramisu (DID NOT HAPPEN) Official ‘Cesarine’ apron (NONE PROVIDED) Tasting session: enjoy everything you've prepared with wine, beverages and coffee included (WE DID NOT PREPARE ANYTHING) Tour detail Contact: Cesarine +39051220797