Cookeuro Culinary Vacations in Italy and France

02/13/2022

Chicken Madras - A rich, fragrant and relatively hot curry, chicken madras is easy to make at home in one pan (yeah, less washing up😉).
Blending the onion gives the sauce a thick and sumptuous texture.
A great Friday night curry!😋🌶

Grab the full recipe here --->⁠https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/chicken-madras/

07/11/2018

Our good friends at Gustiamo are importing these truly delicious and unique jams and marmalades from Sicily. You owe it to yourself to try them!

07/06/2018

Cookeuro founder, Ralph Slone, with Italian food importer stradinario, Beatrice Ughi of Gustiamo!

11/02/2017

Congratulations to Amedeo Spagnoletto, who was the kosher supervisor on the first program in Pomino, fall 1995. He is now the Chief Rabbi of Florence.

04/19/2017

We've just updated the dates of our upcoming tour of Emilia Romagna, a place where they really know how to do high finance!

Whether they're students or businesses, lots of people have to take out loans from the bank. For cheese farmers, there's a bank in Italy that will literally ...

02/06/2017

Excerpted from:
The Jewish Week ~ Food & Wine

"Exploring The Jewish Culinary Travel Boom"

JENNIFER RAK
02-02-2017

Over Yom Kippur in Florence in 1994, Ralph Slone had an epiphany. Two years earlier, the New York financier had begun organizing culinary tours of Tuscany, and realized a kosher version could have mass appeal.

He reached out to “the authority on Italian Jewish cooking,” Edda Servi Machlin, a Tuscan Holocaust survivor living in New York, and in the fall of 1995 they launched their first kosher cooking tour of Tuscany. The partnership fizzled but the tours thrived, spawning two more - to Emilia Romagna and Provence, France - and marked the start of a burgeoning culture of hands-on Jewish food tourism.

Slone’s kosher tours follow a similar format. Classes are held at the Cordon Bleu in Florence, a farm house outside Bologna, and an estate in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, one of four towns where Jews were allowed to live in the 14th century, when popes resided in Avignon. (The others were nearby Avignon, Cavaillon, and Carpentras.) His web site lists official dates, but he can arrange the Italian itinerary year-round and the Provence program in the spring and fall. ($3,875)

Alums agree that a perk of joining a culinary tour is the chance to make friends with likeminded people. “It was just a lot of fun to be with company that also liked to cook,” says Esther Cohen, a retired middle school dean from Brooklyn, who cooked in Florence with Slone two winters ago.

Pasta class with Chef Marcello and Sfoglina Eva

01/09/2017

We were happy to recently host Gabriella and Cristina of Scuola di Arte Culinaria 'Cordon Bleu ', Firenze, along with Master Chef Duccio in the New York metropolitan area. They were able to showcase their new venture, Aroma Italia-the School . preparing modern Italian recipes.

06/21/2016

We have returned from Emilia Romagna, after another great trip, where we cooked, imbibed, and toured. Alessandra and staff provided us with the finest of hospitality, and Marcello’s recipes and detailed explanation of la cucina dell'Emilia Romagna dazzled us in the kitchen.
An added attraction for the week was the fact that a movie starring Claudia Cardinale, along with Nini Salerno https://youtu.be/7lcc62nrl9Y was being filmed in Sasso Marconi. Certain cast/crew were staying and dining at Locanda dei Cinque Cerri, and we were able to eat, drink and laugh, alongside the cast.
Programs in Emilia Romagna and Tuscany are being scheduled for the fall, and I hope that you will be on board to experience 'la bella vita'.

04/24/2016

We are returning to Emilia Romagna on May 20th where we will be hosted by Alessandra, taught by Marcello, (along with the 'Sfoglina', Eva), guided through Bologna by Daniela, enjoy a wine tasting and dinner at Cantina di Floriano Cinti, observe the production of Parmigiano Reggiano with Lino, visit an "acetaia" for a tasting of balsamico with Mariangela, and a visit to Museo & Laboratorio del Gelato (unlimited scoops), guided through Ferrara with Emanuela, and back to cooking!

01/19/2016

Finally, with Gina & David, were able to drink the 1980 Biondi - Santi Brunello di Montalcino, Bottiglia # 38509, which was a generous gift given to me in 1995 by 'my favorite driver', Guido Laschi. Thank you again Guido.

10/27/2015

Just returned from an amazing and delicious week of cooking, touring, shopping and eating, and eating! We were hosted by the gracious and simpatica Alessandra, who made sure that we were at home while away from home. Our instructor, Chef Marcello, a native of Bologna, took extra care in explaining the foods of the region and their origins. The market visit was fantastic-all the vendors knew Marcello, and we followed up with a wine tasting and lunch at Cantina di Floriano Cinti. A cooking highlight was the pasta making class with Eva, a 'real sfoglina'. An early morning visit to a latteria to watch the production of Parmigiano Reggiano with a tasting and just a bit of vino, followed by a visit to an acetaia - producer of traditional balsamic vinegar - for a tour and tasting, and onward to Galleria Ferrari. Another fun highlight was a visit to the Laboratorio and Museo Gelato. The tasting, was more than a 'tasting' and held us over 'til our fantastic meal at La Bottega di Franco. A repeat performance is planned for Spring 2016.

10/02/2015

This food-loving city has a wide array of bistros, cafes and markets, along with museums devoted to its history, and, yes, gelato.