As I've said, my primary interest lies with the foods of Italy and France, so I started out by Googling - 'Culinary Arts Italian Courses'


My favorite sites were: Cook Italy which offers 'Unforgettable Cooking Holidays for Lovers of Italian Foods'. I really enjoy the homely feel to the site, but what's particularly appealing is articulate and evocative writing style. They really draw the reader in with wonderfully descriptive culinary prose. You can almost taste the foods they describe


“Tuscan food is deceptively simple; rustic and refined at the same time and its crowning glory is Lucca’s fabled olive oil.


In Northern Tuscany there are magnificent autumn mushrooms, wonderful chestnuts and forest berries; top quality white and red wines from the Lucca Hills, the deliciously nutty ancient cereal known as ‘farro’ and the local sweet called Castagnaccio, made with chestnut flour and topped with slivers of orange peel, pine nuts and a little rosemary.


All this as well as the mainstays of Tuscan cuisine: char-grilled steaks and pork ribs, spit roasted chickens cooked to absolute perfection, roast veal and rabbit, soups and fish dishes from the coast and creamy sheep’s milk Pecorino Cheeses from the mountain pastures of Garfagnana.


And to end a Tuscan meal, what better than the crunchy almond Biscotti di Prato, also called Cantucci, dipped into sweet Vin Santo? Or perhaps one of the many sweets from Siena: a small slice of the medieval Pan Forte or a feather light Ricciarelli macaroom.”



At the other end of the spectrum but equally interesting is The International Kitchen, which comes across as highly professional and offers cooking holidays to a variety of European destinations.