The Jewish Cooking Of Southern Italy

Jews have been in Southern Italy for 1,400 years longer than Yiddish has even been a language. So why is so little known about Southern Italian Jews and their food and wine? And what flavours and stories are still relevant today?

In this class you’ll:

* Critically taste (and then drink freely) 12 different Southern Italian wines, from Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Campania and Lazio.
* Grasp extra virgin olive oil: Production, history, ascertain quality and learn to critically taste. This is often the biggest surprise of the course, how different the artisanal reality is from supermarket expectations
* Enjoy these chalkboard talks over wine: Who eats what where in Italy? The history of Italian wine. Italy’s contribution to world coffee culture. The materials of kitchen gear. 1493: Southern vegetables. Olive oil fraud and what to do about it.
* Begin to understand Italy, Italian food and Italian wine as an expression of the territory, history, geography and climate
* Gain market skills, tricks and tips, from how to select fish, fruit and vegetables, legumes, wine and flours
* Build Italian daily lifestyle habits, living for a week in one of Italy’s prettiest cities. By walking the same streets with a slower pace, you’ll get to know locals, the vendors, patrons in coffee and wine bars. You’ll also pick up enough Italian to play a part in the local community
* Prepare 50 local Mediterranean Jewish side-dishes, each dripping with high-quality extra virgin olive oil
* Revel in 10 healthy, wine-soaked feasts. Reconfirm your faith in humanity with time spent emotionally and intellectually connecting with people from all over the world, united through a love of Italian food and wine
* Gain access to all the recipes, tips and tricks and all of our password protected content, not just for the class but all of our classes. In that email we also include all the other students’ emails so that you can keep in touch and meet up all around the world (when you do send an email with pictures). We’ll also include the password to our playlists (everyone asks for them)
* NB: While you’ll be eating, drinking and working with local ingredients, this course is designed- once home- to have more options for the observation of Jewish holidays AND just to put great food on your table between them.

The Jewish Cooking Of Southern Italy

Taken from TripAdvisor

  • ‘So much fun!!! Silvestro delivered so much knowledge and fascinating backstory about Italian cuisine, olive oil and wine. His incredible home and kitchen was worth the price of admission alone, and shows the years of planning and creating. An authentic sharing of important culture. Completely recommend’!
  • ‘Silvestro is a generous host & teacher and manages a diverse group really well. Really well run, comfortable, delicious, very generous and to top it all off, came home confident of my pasta making and other delicious morsels. Highly recommend’!!!
  • ‘Silvestro is a beacon of knowledge and was kind enough to answer all our questions, teach us the ins and outs of wine and olive oil tasting, shared tips of buying fresh fish and vegetables. Such a valuable experience from a greatly kind and intelligent person. Thank you! This experience will be highly recommended. Can’t stop thinking about your beautiful museum of a home also’ !

Logistic at a Glance:

When: Held a few times a year. See Calendar

Where: In the historic centre of Lecce, in Puglia. In our owner’s private home

Daily Schedule: from 10:00 to 15:00 and then from 18:00 until 23:00 or later

Length of Course: Length: From Monday morning until late Friday night

Taught in: English

Cost: 2795 Euro

Wine: At least 16 different wines, all sourced from historical grapes and regions from all over the south. All poured (generously) and explained by an Italian-trained sommelier

Where to sleep: Anywhere you like in the historic centre but we have recommendations

Twice-daily meeting point: Under the column in Piazza Sant Oronzo (Lecce’s main piazza—see map below). We meet under the column each time (never at the school) to facilitate many local market visits

The Awaiting Table Cooking School Map

Walking: About 4,000 daily steps. And about two hours standing in the kitchen

Diet restrictions: We’re happy to serve you gluten-free pasta but we won’t be able to make it. If you can’t touch regular flour and/or pasta, this is not the class for you

Q: Is this class kosher?
A: No. Not even close. This is cultural/anthropological/historical/sociological class taught by a non-believer. It’s an introduction to the Southern Italian Jewish cuisine, historical and present. This course is 100% secular. Most that attend are reformed or not even of Jewish extraction

Q: Are the wines served local and kosher?
A: Again no, or not exactly. This class examines 5 different southern Italian regions and their historic and current expressions of Judaism in that region’s food and wine. Each day is a different region of Southern Italy, with different culinary expressions and different wines.

