NEW 2023 Surprise dinner from the chef
Cooking ClassesDuration:3,5 hours for the preparation + time for dinner or lunch
Rates
FANCY TO HAVE A CHEF PREPARING A SURPRISE DINNER FOR YOU?
Would you like to enjoy a special dinner at your villa? Let our chef decide the menu for you! We will prepare for you and your family the best surprise dinner ever!
The best Tuscan recipes
Do all our menu options look delicious and you are not able to decide? Let our chef select the best dinner for you. You only have to inform us about any possible food restrictions or intolerances and we will pick to best recipes for you.
A 6-course tasting menu with wine paring
During our surprise dinner our chef will prepare for you a delicious tasting menu composed by 6 courses. Each course will be matched with a glass of wine. We will personally decide the best glass of wine to be matched to the course.
Our chef and assistant will be at your villa in time to prepare your dinner according to your preferred dinner time. They will serve you the dinner and after that they will clean the kitchen.
Join us and enjoy our surpise!
IMPORTANT: THIS IS WHAT WE KINDLY ASK YOU TO DO
- Please, make sure the owners/managers of the villa allow us to access the villa and the kitchen. Sometimes they do not welcome external cooks in their villa.
- Please, make sure that we can access the villa at the time agreed, and/or at the time expressed in the confirmation voucher. Extra time spent waiting for someone to open the villa will be charged as extra fee.
- Please, leave the kitchen clean and free from your personal belongings such as phones, sunglasses etc. So that the cooks can immediately start cooking, without losing precious time in cleaning or tidying up the kitchen. Extra time spent to clean the kitchen before the service starts, will be charged as extra
- Please, make sure the kitchen is equipped with a suitable number of tableware for the number of people in your party.
- Please, be in time at the table sticking to the starting time indicated at the moment of booking and/or in the confirmation voucher. Delay will be charged as extra.
- Please, be informed that no long breaks among the dishes served are foreseen. For a regular service e consider a 5-8 minute time from the end of one course to the serving of the next one. Delay will be charged as extra.
- If you have young kids and you want them to eat before you, this will delay the service of about 1 hour (service, cleaning, etc), so this extra hour will be charged as extra
- If there are any food restrictions or allergies in your party, please share them with us at the moment of booking. It is important to know it in advance to assure everybody can eat without any risks or problems. Last minute changes are not possible
- If you are interested in having a long dinner with speeches, singing and dancing, please inform us from the beginning and we will personalize the offer with a suitable quotation, as the service hours for the staff will be longer.
- The extra charge for the delays as described above is 10 Euro/half an hour (20 Euro/hour) for each member of the staff present at the service
This is a list of specialties that you are likely to sample as part of the program of this class. Please, note that the specialties of the menu prepared at the class may vary according to the season and the availability of the products in the day of the class.
In our cooking class we like telling you a lot about Tuscan farms and farmers' cooking traditions, introducing you to Tuscan people with their personal stories, careers and characters.
You will have one of our guides as a language assistants and coordinator with you during the whole class. Please, see below all the guides and language assistants who can be with you.
During this experience you will also meet one of our Tuscan cooks who give you the cooking class. Please, see below which cooks you are likely to encounter.
Ciao, I'm Ester, one of the cooks of Arianna & Friends'. I've been working with them since the beginning of their adventure.
I love cooking together with people from all over the world, especailly with young kids.
What I prefer to cook is pasta dishes, pizza and desserts, like for example the stunning cake is what I made to celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary.
I live, like the cook Licia (we are good friends), in the little village of Lajatico, birthplace of Andrea Bocelli and from my home I can hear his voice and see something when Teatro del Silenzio takes place in July.
I live in a farm and I have chickens, rabbits, a large vegetable garden; I make my own olive oil and wine together with my family.
I hope to be able to cook with many of you in the years to come to teach you a lot of our typical Tuscan food. 
Ciao, I'm Silvia, the youngest among the cooks at Arianna & Friends. I'm a cook, this is my passion and I like to cook any traditional dishes for the toursits, and I love baking pizza, but also I like a lot to try at home innovative food and special contemporary techniques. Since I've been working with this company I met an incredible team of collaborators and with them I finally feel joy and serenity in what I do. I love my job very much and I enjoy a lot to be in contact with people.
