A cooking class in your Chianti farmhouse
from€100 per person
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Why Chianti is not a new place for us
Roberto first worked as the cook responsible for a kitchen in Radda in Chianti in 1998. Today that experience is useful in a region where the final approach to a villa can be slower than the map suggests. Gaiole, Radda, Castellina, Panzano, Greve and Castelnuovo Berardenga are planned from the precise pin and access notes so Roberto can arrive with the right timing and vehicle.
The kind of house we cook in around Chianti
The classic Chianti rental is a stone casa colonica: a farmhouse divided from a larger estate, thick walls, small deep windows, terracotta floors, and a kitchen on the ground floor beside what used to be the working fireplace. These kitchens are often smaller than the house suggests, because the space went to the bedrooms upstairs, and that is the most useful thing to know before a class here. Many of these houses also have a covered terrace, which is frequently where the class works best. Which one you have varies by property and is confirmed before booking.
The room worth looking at in a house like that is not the kitchen, it is the one beside it. The old working fireplace is usually still there, deep enough to have cooked in and now furnished as a sitting room, and it explains why a Chianti kitchen can be small without the house feeling small: the eating and the standing about happened in front of the fire. We do not cook in it (an unlined flue and a dinner for ten are a bad combination), but we do use the room, because a class that can spill into the next one is a calmer class. In summer the covered terrace does the same job.
What the land in Chianti gives us
Meat and bread, mostly. Panzano is known across Italy for its butchers, and the ridge from Greve down to Castellina is beef and pork country: this is where a long meat sauce for pappardelle stops being a recipe and becomes lunch. The olive oil is pressed on the estates themselves and is greener and more peppery than most, and good oil is why the simplest dish in the class, bread with oil and salt, is often the one people remember. Wine we neither sell nor include: the estates around you sell and invoice directly.
Two of the butchers on this ridge are known a long way beyond it, and both are shops you can walk into. Falorni has been on the square at Greve since 1806. Cecchini, at Panzano, is a counter with more than two centuries of family behind it and the reason a Chianti butcher is a name people know abroad. For oil, Frantoio Pruneti presses its own at San Polo and sells from the mill, which is the only way to taste the difference the page above claims. On Saturday mornings there is the Greve market as well.
What people write once they are home
These come from the Google listing. It does not record which house a review was written in, so we do not sort them by area and we do not claim they were left here.
★★★★★Melina Davis · September 2025 · on Google
We had such a wonderful evening learning from Chef Roberto and tasting his food (and ours) following the class. He came to our rented villa in Chianti and spent 5 hours with us teaching, laughing and savoring the incredible pastas and almond cantucci we asked to learn about! I think we all feel so much more confident about trying this at home and had such a fun time together! I can’t recommend Chef Roberto highly enough!
★★★★★Annie Lewis · September 2026 · on Google
Chef Roberto and Elario cooked for our group of four at the Tuscan villa we were staying at and it could not have been a more enjoyable evening! The cooking class portion of the night was fun, interactive and informative - Chef Roberto is definitely a master of traditional Italian cuisine, and he and Elario worked well together to guide us through the cooking process. The food we made was SO tasty and Chef Roberto and Elario were so genuine and personable, it made for a truly lovely experience. On top of everything, they left the dining area and kitchen spotless which was very appreciated. I cannot recommend Chef Roberto and Elario highly enough, it was a definite highlight of our trip!!
★★★★★Marshall Hoke · September 2026 · on Google
Roberto and Elario taught my friends and I how to make homemade spinach raviolis and pici and cantucci toscani in authentic Tuscan style. They were super fun and friendly and left our kitchen looking spotless after a three course meal. 100% would recommend Roberto Chef for a delicious cooking experience!!!
The questions we get about Chianti
Our villa is at the end of a white gravel road. Is that a problem?
Can we do the class outside on the terrace?
Can we drink the wine from the estate we are staying on?
What a class costs in Chianti
Travel is included within 1.5 hours of Siena and calculated from the exact address under the published travel rule, which normally covers Chianti. Prices are per person, and everything is included: Roberto buys and brings all the ingredients for the lesson, and leaves the kitchen as he found it.
Pizza e Fuoco | from€100 per person |
Mani in Pasta | from€100 per person |
Dolci di Casa | from€100 per person |
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Prefer a dinner? Private chef in Chianti
