We recently hosted a private class for the lovely Katherine from Los Angeles.
Cavatelli alle Vongole centred our menu but we also made a raw artichoke salad with pecorino , fennel with blood oranges and castelfranco radicchio, savoury and sweet taralli (the sweet ones we paired with mascarpone cream and strawberries for dessert).
Katherine has a background in cooking and so it was pretty great to be able to talk about all things food related like restaurants in LA, the pros and cons of going to culinary school, working in a test kitchen for culinary magazines and how to take a love of food and integrate it into not just a job but a job that you love.
The hours together flew by and we were wishing we had more time together but we are hoping that Katherine will come back to visit with her husband and parents and in-laws someday soon!
The cheese pictured in the photo is a treccia (hand-woven stretched-curd mozzarella) that our friend and cheesemaker Angelo from Caseficcio Stella Dicecca made to demonstrate stretch cheese shapes for Francesco and Katherine and then he gifted it to us for lunch. We truly have the best neighbours.
Class number 6 of our season. ❤️
Our 5th class of the season and we were joined by three lovely women (2 sisters and their friend) from San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.
We focused on pasta making and all three of our participants made some seriously great orecchiette, capunti and cavatelli.
Thank you Erin, Caitlin and Tiffany not just for your pasta making enthusiasm but for the wonderful conversation that we shared over lunch.
Hoping our paths will cross again! xo
After a wonderful 4 day workshop (thank you Renee & Dan and Lara and David!) and a few days off we were back in the studio yesterday hosting the sweetest couple from Vienna for a cooking class.
Stefan and Susi were in Puglia to celebrate Susi’s birthday and we were so happy to be part of the celebration.
At the end of the meal Susi said that our day together felt like spending time with friends which was a true gift for us. Our 4th class of the season. ❤️
We hosted our first spring cooking class of the season with our friends from @morosetakitchen who brought a wonderful group from Italy, France, Sweden & Belgium.
It was cold and a bit rainy outside but inside the studio there was plenty of joy and enthusiasm along with lots of good food made and then shared at our long table.
Such a lovely way to spend a Saturday. ❤️
A new season begins…
First class of 2026 with such a lovely couple, Lynda and Stephen, who live in Canada.
They stayed in the apartment above the studio for 3 nights and took a class with us and by the end of our time together it felt like we made some sweet, new friends.
Kind of the perfect way to kick off a new season. ❤️❤️
It is that time of the year when preparations begin for a brand new season of cooking classes and workshops.
We love this time in late winter when the days start getting longer, the Mimosa trees begin blooming and soon new tender greens will begin to show up at the market.
The silver needs a good cleaning and the linen napkins and tablecloths will be mended and freshly laundered.
Now is the time to begin planning for the herbs to be planted in the pots on the balcony and recipe testing new dishes and working on menus. We are feeling excited about meeting the new people and welcoming back old friends who will join us at our table.
Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to cook with us! Our spring workshop has just 3 spots left but we still have plenty of room for our day classes and our fall olive harvest workshop.
Thanks for following along with us on our Puglian journey. xo J & F
Our 2026 Class and Workshop Schedule is now up on our website.
We will be running two workshops next year, one in the spring in May (Cooking Puglia) and one in the fall in November (Preserving Puglia). We have 10 spots per workshop and are looking forward to meeting new people and also welcoming back old friends starting in March of 2026!
In addition to the workshops we are also hosting our day cooking/lunch classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and if you have a group of 4 or more we are happy to build a custom experience for you for 1 to 5 days long!
New this year we are also renting our 2 bedroom apartment located above the studio for short and long term rentals. Since we have finally moved into new home in Altamura the apartment is free to be enjoyed for people who would like to experience life in Southern Italy. The apartment is fully equipped and provides ample space to cook, relax and stay on the edge of the historical centre and is just steps away from our favourite cheese shop, bakery and vegetable market.
With our season wrapping up next week we are looking forward to having a few months to spend time with family and friends, plan menus, do some recipe testing, maybe start work on our second cookbook (?!) and slow down to just enjoy the quieter days here in Puglia.
If you would like more information please feel free to check out our website or contact us at [email protected]
J & F ❤️
Random bits of beauty from our 2025 Workshop Season.
We are winding down our season with just one more workshop at the end of this month (spots still available if the idea of seasonal cooking and olive harvesting, focaccia and cheesemaking and plenty of eating around a long table is calling your name). We are currently working hard on our schedule for 2026 and it will be posted on our website by November 1st. If you would like to be notified of our upcoming offerings please feel free to email us [email protected] to be added to our mailing list.
For those people who joined us around our table this year we would like to extend our deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks. Your open hearts, curious minds and willingness to meet new people, go new places and eat new foods is what makes our little project so joyful. We met so many amazing people from all over the world, made so many new friends and also welcomed back old friends too. The true beauty of what we happily get to call our work.
While we are a company of two we could never do what we do without all of the support of our family and friends and community here in Altamura. Much love and endless thanks to each and everyone that helps in big ways and small to allow us to continue to share the culinary practices and history of Puglia that we love so much.
More classes, two workshops and some special events are all on the books for next year. We look forward to welcoming what we feel sure will be yet another amazing group of people in 2026.
J & F xo
We are so happy to be welcoming new and old friends for another season of classes and workshops. Our first group were from Romania, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, South Africa and England and they made some truly delicious pasta. Looking forward to meeting all those people who will be pulling up a chair to our table in the coming months. ❤️
We are preparing for spring! It is time to organize the kitchen studio, launder all the tablecloths and linens, prepare the terracotta pots on the balconies for the tender herbs that will soon be planted, rearrange the new pantry space lined with tins of olive oil, pickles, jams, homemade digestivi and sacks of semola flour for pasta and focaccia. This is also the time to start planning new dishes and menus to share, something we look forward to every year.
We can’t wait for the beautiful messes that remain after a boisterous lunch or dinner, a reflection of the Italian idea that joy and connection comes from time spent around the table. Mangia bene, ridi spesso, ama molto. Eat well, laugh often, love much.
Our 2025 schedule is now up on our website and we are excited to see all of you who will join us for classes and workshops this year!
Cooking and eating good food, sharing stories and laughter with people from around the world seems like a very good idea these days. xo J & F ❤️
