Seasonal Tuscan Workshops
Our culinary workshops are designed for people who love Italian food and wine and want to delve deeper into the culture and traditions of our little corner of Tuscany.
In 2025 we are offering the following culinary experiences:
Artichoke workshop 7-12 April
Midsummer workshop 23-27 June
Summer harvest workshop 7-12 July - sold out!
Wine harvest workshop 8-13 September
Autumn workshop 13-17 October
White Truffle workshop 18-22 November
Each workshop is highly seasonal and highly local, and so the exact itinerary and format for each workshop changes according to the seasons. We introduce you to our local food artisans: the farmers, the 4th generation Slow Food butcher, for example. Sometimes it’s the local cheesemaker, the local biodynamic winemaker or the brothers who grow their own ancient grain wheat and bake bread in their handmade woodfired oven. We may even pop into the studio of a letterpress printer or ceramicist in the nearby ceramic town or don beekeeping suits to do a deep dive on beekeeping on a beautiful farm near Florence.
We go hunting for truffles in the woods because we are lucky enough to live in an area where there are different varieties of truffles in different seasons: black summer truffles, autumn white truffles and spring bianchetto truffles all grow locally to San Miniato.
We will cook together, taste wine together, you'll get your hands covered in flour, learning about local traditions on the way. We eat and drink together, tasting natural wines chosen by Marco and visiting our favourite trattoria in the countryside for a long Italian lunch to give you the full Tuscan experience.
We have designed this intimate workshop for a group of 8 people to run from morning to late afternoon, giving you free time in the evenings (other than our first evening together where we will prepare you a special aperitivo and dinner in the Enoteca) to go and explore, rest or perhaps sample one of the great restaurants in town. We are based in the heart of San Miniato, right next to the main piazza, everything is within a short walking distance and there are plenty of options for accommodation in town for a variety of budgets (see our suggestions here). You don’t need a car while in San Miniato unless you want to exploring further afield.
Every season brings different things for us to see and taste.
April is a celebration of spring and its delicious produce, from fresh peas and broad beans to artichokes. In fact, San Miniato is famous for their excellent viola artichokes, so good we eat them raw (delicious with Parmesan, lemon juice and oilve oil). We will visit an artichoke grove to harvest some artichokes and taste them right in the field.
In the midsummer workshop, we visit San Miniato during one of the town’s biggest celebrations — the bonfire of San Giovanni, where kids hold lanterns and you burn garlic to ward off evil spirits. It’s the traditional time of year to make nocino (walnut liqueur) and St John’s water, with herbs and flowers collected in the countryside.
In July, we will make the most of summer produce while doing our best to stay cool, making granita and tomato sauce (the kitchen and enoteca are air-conditioned), or hunting in the shady woods for summer truffles.
During wine harvest, late summer produce is abundant and grapes play a star role in the kitchen in sweet and savoury dishes and while the wineries are a busy place to visit this time of the year, their just-pressed wine is a treat to taste.
October and November means new olive oil and also the most anticipated season in San Miniato: white truffle season. We’ve combined the white truffle workshop to coincide with one of the weekends of the fantastic annual White Truffle Festival, when the city comes alive with food stalls and the scent of white truffle in the air. In fact, the White Truffle workshop will include a day visiting the white truffle festival and tasting many wonderful things on offer.
What people say about our workshops:
“I am still reminiscing about our week in July. I have pictures posted all around me. It was an amazing experience and I want to thank you both again for putting it so well together. It was the perfect window into not just the culinary world, but life and culture of San Miniato and Tuscany. The people involved and making new friends was a big part of it - must be that your energy attracts compatible minds. This was one of the best and most enlightening travel experiences I’ve had.” — Dino
“What you have created is very special and unique and unlike any other workshop or experience I've ever participated in. San Miniato and your community are amazing, but I really think it's down to the warmth and generosity you bring to the experience.” — Dana
“I wanted to thank you so much for this incredible week…. You can Marco are such incredible and gracious hosts. You never made us feel rushed and you let us ask as many questions as we wanted. It’s not often you find someone as talented as you who is also so giving with her time. I can’t thank you enough. My heart feels full and certainly my belly does as well!” — Amanda
Seasonal Culinary Workshop itinerary example:
Day 1: Arrival day; after you’ve had a chance to arrive and settle in to San Miniato, we meet in the late afternoon for a long walk around town to get your bearings, followed by casual “aperiti-cena” (aperitivo dinner!) with natural wines in Enoteca Marilu.