Q: Are/were Italian Jews Sephardic or Ashkenazi?
A: Neither. Italian Jews are/were Italkim, this third rail that really didn’t have much influence or communication with other Jewish communities for 1,500 years. This isolation allowed each region of Southern Italy to develop different culinary expressions, with little or no influence on one another. The biggest exceptions are Rome and Naples which still straddle both worlds

Q: Why does the school have so many Jewish and Israelis students?
A: After the liberation of the concentration camps, the British and American military sequestered the aristocratic villas in Southern Puglia, to house the recently liberated. For many European Jews, these were the first moments of humanity and kindness in a very long time. There is still a warm spot for Southern Puglia in the hearts of many Jews, all over the world.

Q: Who is the teacher?
A: Our owner has been teaching the food, wine and olive oil of the Puglia to students from 59 countries for the last 22 years. He is a sommelier of wine (AIS) and a sommelier of extra virgin olive oil (FIS) and has been a professional wine writer for magazines since 2010. He also lectures on behalf of the region of Puglia and annually teaches university classes here in Italy

Q: How much walking? How much standing?
A: Plan on walking at least 4,000 steps and standing for at least 2 hours. If this sounds like it might be an issue let us know when booking and we can make some adjustments to meet your needs.

Q: Where do I sleep for the week?
A: We have suggestions. Once you book we’ll give you access to Student Services which has all the arrival/departure/accommodation information. We give this out only after booking to make sure we actually have space for you before you book anything further.

Q: Can my non-participating spouse attend meals and outings?
A: Of course. They can pay half-price and we’ll give them a set of keys that they can come and go as they please. While they are welcome to come with us on field trips, they aren’t counted as students in the kitchen.

The Jewish Cooking Of Southern Italy

Jews have been in Southern Italy for 1,400 years longer than Yiddish has even been a language. So why is so little known about Southern Italian Jews and their food and wine? And what flavours and stories are still relevant today?

In this class you’ll:

* Critically taste (and then drink freely) 12 different Southern Italian wines, from Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Campania and Lazio.
* Grasp extra virgin olive oil: Production, history, ascertain quality and learn to critically taste. This is often the biggest surprise of the course, how different the artisanal reality is from supermarket expectations
* Enjoy these chalkboard talks over wine: Who eats what where in Italy? The history of Italian wine. Italy’s contribution to world coffee culture. The materials of kitchen gear. 1493: Southern vegetables. Olive oil fraud and what to do about it.
* Begin to understand Italy, Italian food and Italian wine as an expression of the territory, history, geography and climate
* Gain market skills, tricks and tips, from how to select fish, fruit and vegetables, legumes, wine and flours
* Build Italian daily lifestyle habits, living for a week in one of Italy’s prettiest cities. By walking the same streets with a slower pace, you’ll get to know locals, the vendors, patrons in coffee and wine bars. You’ll also pick up enough Italian to play a part in the local community
* Prepare 50 local Mediterranean Jewish side-dishes, each dripping with high-quality extra virgin olive oil
* Revel in 10 healthy, wine-soaked feasts. Reconfirm your faith in humanity with time spent emotionally and intellectually connecting with people from all over the world, united through a love of Italian food and wine
* Gain access to all the recipes, tips and tricks and all of our password protected content, not just for the class but all of our classes. In that email we also include all the other students’ emails so that you can keep in touch and meet up all around the world (when you do send an email with pictures). We’ll also include the password to our playlists (everyone asks for them)
* NB: While you’ll be eating, drinking and working with local ingredients, this course is designed- once home- to have more options for the observation of Jewish holidays AND just to put great food on your table between them.

