Once in a while when travelling I grab the opportunity to learn more about the destination’s culture by booking a cooking class. Even if it is only for one day, the culinary experience is most of the time a lot of fun, you meet interesting and entertaining people and you get much more insights into a country by finding out how they prepare their food.

When travelling to Lecce in Southern Italy we came across the cooking school The Awaiting table by Silvestro Silvestori and booked a full day class which came out to be an exceptional experience.  We met in the morning at 10am on a piazza in Lecce with Silvestro and some class mates and after having a good cup of cappuccino entered the local market hall to do our shopping for the day. Silvestro was great in explaining all the kind of typical vegetables from the area, introducing us to his favourite butcher and baker and creating an interactive and friendly atmosphere among the group. We arrived at his house which includes the cooking school and were blown away – Wow! An old historical town house full of personality and charme…

Once set each of us received his own apron and we started to create pasta dough for the famous Orecchietti, one of the most known specialities in Puglia. The name comes from the Italian word orecchia, which means “ear” and the ending – etta meaning “small” referring to the shape of a little ear. It was not as easy as I thought and quite some intense work to mix the semolina and the all-purpose flour with warm water and to create a smooth dough by kneading it on a floured surface until the dough became smooth and stiff. Once ready, we used our hands to gently roll strips of dough into long, thin sausages, cut little pellets out of them and formed them with a fork into “little ears”. It needs some practice to see a proper result, but they don’t need to look each like the other.

During lunch we enjoyed our selfmade Orecchietti dishes and Silvestro gave us an introduction to a choice of local wines. As he is also a sommelier he knows all about wine and is a good teacher in explaining why certain wines go extremely well with the typical food in Southern Italy. Negro Amaro, Salice di Salento or Primitivo di Manduria – one wine tasted better than the other  The cozy room we sat in gave a certain touch and it felt like eating at somebody’s home and among friends. We also learned that the food and wines of the Salento are protected by UNESCO, with the so-called Mediterranean Diet, now considered as a global cultural treasure. The rest of the day we would prepare and taste a wide range of typical plates from the region including a stuffed meatloaf, fish and vegetable dishes (Puglian Cicorie), but what I loved most was the dessert. The so-called “apostle’s fingers” (dita degli apostolic) were traditionally made for winter’s Carnival, but today you get them year-round. This refreshing dessert is similar to crêpes with a sweet and lemony ricotta filling and there is plenty of traditional variations that change from town to town in Puglia.

In the afternoon we had some hours off to explore the old town of Lecce with its little narrow streets and baroque buildings before we met again with the group to prepare our dinner.

Silvestro opened his Cookery School in 2003 and it has been praised in famous magazines such as Food & Travel, Travel + Leisure, The London Times and others. If you don’t speak Italian no need to worry as Silvestro fluently speaks English and he even writes features about food and wine in well known publications such as Wine & Spirits. 2 months of the year he bicycles around Southern Italy to research about wine and also blogs about his journey and his findings.

The Awaiting Table offers day, weekend and week-long courses based on small classes in the historical centre of Lecce as well as larger, themed weeks that go deeper into specialized which are held in a castle outside the city.

Via Idomeneo 41, Lecce, Puglia, 73100 Italy, www.awaitingtable.com