About your school

Anna Tasca Lanza is a center of Sicilian food knowledge and culture. Founded in 1989 as a cooking school by Anna herself, the school is now under the direction of her daughter, Fabrizia. In the course of its 30 years, the school has expanded from a simple culinary haven providing delicious meals, culinary instruction, and rustic accommodation, to a rich organization promoting Sicily’s diverse gastronomic culture. Located in 500 hectares of vineyards, the school is home to extensive vegetable plots, orchards, and a beautiful ornamental garden all cultivated according to organic principles. Throughout the year, Anna Tasca Lanza allows guests to experience local food traditions with tailored and themed food experiences ranging from one day to one week. The school is also home to the annual immersive food education program, Cook the Farm, which gives participants the opportunity to spend two months growing, cooking, eating and thinking about their immediate food landscape. For all offerings, please take a look at our site.

Program description

Cook the Farm - January 23 - March 23, 2020 

Cook the Farm is an immersive food education course taking place from mid-January to mid-March at Anna Tasca Lanza in rural Sicily. Inaugurated in 2016 by owner and Executive Director Fabrizia Lanza, the course brings together participants from around the world to grow, cook, eat and think about food landscapes. Lectures, tastings, and hands-on lessons both in the kitchen and on the land encourage participants to open their eyes to the complexity of our food systems at both local and global scales. Over the weeks, participants consider the stereotypes that underlie beliefs about traditional cuisines and grapple with the cultural, social, economic, and environmental issues around food.

About: Case Vecchie - Tenuta Regaleali - Vallelunga Pratameno, Sicily
Anna Tasca Lanza has at its core knowledge and appreciation for Sicilian food culture. The school has transformed from a cooking school into a hub of food education, research, and culinary preservation. Located in rural Sicily at Case Vecchie, the school is set within the 550-hectare family property, Tenuta Regaleali, home to Tasca d’Almerita’s production of 4 million bottles of wine a year. Classes take place both at Case Vecchie, the 19th-century farmhouse where the old barn has been converted into a functional kitchen, and the cellar of the winery, Case Grandi. The surrounding landscape provides the rest of the classroom.

Aims and Objectives
Our goal is to provide students with a comprehensive appreciation for food production that leads to a critical perspective on food, empowering awareness of self and surroundings. This immersive educational approach:

• Provides access to Sicilian life and food production
• Offers practical and theoretical lessons
• Facilitates discussions to cultivate critical thinking
• Exposes tools to enable self-directed learning after the program

How?

• Frontal learning + group discussions

Lectures, presentations, and explanations by experts in their fields (agronomists, enologists, professors, food professionals, etc.) are combined with group discussions to further the conversation about food and food systems.

• Site visits + day trips

Cheese making, flour mills, citrus groves and more...site visits allow insight into the growing and production of local products.

• In the kitchen

Hands-on classes about bread baking, pasta making and classic Sicilian cuisine are combined with demos and tastings. Lessons are taught by our in-house chef as well as outside experts: butchers, cheese-makers, Michelin starred chefs and more.

• On the road

Two long weekends we will hit the road to explore the varying geography of Sicily and the food customs and traditions found around the island. A total of five nights and six days will be spent away from “home,” one trip to the western part of the island and another under the volcano.

Who Should Apply
Cook the Farm benefits from diversity among participants. In the past, students have come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Australia, and Canada and from a variety of backgrounds. However, all participants are motivated, curious, and excited about hands-on and field-based learning which requires hard work, patience, and a sense of community.

We’re looking for:

• People interested in food from the source (how it’s grown, processed, cooked and enjoyed)
• Those wishing to gain more kitchen confidence
• All people curious and excited about Sicilian cuisine
• Recent graduates interested in food but not yet decided on a career path
• Those looking for a career change into a more food oriented profession
• Culinary professionals, farmers, growers and restaurant workers looking for a more complete view of food and food systems

Cost: €10,200
What’s Included

• All classes, outings, and housing over the two month period
• Transportation to and from daily lessons and for school outings
• Initial pick up and final drop off at select times from Palermo airport or train station
• Weekend shuttle to the Roccapalumba train station (one departure Friday evening, one pick up Sunday afternoon)
• All lunches during lesson days (Monday to Friday)
• Five nights accommodation during field trips around Sicily (Accommodation for overnight trips is in shared double rooms. Single rooms available for a supplemental price)
• Course materials (access to digital content such as recipes and presentations and readings as well as printed readings and handouts)
• The Cook the Farm kit: jumper, overalls, and tee-shirt
• Extracurricular activities including weekly (optional) theater practices and Sicilian/Italian film screenings
• Special discounts and experiences available only to CTF students (from Michelin restaurants to exclusive wineries and farms)

What’s not included

• Flights to and from Sicily
• Breakfast, dinner and weekend meals
• Individual travel and transport on weekends

 

Apply

Early application deadline July 1

Regular application deadline August 20
 

Cost

• there is a tuition fee

Benefits

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline