Arancini - I took my mom on this tour as a birthday present. I saw another review say they were accommodating for food allergies. My mom is severely allergic to dairy, so arancini out on the street is out of the question. This tour was FULLY accommodating to her dairy allergy, and gave us a fully vegan option. In the rice, you must mix Parmesan cheese. They made us pistachio flour instead. When we were filling our arancini, the guide (Luca) brought mushrooms and tomatoes from the kitchen just for her to have something special. All 9 of us in the class made 3+ arancini, where I thought we’d be permitted to make 1. My mom and I made 7 between the 2 of us. When we were finished assembling, the guide fried all of our arancini while we sat at a table with the other guests and drank wine, ate arancini from the restaurant, and relaxed. The guide brought us special Sicilian treats at the end of our tour. This was an outstanding experience and we were both so happy at the end of the night! *Sicily seemingly has a lot of wasps, and you will be making the arancini outside. They DID NOT bother people, they just had a few bites of the food while we were working. This should not be a deterrent, just wanted to warn people if they have an allergy to stings.

experience to be redone - I did the arancino cooking class with Luca, I highly recommend it. Very fun and professional! Excellent, exciting experience.

100% Recommend this great experience! - My partner and I took this class with Paolo as the instructor and we had a fantastic time! Paolo is very personable, knowledgeable, humorous and an overall fun person to be around. The whole restaurant staff were friendly as well and you can tell they are really a family in the way they interact. The ingredients we used were very fresh, set out neatly and Paolo was able to accommodate my partner’s vegan diet as well. The instruction was clear and simple and when I made a few errors, Paolo quickly and kindly helped me problem-solve. Once the food was done, we were given a generous pitcher of wine (included in the cost) and sat to eat our food in the beautiful setting of their restaurant Pirandello 2.0 (this class can take place at either Porta Messina Ristorante or down the street at Pirandello if the former is too busy.) There is a beautiful view of the sea at Pirandello 2.0 and while there, another customer came by to say their lunch was excellent as well. The final product—delicious!! I had arancini at another place earlier in the day that was good but these were VERY good. We were also given delicious and beautiful desserts (also included in the cost) so make sure to leave room for those! We also got to keep the aprons we used as a gift and received cute cerificates as well. To top it off, the recipe including photos was emailed to us afterwards and I actually feel like I can replicate this at home. I would 100% recommend this and would even come back for other classes if time allowed. Thank you to Paulo and all of his colleagues for a memorable experience!

Great private lesson to make arancini! - I had an excellent arancino making class with Chef Luca! I was the only one who signed up for the particular evening, and I appreciate that they still held the class for me and didn't cancel it. I really enjoyed the 1:1 time with Chef Luca - he is knowledgeable, engaging and funny. The arancini he helped me make were terrific! My family is eagerly awaiting my trial runs when I get home. I got to eat the fruits of my labor, and it also came with wine, an apron, a diploma (LOVE IT!) and an apperatif and dessert. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Highlight of our trip to Taormina - It was such an enjoyable and authentic experience to learn to make real Sicilian food in Sicily. Our instructor Luca was very kind and funny. He gave us very good and specific instructions on how to make Arancini. Then we had a dinner eating of our own self-made arancinis and riso al forno. It was such a great and fun evening. Don’t miss out on this experience when you visit Taormina!

LEARN NOW, ENJOY FOREVER - We spent a few weeks in Taormina. We took the pizza making class at the Porta Messina Resturant. It was such a great experience that we booked the arancino class and it did not disappoint. Chef Paolo was great. In fact the whole resturant staff was great. My wife and I learned a great deal about the art of making a good arancino. She made some previously but she learned the secrets to making the best arancino ball or cone. As for me.....even the ones I made tasted great. No small feat. Both these classes were very relaxing. No rush to get you in and out. When we arrived they offered us a choice of beverage and told us whenever we were ready to let them know. Once class started Chef Paolo took his time and explained every detail. Once completed we sat down with a nice glass of wine and ate the finished product. They topped that off with some nice freshly made cannolis. We were welcome to stay as long as we liked. We ended up taking what we could not finish to enjoy later. The food at Porta Messina looked so good we decided to go back there for our last meal in Taormina.

Great experience - Maritzo was so much fun and a great instructor. Met some great people. Was just a fun time and learned a lot

10/10 recommend - Great experience. Chef was kind & friendly. Greta group of people. Not too many, perfect number & food & wine flowing over! 10/10 recommend

Super fun cooking class! - An amazing experience! The chef was super friendly and was a great teacher. He made sure to closely supervise and help make any improvements to our cooking as the class went on. Would definitely recommend.

Disappointing & due to the hygiene problems encountered- a waste of money - The chef was very informative, welcoming & warm hearted. He was well prepared with all the ingredients ready. There was a major problem though, which I believe can be easily resolved. There was an American family with 3 young children in our group learning to make arrancini. The children had their hands in all the ingredients, moulding & mixing, totally takingt taking over .The chef talked about sitting down afterwards and eating the arrancini we made with a glass of wine. We were definitely not going to do that and we made our excuses & left early. I think everyone should make & eat their own- and there can easily be a way to identify each persons arrancini or at the very least all should wear gloves. And parents, you may be proud of your young children and think it's cute they are learning, But have consideration for other people in the group who have paid good money for the course & don't want 3 pairs of hands all over their food. It felt we were in a playgroup.Hygiene is very important. Let them watch & practise in your own home.