To introduce me even better I can say I love the sea, being at the beach, I have a passion to travel and being in the company of my friends is the best thing. I could define myself as a "free spirit" and I have a passion for... hats !!!
Any time I work as cook I breath air of freedom and this makes me happy.
Looking forward to meet you again, so that we can cook together, and you'll try our best traditional food and enjoy our wonderful countryside. 
Good morning everyone! I'm the cook Lorena. I started working with Arianna & Friends a few years ago when I retired, because someone set me up. You must know that Arianna is a good friend of my daughter Martina and they had this brilliant idea of asking me to cook for Arianna's tourists. Well, I coulnd't say no! Arianna tried my food for the first time when she was still at school with my daughter and she knows that I can cook very well!! ahahah
The food I prepare is purely Tuscan: I don't use and butter or lard, but just EV olive oil, from Tuscany of course. People say my meat ragu is excellent, but also my Cacciucco - Livornese style fish soup - is simply fantastic. I make preserves and the best lasagne ever!
I live in Pontedera, the town of the vespa. I'm in my early 70s and last year I got married for the second time! I like music from 40s 50s and 60s like Glenn Miller, King Cole, Frank Sinatra etc. etc.
I cannot speak English, even if I tried to attend some English classes in these last few years... I ended up chatting about food with the other students! But no problem, when I'm with some guests in their holiday home preparing a meal, I always have my little dictionary with me that helps a lot in the conversation.
I look forward meeting you all again soon! 
The rates for these activities vary according to the age of the participants.
Check rates in the table below.
SURPRISE DINNER FROM THE CHEF
6 COURSE TASTING MENU WITH WINE PAIRING – RATES 2023 – |
|
|---|---|
NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN YOUR PARTY |
TOTAL RATE |
| Min. 4 persons | € 580 |
| 5 persons | € 660 |
| 6 persons | € 740 |
| 7 persons | € 820 |
| 8 persons | € 900 |
| Extra Adult | € 80 |
| Extra Teenager (12-17 yrs) | € 60 |
| Extra Child (4-11 yrs) | € 40 |
Rates refer to villas located within 30 minutes drive from our premises in Terricciola.
Extras for travel costs for villas located more than 30 minutes from Terricciola
From 35 to 60 minutes from Terricciola: € 90 additional fee on the standard rates above, for the extra time and extra fuel needed to reach the villa and provide the service.
Some villa locations that require a 90 euro surcharge: Pisa, Lucca, Buti, San Miniato, San Casciano V.Pesa, Vinci, Viareggio, Montespertoli, Montelupo, Gambassi, San Gimignano, Colle Val d’Elsa, Riparbella.
From 65 to 90 minutes from Terricciola: € 140 additional fee on the standard rates above, for the extra time and extra fuel needed to reach the villa and provide the service.
Some villa locations that require a 140 euro surcharge: Viareggio, Garfagnana, Siena, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Fiesole, Chianti villages, Follonica.
Rates include
– A chef and an assistant (from groups from 5 people) at your disposal
– Served full dinner with a 6-course tasting menu
– wine pairing – a glass of wine per person for each course
– final cleaning of the kitchen
– tax
Rates do NOT include
– Travel costs for villas located more than 30 minutes far from our office in La Rosa di Terricciola
From 35 to 60 minutes from Terricciola: € 90 additional fee on the standard rates above, for the extra time and extra fuel needed to reach the villa and provide the service.
Some villa locations that require a 90 euro surcharge: Pisa, Lucca, Buti, San Miniato, San Casciano V.Pesa, Vinci, Viareggio, Montespertoli, Montelupo, Gambassi, San Gimignano, Colle Val d’Elsa, Riparbella.
From 65 to 90 minutes from Terricciola: € 140 additional fee on the standard rates above, for the extra time and extra fuel needed to reach the villa and provide the service.
Some villa locations that require a 140 euro surcharge: Viareggio, Garfagnana, Siena, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Fiesole, Chianti villages, Follonica.
The location is your rented villa in Tuscany
DURATION:
This program takes 3,5 hours for the preparation + time for dinner or lunch
AVAILABILITY:
Available all the year through, from Mondays through Sundays. Timing is flexible
FOOD RESTRICTIONS:
The foods served during this cooking class might contain gluten, lactose, nuts and alcohol. If you have any food restriction, please inform our personnel during the enquiry process.
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