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The Alpine Adventure Agency International Cooking School Series

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JUNE 24-JULY 3, 2009 spaetzle demo at Malga CesGuests participating in any of our scenic or educational workshop vacations enjoy private cooking demonstrations with well-known regional chefs in the geographic locations we visit.  Here, one of the executive chefs of the Malga Ces, one of the most renown restaurants in San Martino di Castrozza and the Primiero Valley in the Italian Dolomites, prepares the dough for Spaetzle, a regional favorite, for the hands-on portion of the demonstration.
Photo: Daniela Anderson.
THE ALPINE ADVENTURE AGENCY INTERNATIONAL COOKING SCHOOL SERIES

We are thrilled to be able to offer this special series of dream cooking school vacations to our guests! These culinary events will follow the same format as our signature "I Want It All" vacations, with our mornings reserved for unique group excursions and experiences in spectacular settings, cooking demonstrations, tours to vineyards, cheese factories, open-air markets, and many other culinary destinations, and custom gourmet lunches as well as visits with artisans preserving the heritage of many regional items still being produced "in the old way!"

Our afternoons will feature formal cooking lessons with premiere, master executive chefs, enologists, sommeliers, and other culinary experts as well as experiences in the kitchens of local families who have passed down original regional recipes through many generations.
WE ARE THE ONLY COOKING VACATION SPECIALISTS OFFERING A TYROLEAN COOKING VACATION EXPLORING THE FOODS, WINES AND GRAPPE OF THE TRENTINO-SUD-TIROL-ALTO ADIGE  REGIONS OF ITALY!
  • In 2010, we will be offering a very special edition of our Tyrolean Culinary School,  pairing it with our "Sipping with the Sommeliers" package.  This gourmet's delight will take place in the Italian Tyrolean Alps and Venice, Italy from August 29 - September 7, 2010 and features intimate cooking lessons and demonstrations with several master executive chefs and sommeliers as well as daily morning excursions and activities  that will delight the most discriminating gourmet!
  • Your six, formal,  afternoon kitchen classes are taught by Executive Master Chef Giuseppe Cavallari. Chef Giuseppe has taken part in many Italian culinary competitions and has won many awards.  Among the highlights of his career are the personal compliments he received from Italy's most famous chef, Gianfranco Vissani.
  • You will enjoy six afternoons of formal cooking instruction with Giuseppe in the professional kitchen of the first-rate regional restaurant, La Canisela, and the premiere historical hotel, the Grand Hotel Des Alpes, located in San Martino di Castrozza. Each hands-on class lasts approximately 3 hours, and 6 complete, multi-course menus based on local and regional cuisine will be explored. On the days that a formal class is held, your dinner will be the result of your efforts.
  • Our signature wine degustation series, "Sipping with the Sommeliers", may be added to your experience, and these sessions take place at dinner, when Sommeliers Gianluca Rimondi (owner of "La Canisela") and Carlo Squillaci (maître d'hôtel of the Grand Hotel Des Alpes) lead students and their companions through a palate-pleasing degustation of regional, doc wines paired with each course prepared earlier during your lesson with Chef Giuseppe.  A minimum of three wines will be presented per meal.
  • One full day is spent in Venice, Italy. A few special group activities take place in the morning, while the afternoon is free time for our guests to explore this legendary city.
  • Class size for this very popular cooking vacation is limited to enhance the one-on-one experience enjoyed by each student, but all guests taking part in the vacation (all students and their families) participate in the morning group activities.
  • Families and traveling companions will be able to share in and enjoy the multi-course, gourmet dinners that  result from the students' efforts in the kitchen. They also have the option of signing up for "Sipping with the Sommeliers."  We have many diverse local activities available to companions and family members, including children, joining our students during this spectacular culinary vacation.
  • In addition to the local activities available, guests not taking part in the cooking school portion of this food and wine vacation might be interested in some of our other activites occuring during the same time frame. We are offering a Location Photography Workshop taught by a seasoned, American professional photographer.  If there are any knitters or  people interested in learning how to knit in the group, they will have an opportunity of a lifetime offered to them as well. Globally renown expert in the area of Faroese Lace Knitted Shawls, Myrna Stahman, will be enjoying a vacation with us while her husband takes part in the formal cooking classes with Chef Giuseppe.  Myrna has offered to teach a workshop while she is here. If you are interested in signing up for a workshop with Myrna, contact us for more details.