The Jewish Cooking Of Southern Italy

Logistic at a Glance:

When: Held a few times a year. See Calendar

Where: In the historic centre of Lecce, in Puglia. In our owner’s private home

Daily Schedule: from 10:00 to 15:00 and then from 18:00 until 23:00 or later

Length of Course: Length: From Monday morning until late Friday night

Taught in: English

Cost: 2795 Euro

Wine: At least 16 different wines, all sourced from historical grapes and regions from all over the south. All poured (generously) and explained by an Italian-trained sommelier

Where to sleep: Anywhere you like in the historic centre but we have recommendations

Twice-daily meeting point: Under the column in Piazza Sant Oronzo (Lecce’s main piazza—see map below). We meet under the column each time (never at the school) to facilitate many local market visits

The Awaiting Table Cooking School Map

Walking: About 4,000 daily steps. And about two hours standing in the kitchen

Diet restrictions: We’re happy to serve you gluten-free pasta but we won’t be able to make it. If you can’t touch regular flour and/or pasta, this is not the class for you

Taken from TripAdvisor

  • ‘So much fun!!! Silvestro delivered so much knowledge and fascinating backstory about Italian cuisine, olive oil and wine. His incredible home and kitchen was worth the price of admission alone, and shows the years of planning and creating. An authentic sharing of important culture. Completely recommend’!
  • ‘Silvestro is a generous host & teacher and manages a diverse group really well. Really well run, comfortable, delicious, very generous and to top it all off, came home confident of my pasta making and other delicious morsels. Highly recommend’!!!
  • ‘Silvestro is a beacon of knowledge and was kind enough to answer all our questions, teach us the ins and outs of wine and olive oil tasting, shared tips of buying fresh fish and vegetables. Such a valuable experience from a greatly kind and intelligent person. Thank you! This experience will be highly recommended. Can’t stop thinking about your beautiful museum of a home also’ !

Q: Is this class kosher?
A: No. Not even close. This is cultural/anthropological/historical/sociological class taught by a non-believer. It’s an introduction to the Southern Italian Jewish cuisine, historical and present. This course is 100% secular. Most that attend are reformed or not even of Jewish extraction

Q: Are the wines served local and kosher?
A: Again no, or not exactly. This class examines 5 different southern Italian regions and their historic and current expressions of Judaism in that region’s food and wine. Each day is a different region of Southern Italy, with different culinary expressions and different wines.

Q: Are/were Italian Jews Sephardic or Ashkenazi?
A: Neither. Italian Jews are/were Italkim, this third rail that really didn’t have much influence or communication with other Jewish communities for 1,500 years. This isolation allowed each region of Southern Italy to develop different culinary expressions, with little or no influence on one another. The biggest exceptions are Rome and Naples which still straddle both worlds

Q: Why does the school have so many Jewish and Israelis students?
A: After the liberation of the concentration camps, the British and American military sequestered the aristocratic villas in Southern Puglia, to house the recently liberated. For many European Jews, these were the first moments of humanity and kindness in a very long time. There is still a warm spot for Southern Puglia in the hearts of many Jews, all over the world.

Q: Who is the teacher?
A: Our owner has been teaching the food, wine and olive oil of the Puglia to students from 59 countries for the last 22 years. He is a sommelier of wine (AIS) and a sommelier of extra virgin olive oil (FIS) and has been a professional wine writer for magazines since 2010. He also lectures on behalf of the region of Puglia and annually teaches university classes here in Italy

Q: How much walking? How much standing?
A: Plan on walking at least 4,000 steps and standing for at least 2 hours. If this sounds like it might be an issue let us know when booking and we can make some adjustments to meet your needs.

Q: Where do I sleep for the week?
A: We have suggestions. Once you book we’ll give you access to Student Services which has all the arrival/departure/accommodation information. We give this out only after booking to make sure we actually have space for you before you book anything further.

Q: Can my non-participating spouse attend meals and outings?
A: Of course. They can pay half-price and we’ll give them a set of keys that they can come and go as they please. While they are welcome to come with us on field trips, they aren’t counted as students in the kitchen.