Holiday itinerary
Taught by an authentic pizza cook with many years of experience making pizza, you’ll spend 5 days learning to make delicious pizzas using a traditional wood fire oven at this informal and relaxed Italian cooking school in Sorrento, Italy – the home of the famous Neapolitan pizza.
During this 1 week fun pizza course you’ll learn the techniques to make the perfect pizza using a traditional wood pizza oven including how to prepare the pizza oven, making the dough from hand and by machine, making perfect pizza crust as well as perfecting a host of different toppings.
The course is set at an authentic, family-run cookery school where you'll learn the local secrets to preparing a perfect pizza. Get stuck in and become part of the family as you immerse yourself in the Italian way of life.
You’ll spend 6 nights in the comfortable 3* Hotel Soleuna in Sorrento, just 300 meters from the lovely garden where your pizza classes take place. The chef will take you from the hotel to the garden daily by car (or you can walk if you prefer!) so that you can use the fantastic outdoor wood fire oven for your classes. The hotel is based just a few minutes from the beautiful Italian coast line where you will be free to soak up the southern Italian sunshine or visit the Island of Capri.
Your pizza making tuition will ensure you can focus on all the elements of pizza making that you wish to along with individual attention from the pizzaiolo.
Using the wood oven is an art in itself and you'll find that by the end of the 6 night/7 day pizza making holiday, you'll have the pizza making skills to impress your friends and family on this pizza making course with a difference.
Suitability
- Suitable for all levels from beginner cooks to advanced pizza chefs but this 1 week long course is specifically aimed at those who wish to become a pizza chef or start their own pizza place
- Minimum age 18
- All classes are taught in both Italian and English
Pizza Making Course Start Days And Schedule
- Arrive at the hotel on the Sunday before your pizza making classes begin the following day
- Pizza classes run from Monday – Friday throughout the year and you’ll have around 3 hours of tuition per day
- Weekends and afternoons are free
Pizza Making Course Itinerary
Please note: this is an example itinerary only and the exact days and times of your cookery lessons will be confirmed on arrival
Day 1 – Arrival
- You may check-in to the Hotel Soleuna anytime from 2pm
- The afternoon and evening are free for you to spend at your leisure
Day 2 to 6 (note: no cooking lessons on Sundays)
- Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the Hotel Soleuna
- Your chef will meet you in the hotel reception and drive you to the nearby garden where your pizza making classes will take place
- The garden is only 300 meters from the hotel and you will be transported daily to and from the hotel (or you can walk if you’d prefer!)
- Every day, you will have a pizza making class using the outdoor traditional wood fire oven is from around 11:30am – 2pm
- Once you’ve cooked, you’ll sit down to enjoy the food you have cooked in a relaxed and friendly environment before being transferred back to the hotel
- The afternoons and evenings are free so you can explore Sorrento at your leisure or relax at the hotel
Day 7 - Departure
- After breakfast guests are asked to check-out of their rooms 10.30am ready for departure taking home with them new Italian cookery skills
About Your Chefs
- The pizza course will be run by passionate cooks Biagio or Palmira
- Biagio has worked in a number of different Italian restaurants worldwide and he also ran his own restaurants in Naples and Sorrento before setting up this cooking school in the early 1990's
- Biagio's wife, sons and daughters also all work and help run the cooking school and accommodation so this is a really traditional family-run school
What Will I Learn?
- To start with, you’ll learn all about the modern wood pizza oven, it's function, how to prepare the pizza oven and obtain the correct temperature for cooking
- Then its onto making the pizza dough where you’ll learn how to prepare the dough and how to manipulate it to make the perfect pizza shape and crust, right from the start you’ll find yourself making up to 3 pizzas an hour moving up to 10 pizzas per hour
- Toppings will start with the famous Margherita pizza using freshly made tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil
- Throughout the first five days you’ll perfect how to transfer the pizza to the oven, using the different sized pala as well as how to transport several pizzas at once as well as how to cook the pizza to perfection
- You’ll also learn to make many of the different toppings as well as how to combine new flavours and ingredients for great pizza
- You'll build on what you've learnt in the first week making dough in both a machine and by hand as well as developing your own toppings
- You'll also learn not only the Neapolitan Pizza, but also another style of Pizza called 'A metro' (the meter pizza)
- All lessons will teach you to make the perfect Neapolitan pizza to exacting standards in terms of the velocity, perfection in the cooking grade, shape, and quantity of topping per pizza
Accommodation – Hotel Soleluna
- You will be staying in a comfortable 3* hotel in Sorrento, the Hotel Soleluna, and your cookery classes will take place in the hotel kitchen meaning you can fully immerse yourself in Italian culture and cooking
- The pizza making class takes place in a nearby garden so you can use the wood fire oven, and your chef will either drive you or you can walk (it’s about 300 meters from the hotel)
- Your accommodation is a short walk from the beautiful beach and warm Mediterranean Sea
- The hotel has 9 rooms in total, including 1 single room, 3 twin/double rooms, 3 triple / quadruple rooms and 1 low cost room
- All bedrooms are simply furnished with air conditioning, have a bathroom with a shower, satellite TV and internet access
- Accommodation is included for 6 nights / 7 days at the Hotel Soleluna
- Prices are based on 2 people travelling together and sharing a twin/double room with private bathroom
- Solo travellers are welcome on the course and must pay a compulsory single supplement for a private twin/double room with private bathroom as shared rooms are not offered as an option on this holiday
- Check in any time between 11am - 8pm on day 1 and check out by 10.30am on day 7
Meals
- Breakfast is served each morning and includes seasonal fresh fruit, homemade croissants and fruit marmalade, fresh bread rolls served alongside butter, milk, yogurt, muesli, cereals, provolone cheese and prosciutto ham
- You will also have your choice of coffee (cappuccino, espresso etc.) or mineral water and fruit juice with your breakfast
- Depending on the time of your cookery lessons you will enjoy the delicious food you have prepared lunch or dinner, this will be enjoyed in a group setting with your fellow chefs, and the other guests on the cookery course at the hotel
Free Time In Sorrento
- Sorrento is a fantastic location as it is perfectly placed to visit all of the surrounding areas, the beautiful countryside of Campania, the incredible Amalfi Coast and the archaeological site of Pompeii.
- Set on the cliff tops of the bay of Naples that stretched all the way to Mount Vesuvius it is also a perfect place to visit the magical island of Capri
Excursion To Capri
- Excursions from the school to the fabled Island of Capri can be arranged for you by the school and booked in advance
- You will be taken directly from the accommodation to the boat where you will sail the Sorrento coast line, you will have 3 hours of free time to visit the island after which you will meet the skipper who will take you on a cruise around the beautiful Island
- A packed lunch will be provided by one of the chefs from the school. If you would like to add this excursion then you can do so in the extras section of the booking process
Go learn to cook Italian pizza in a traditional wood oven the authentic way on this 6 night/7 day pizza making course with a difference.