Epic Cooking Class And Lunch At A Tuscan Farmhouse With Local Market Tour

If you want the best Tuscan farmhouse cooking class, then the Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour from Florence by Walkabout Tours is for you!

This tour has such a long name because every detail in the title is important! The only thing missing from the long name are the fantastic guides and chefs.

People search for this exact tour because it was voted #1 Best Experience in the World by TripAdvisor in 2018. And from my experience in June of 2022, it still is.

I spent seven hours eating, laughing, and creating memories during this immersive culinary experience and I can confidently say it was my favorite thing to do in Florence. 

Whether you’re a solo traveler, traveling with friends, a couple, or a family, the Tuscan farmhouse cooking class and lunch with local market tour from Florence appeals to everyone. 

Starting with the local market tour to buy the fresh ingredients, to chopping and mixing them for the bruschetta appetizer, to enjoying and celebrating the four-course meal together, you’re sure to have a top culinary adventure during this cooking class.

So grab your appetite and get ready to learn the secrets of Tuscan cuisine while cooking, eating, and relaxing in the hills above Florence.

Epic Tuscan Farmhouse Cooking Class And Lunch With Local Market Tour from Florence

Meet Your Guides and Chefs

Fantastic guides are what make tours so worth it, and this cooking class is no different. Our guide was Luca Morgillo, a charismatic, knowledgeable guide and chef in his own right. 

Luca is a public figure on YouTube and Instagram. He has a close relationship with chef Carmela and their bantering in Italian and English makes this cooking class and tour come alive. Especially when Carmella breaks out singing traditional Italian songs.

Luca even has his own cookbook that you can buy on Amazon! I bought it as soon as I got home and have made tons of amazing Italian dishes in addition to the recipes from the class.

Central Market Florence

The meeting point for this tour is at the Piazza della Stazione at the taxi stand. Your guide will meet you outside of the market carrying a sign saying Walkabout Tours.

From there the group walks a short distance to the Central Market in the San Lorenzo district of Florence. Ours was a large group tour (26 people) so we had to don headsets to hear all the interesting information coming from our guide during our Florence food market tour. 

The first thing we learned is that the building of the Central Market was designed in 1874 by architect Giovanni Mengoni, the same architect who designed the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. The building is a large two story building held up by cast iron neo-classical pillars. 

Raw Ingredients For Slow Food Cooking

We only visited the market stalls on the ground floor to buy our raw ingredients, but if you go up to the next floor, you will find a food court of local restaurants and bars that uses these ingredients to cook for you!

Once Luca had purchased all the ingredients for our meal including the produce, fresh bread, ground beef, and fresh bone-in pork loin, we headed out to the bus to go to the farmhouse. 

In total, we spent one hour at the market looking at all the cheeses, nuts, produce, meats, olive oils, truffles, bread, pastas, and more. Soon we would learn how to magically transform these raw ingredients into delectable dishes through slow food cooking.

Walkabout Bus Trip Up To The Tuscan Farmhouse

I have to admit when I booked a Tuscan farmhouse cooking class, I thought the farmhouse would be further out into Tuscany. But it’s really not that far. Only 7.1 km (4.4 miles).

After everyone was loaded in the bus, we crossed the Arno River and then wound up the Viale Michelangelo. Along the way we passed the Rose Garden in Florence which is free to the public.

The rose garden is right next to the Piazzale Michelangelo in front of the Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte. There are stunning views of Florence from here.

As we continued up Viale Michelangelo, the road curved away from the view of Florence to a view of the Tuscan countryside where we arrived at the Walkabout Florence Cooking Class.

Getting all 26 of us into the bus from the Central Market Florence, and driving up to the Tuscan farmhouse took about 40 minutes. 

Tuscan Farmhouse and Organic Gardens

When we arrived at the Tuscan farmhouse, we all got out to stroll around and gaze at the iconic rolling hills of Tuscany. Tuscany is famous for its endless fields of wheat and olive groves.

There are many theories of the origin of the word Tuscany. Some say it comes from the Etruscans, an important tribe who lived here before Roman times. When the Romans arrived, they called the area Tusci.

After admiring the organic gardens, we headed into the farmhouse itself. The old farmhouse was purchased by Walkabout Tours in 2015 and converted into a cooking school.

Now it consists of a large state-of-the-art kitchen with marble countertops to accommodate large groups of cooking enthusiasts. The dining room is open air and overlooks the gardens and countryside.

If your tour lands on a day when the Central Market is closed, you will gather fresh produce from the garden to prepare your dishes.

Bruschetta – The Perfect Starter

After washing our hands and putting on our white aprons, we gathered around the marble countertops and began making bruschetta. 

Bruschetta means “roasted over hot coals” in Italian. It is toasted bread, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil, diced tomatoes, basil leaves, and salt.