  • The morning, scenic excursions included in your Tyrolean cooking vacation will take you to exotic and breath-taking locations where you will enjoy: making Tosela cheese in the kitchen of a high mountain dairy at the top of a cable car; participating in various cooking demonstrations and optional grappa degustations in various locations; delighting in a private tour of the cheese factory in Italy that makes the Italian award-winning Nostrano di Primiero cheese, and many more exciting experiences nestled in one of the most heart-beating and phenomenal backdrops in the world, the internationally renown Dolomitic mountain chain, the Pale di San Martino,  recognized in 2009 by UNESCO as being a world treasure of humanity.
  • A regional cookbook on Tyrolean Cuisine and an apron from The Alpine Adventure Agency are included in this package.
  • Click here to view details for this unique cooking vacation.
THE ALPINE ADVENTURE AGENCY OFFERS THE ONLY TEN-DAY, ALL-INCLUSIVE, CULINARY VACATION  AVAILABLE WITH INTERNATIONALLY RENOWN CHEF, MAMMA AGATA, ON THE AMALFI COAST!
  • The Alpine Adventure Agency has partnered with renown Italian chef and international culinary personality, Mamma Agata, to offer our guests a 10-day, all-inclusive gastronomic experience of a lifetime along the Amalfi Coast.  Until now, students have only had the opportunity to enjoy 1-day sessions with this culinary sensation, never having the chance to explore ALL that Mamma Agata, her accomplished culinary family, and the Campania Region has to offer.
  • This special cooking vacation will take place in October 2011.  It also will follow the same structure found in our other vacations - unique daily excursions, fabulous lunches, and formal cooking classes.  Our daily excursions will include visits to the charming town of Ravello and other areas nearby, and to interesting artisans in the area, including the potter who has produced all the beautiful ceramic placesettings on Mamma Agata's table!
  • Mamma Agata has cooked for most of Hollwood from the 1950's and 1960's era, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Anita Eckberg, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and Federico Fellini. She also has cooked for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was one of her favorite guests. She has cooked for Susanna Agnelli and Gore Vidal among many noted Heads of State, journalists, politicians and international personalities. Last year she was featured on Bravo Television's First Class and Daytime Discovers Italy. Recently, Pierce Brosnan and his family spent a wonderful day cooking with Mamma Agata and her family in their hillside villa's kitchen, and dining with the family on their terrace overlooking a stunning ocean view.
  • The highlight of this singular Italian cooking vacation is the series of  formal cooking classes  with  Mamma Agata and her daughter, Chiara (who is fluent in English), in their famous kitchen!
  • This cooking vacation also will feature a day of wine and cheese degustations with Mamma Agata's son-in-law, Gennaro, who is a member of the Italian Order of the Sommelier and whose wine cellar holds more than 100 different wines, but focuses on wine of the Campania region. He also is a respected chef specializing in the preparation of fish.
  • Mamma Agata's husband, Salvatore, will escort us through the family's traditional,  Italian organic kitchen garden and vineyard.  Our cooking vacation takes place during the time of year when he makes his own red and white wine, and our guests will have a chance to participate in this unique activity!
  • An all-inclusive cooking experience with Mamma Agata and her family never before has been offered, and The Alpine Adventure Agency is thrilled to provide this exclusive opportunity to experience Campagnia region wine and cuisine like never before.
  • Mamma Agata's acclaimed new cookbook, and aprons from Mamma Agata and The Alpine Adventure Agency are included in this package.
  • A preliminary web page, itinerary and pricing for this exclusive cooking opportunity will be available in late June, 2010, but we already have started accepting "early-bird" deposits to save spots in class for this out-of-this world culinary vacation.


We will be offering several promotions for both of these packages. Guests signing up for the Tyrolean Cooking Vacation by May 1, 2010 will receive $50 off the package price, and guests signing up for both the Tyrolean Cooking Vacation and the Mamma Agata/ Campania Region Cooking Vacation will receive a preferred student discount on both cooking vacations.

We look forward to meeting you and sharing these exciting, informative and delicious dream cooking vacations!

gianluca rimondiSommelier Gianluca Rimondi, owner of La Canisela restaurant.  Photo courtesy of Gianluca Rimondi.

 

chef giuseppe cavallariMaster Executive Chef Giuseppe Cavallari works in the kitchen of the Grand Hotel Des Alpes.  Photo courtesy of the Grand Hotel Des Alpes.

