Italy

Full Taste

Italy - Cooking

8 Days

Starting at $4,200

Women only · 8 guests max

Apr 10 - Apr 17, 2027

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A woman in a sleeveless gold and black dress smiling with her hand on her hip, standing indoors with decorative lighting in the background.

I wanted to cook Italian food properly, not from a recipe, but the way people actually cook it.

My closest reference is an Italian friend. When we cook together, there's no measuring, no following. It's all tasting: find the right herb, adjust the acid, decide when the texture is there. I wanted to learn that.

Sicily feels right because of the ingredients. Pistachios from Bronte, fish straight from the market, wine shaped by volcanic soil. When the raw material is that good, you focus on taste.

You leave not just knowing specific dishes, but knowing why they work. Which herb counterbalances which flavour. When something needs more acid and when it needs fat. Once you know that, every time you cook you're making decisions instead of following instructions.

Sophie - Founder & Host

What to Expect

Eight days in Sicily, and you'll never follow a recipe the same way again. Mornings in the kitchen, cooking by instinct rather than instruction. Afternoons are yours: the coast, the markets, the slow pace of the island.

❋ The Region

Sicily is not Tuscany. Less visited, less international. An island shaped by centuries of Greek, Arab, and Spanish influence, all of which ended up in the food. Time moves more slowly here. That's not incidental: it's the right pace for learning to cook properly.

❋ The Group

Women-only, eight guests maximum. Small enough that you'll actually get to know everyone, large enough that you're not stuck with the same two people. Real conversations, and connections that last well beyond the trip.

❋ The Experience

The week is built around one question: does it taste right? You learn to taste before you cook, adjust while you cook, and know when to stop. Salt, balance, the herb that counterbalances the flavour. By the end, you host a real dinner, real guests, dishes you designed from scratch. It feels straightforward, and that's the point.

❋ What You Leave With

Not a list of dishes to recreate. The ability to look at any recipe, any set of ingredients, and know what's missing, what to adjust, what to leave out. You cook differently after this.

Person holding a paper bag filled with fresh vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olives at a market.

Day by Day

Arrive at Catania–Fontanarossa and transfer to the villa. Settle in, take in where you are. Welcome dinner in the evening. Good food, good company. The week starts tomorrow.
Morning market walk in Catania: ripe from not, intensity from flatness, fat that adds something from fat that doesn't. Back at the villa, a chef-led session on how flavor is built. Acid, fat, salt, texture. What makes a dish feel round in the mouth, and what's missing when it doesn't?
Morning market challenge: you go in pairs and pick what looks good. Back at the villa you cook a guided dish, adjusting as you go based on what you tasted and learned the day before. You eat what you made. Afternoon and evening are yours: beach, pool, old town, nothing.
Morning drive to Bronte, on the slopes of Etna, home of the best pistachios in the world. You visit a producer and taste across forms: raw, paste, and oil. The cooking session that follows has one constraint: pistachios must be essential to the dish, not a garnish. Lunch is what you made. Late afternoon and evening are yours.
No cooking session today. It's time to explore Sicily. A full day curated around where you actually are. This is where the group bonds deepen, outside of food. Evening free.
A slow start. Late morning drive up to Etna. Vineyard visit: the volcanic soil does something to the wine that you'll pick up immediately once you know what to look for. The tasting is as much about place as it is about the glass. Afternoon hands-on session on heat and char, the difference between smoky and bitter, when to stop, how to use fire as an ingredient.
Morning free. Early afternoon the group builds the menu together with the chef: a few courses, one or two people per dish, each one reflecting something from the week. You cook through the afternoon, guided but in charge of your dish. By early evening, the table is set, and dinner is served progressively. No pressure. Just a beautiful Sicilian night for your farewell dinner.
A slow morning. Breakfast and departure. You leave knowing how to cook, not just following a recipe. Airport drop-off.