Now eaten all over Italy and beyond, it originated in Tuscany and was eaten as an antipasto during the olive harvest season. 

We diced the tomatoes, tore up the aromatic basil, mixed it with the garlic, olive oil and salt. We smashed the garlic into a paste and spread that on the bread. After that we drizzled the mixture over the bread.

Then we had our first break and sampled the bruschetta right away, eating it off of white plastic plates that had a hole cut into it to carry our wine glass as we wandered around the grounds near the outdoor wood burning pizza ovens.

This tour used to include pizza and gelato making too, but now there are two tours. This one and Florence: Pizza and Gelato Class at a Tuscan Farmhouse.

Ragù, Roast Pork, and Potatoes

After our delicious antipasto, we headed back into the kitchen and all sat down on a bench that ran around the edge of the kitchen. 

We watched as the chef and some volunteers seasoned the pork and got it ready for roasting. The potatoes had been washed and chopped earlier and now they were dressed with olive oil, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper.

Then we stood up and prepared the celery, carrots, and onion for the ragù by rocking the Mezzaluna Rocking Chopper through the mixture until they were all finely minced together.

We gathered around the stove and watched and listened to the chefs as they added the meat to the celery, carrots, and onion mixture. We learned some very important tips on how to make ragù which you can find in the recipes.

Differences Between Ragù And Bolognese Sauce

• Ragù is a broader category meaning meat sauce, Bolognese is a variation of it from Bologna.
• Ragù uses dry red wine, Bolognese uses dry white wine.
• Bolognese adds heavy cream to the sauce.
• Meat in ragù is cooked for a long time until you have to scrape it from the pan before you add the wine and tomato sauce.
• but in Bolognese sauce, the meat is cooked until it is not raw and then you add the liquids.

Pasta Making – Tagliatelle

Everything was expertly choreographed during this full day Tuscan countryside tour from Florence. While the pork and potatoes were roasting, and the ragù was simmering, we were led out into the open air dining room to make fresh pasta. 

It was very easy to follow the expert demonstration, and soon we all made a dough and had rolled it out flat to make the tagliatelle. Before we were allowed to cut it, Luca came around to make sure it was thin enough.

Then he checked again to make sure we were cutting it to the correct width. If it is too narrow, it becomes fettuccine and if it is too wide, it becomes pappardelle.

Tiramisù

While the tagliatelle were resting, we went back inside the kitchen for our final lesson on how to make tiramisù.

Tiramisù is an Italian classic dessert and literally means “pick me up” in Italian. The sweet custard is made with sugar, eggs, mascarpone, ladyfingers, cocoa, espresso, and Marsala. This simple and divine dessert gives you energy and brightens your mood.

To make tiramisù for 26 people, we used 16 eggs. We were split into two groups and each group got 8 eggs. We first had to separate the whites from the yolks. Then we took turns beating the eggs and adding the other ingredients. To make this, see recipes.

Time To Eat The Meal And Drink Chianti Classico

Finally it was time to eat. We all sat down at the tables in the open air dining room and were soon served all the delicious dishes we had just made. 

Luca and Carmela placed platters of tagliatelle al ragù, roasted potatoes with rosemary, and roasted pork on our tables. We all helped ourselves and had a family style meal. 

To drink we were served water and Chianti Classico. We learned how to recognize quality Chianti Classico by making sure it has the DOCG sticker with the Rooster. 

DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Denomination of Origin) certifies the wine is of the highest quality and the Rooster is a symbol of Chianti Classico going back to the middle ages.

When we thought we could eat no more, Luca and Carmela served the tiramisù and of course more Chianti Classico.

Cooking Class Certificates

While we were enjoying the tiramisù after our delicious meal, Luca and Carmela called us up one by one and presented us with our cooking class certificates.

We all got our photos taken holding our certificates next to the chefs with the beautiful Tuscan landscape behind us. 

The meal took an hour. Then another 15 minutes for the presentations of the certificates and then it was time to head back out to the bus. None of us wanted to leave and it took a while to round up all 26 of us and head out.

FAQs

Conclusion

The Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour From Florence not only has the longest name ever, but it is also truly an Epic Italian culinary experience.

You will learn how to make an authentic Tuscan meal from the appetizer to the dessert and everything in the middle. You will be able to easily recreate these recipes when you get back home for friends and family.

You will also make new friends as you cook, eat, drink, and laugh together while creating life-time memories in the Tuscan countryside.

Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour from Florence – Check availability and read what other foodie travelers have to say about this 7-hour tour on Viator.

Florence: Pizza and Gelato Class at a Tuscan Farmhouse – Check availability and read what other foodie travelers have to say about this 5-hour tour on Get Your Guide.

If you can’t wait and want to make these dishes now, please see the recipes.

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