Day 2: We meet in the morning for a visit to the local market to pick up fresh ingredients, pop in to the Slow Food butcher for some prosciutto and finocchiona or perhaps some of their famous sausages, then we get into the kitchen to cook a seasonal, multiple course meal together which we will enjoy with a Tuscan wine lesson by Marco at our long table.
Day 3: We leave San Miniato at 9:30am and head into the woods for a truffle hunt with a tartufaio (truffle hunter) and his fluffy Lagotto dog. San Miniato is home to a variety of truffles that are in season all year — black truffles in the summer, white truffles in the autumn and winter and garlicky bianchetto in the spring. You'll learn how to use truffles in savoury but also sweet dishes and we will enjoy these with paired wines which Marco will explain so you have some tips on how to pair your own food and wine.
Day 4: This morning starts with a smaller cooking lesson in the Enoteca Marilu kitchen, depending on the season — we might make our own liqueurs from herbs foraged around the medieval walls of San Miniato, or perhaps a baking lesson of Tuscan pastries or preserves like pickled vegetables, fig leaf gelato or seasonal jam. We will then have lunch at a local biodynamic winery with a tasting of 5 of their wine, along with a visit of their vineyard and fifteenth century cantina. Before we head back into town, we will visit a rustic goat cheese farm for a cheese tasting.
Day 5: Today we visit two brothers 10 minutes from San Miniato who grow their own ancient grains as they bake their own rustic sourdough loaves in their handmade woodfired oven. Depending on the season and the weather, we may also visit their fields or the flour mill, and of course have a tasting of their breads. Then we have a long and leisurely lunch at our favourite countryside trattoria for a classic Tuscan experience before we say goodbye.
Price: 2,000 euro per person
Special Early Bird Deal — 10% discount (1,800 euro total) for bookings before 1 January 2025
What is included:
Hands-on cooking classes with an award winning cookbook author Emiko Davies
Italian natural wine lesson with sommelier Marco Lami
A truffle hunt in the woods with a truffle hunter and his dog — this includes truffles which we prepare for lunch
A visit to a local winery with the winemaker
Tour of San Miniato and various tastes around town
Visits to local producers and artisans
Lunch every day, including one out at our favourite trattoria in the countryside
An exclusive welcome meal at Enoteca Marilu
Transport included for all the visits in the itinerary above
Flowing, delicious natural wine and organic ingredients
A gift bag of local goodies
The price does not include flights, accommodation, travel insurance or transport to/from San Miniato (but we are happy to help arrange pick up or transfers if you need).
Accommodation:
We can suggest some places to stay in the area. San Miniato has a wide range of different places to stay for different budgets, many of them walking distance to the Enoteca.
Schedule:
We usually begin each day sometime around 9-10am and finish by around 4pm.
Getting to San Miniato:
San Miniato is about 40 minutes from Florence Santa Maria Novella train station and 30 minutes from Pisa airport by car or train, take a look at this info sheet.
To book or ask any questions just email us.
To book, we require a deposit of 30% upon booking; the remainder should be paid a month before the workshop starts. This booking is non-refundable, but we understand that plans can change, we can accept someone to take your place or we can give you a voucher towards any other classes to use within 12 months of the intended workshop. We reserve the right to cancel a workshop (with plenty of advance notice) and in this case deposits will be fully refunded. This is a small and highly curated workshop so there are only 8 spots available in each workshop.
Photos above by Tania Innocenti and Emiko Davies.