 

MALGA PALA CHEESE MAKING JUNE 24-JULY 3, 2009 (5) - Copy

Guests in our Tyrolean Alps vacations enjoy traveling by cable car to legendary Malga Pala, a high mountain dairy where we watch how Polenta is made in a traditional open kettle over a wood fire (photo below) and make fresh Tosela cheese in the farmhouse kitchen (photo above).  Photos: Daniela Anderson







Renown international knitting instructor, Galina Khmeleva (authority on Orenburg Russian Knitted Lace) gives a thumbs up to our visit to the Cheese Factory during our knitting workshop with her in 2009.


CANT DEL GAL TOUR JUNE 24-JULY 3, 2009 (11)
Nicola and Marzia Cemin of the Cant Del Gal restaurant in stunning Val Canali spoil our students and guests with a cooking demonstration of a traditional, sweet, Tyrolean omlette, the Kaiserschmarrn. An optional grappa degustation with Nicola also is available.  Photo: Daniela Anderson.


Ladhoff's pics cook. demo malga ces GREAT
Hands-On Cooking Demonstrations are included in every one of our vacations.  Here, guests are learning to make Spaetzle with the chef of the Malga Ces, a renown restaurant in San Martino di Castrozza that has entertained celebritites from all over the world.
Photo: Daniela Anderson

YOUR TOUR ORGANIZER AND GUIDE:

danielas 39th birthday reduced for uploadDaniela and Stephen at the top of the Tognola with the Pale di San Martino in the background and the town of San Martino di Castrozza down below.

DANIELA ANDERSON, the owner of The Alpine Adventure Agency, is the creator and director of program development for our International Cooking School Series. A bi-lingual, Italian-American who has shared a lifetime between the United States and Italy, she has an extensive background in attending culinary workshops and teaching cooking classes of all kinds to all ages throughout the North East United States. Her  knowledgeable background in the culinary arts and her lifelong friendships with families and business owners in the international regions we visit allows her to develop top-notch cooking programs with premiere chefs, enologists, sommeliers, culinary experts as well as experiences in the kitchens of local families who have passed down original regional recipes through many generations.

Daniela has taken part in culinary workshops and classes throughout her life, beginning her formal culinary instruction during high school when she decided to work in a well-known bakery and pastry shop in the Washington D.C. area to further her knowledge in the area of baking.  She has worked as a free-lance cake decorator for more than 20 years, and has taught the art of cake decoration for over a decade.

In her mid-twenties, Daniela developed a division of children's cooking programs  for a renown resort in the Adirondacks in New York. This was at the personal request of the resort's owner,  a gourmet and wine connoiseur who has spent years enjoying culinary workshops with top international chefs and working with enologists to add to the collection of rare wines in his private reserve. She also developed a series of cooking classes exploring diverse cultural cuisine for a very active community center in Harrisburg, PA.

pensione hermann-merano -postcardThe Pensione Hermann / Ermanno (Daniela's great-grandmother and grandmother's  hotel) in Merano, Italy. Merano is located along the Brenner Pass on the border of Austria and Italy in the Sud Tirol - Alto Adige region of the Italian Alps. Photo: Courtesy of Daniela Anderson.
This series of international cooking programs is near and dear to Daniela's heart not only because of her special interest in the culinary arts in general, but also because her family cultural background has had a very powerful influence in her life. She began in the kitchen at age three with her Austrian grandmother and Italian mother. Her great grandmother was renown in the Tyrolean alpine region of the Sud Tirol/ Alto Adige region for the cuisine she personally produced in the kitchen of the family's charming hotel in the spa town of Merano, located on the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy. These recipes and the family's love for cooking were passed down to Daniela. She, in turn, has already introduced some of these recipes to her own son when he was only three.  Daniela's culinary background through her Genoese grandfather's family also contributed to the Daniela's love for cooking, exposing her to Ligurian cuisine from her earliest memories.

During your all-inclusive, dream cooking vacations, Daniela has created an unbelievably diverse program of scenic morning excursions for guests in our programs, immersing you into the culture, and allowing you to experience daily life not as a tourist, but as an extended member of the family. Daniela personally leads the morning group outings, providing translation and insight into the local culture throughout your cooking vacation. Her goal is to leave you breathless with emotion at the rugged beauty of your surroundings, and feel the warmth and charm of the towns and the people in your hearts. She strives for her guests to have singular experiences they will remember the rest of their lives, and go home with Italy in their souls.    [top]