About the location: Chiavari is one of the charming seaside towns of the Italian Riviera, in a prime location to reach the elegant towns of the Riviera as well as the extraordinary Cinque Terre. This small town boasts a range of things to see, from local antique shops to beautiful cathedrals. The Hotel Monte Rosa is in the heart of the arcaded medieval town center and just a few yards from the sea. The Bacigalupo family has renovated the Monte Rosa to provide all modern comforts and has been providing outstanding Italian hospitality since the beginning of the twentieth century. Rooms include amenities such as satellite TV and air conditioning.

About the lessons: For almost a hundred years the Ristorante Monte Rosa has been on of the most well-known restaurants in the area. You will have the opportunity to learn Ligurian cuisine from Chef Roberto Dal Seno, with twenty years experience in Italy and abroad. Roberto started his apprenticeship one of the best hotels in Liguira. However, his passion for haute cuisine convinced him to leave the beautiful area and move to Paris where he sought the roots of cooking and learned the basics of French cuisine. A few years later, he took the opportunity to further expand his gastronomical background and rode the wave of the Oriental vogue. He moved to Tokyo with an important assignment and his love of fusion cuisine was born.

Upon finishing his Japanese experience, his broad professional background gave him the opportunity to become executive chef in one of the most famous and largest hotels in Trentino at a very young age. Having further enhanced his professional background, he left the mountain air to return to the sea and finally entered the world of Starwood Hotels, first as a chef for the restaurant Pescatore in Porto Cervo and later became the “right hand man” for the executive chef of Cala di Volpe, Franco Guardone. Roberto always makes time for his real passion; showing people happiness through food. He does this by developing cooking classes and enhancing restaurant quality all over the world. With the little time he has available between consulting and cooking, he spends time with his family and manages to work on fulfilling a childhood dream; writing his first book — which concentrates on his own personal cooking style — to be released sometime in 2008.

If Chef Roberto is unavailable, your cooking classes will be with Chef Ave, the Bacigalupo matriarch, who will share with you her forty years of experience in regional recipes.
 

• Four nights accommodation in an extra comfort double room

• Daily breakfast

• Two hands-on cooking classes

• Three dinners and one lunch, local wine included

• Excursions as per itinerary

• Wine shop visit with tasting

• Arrival transfer from train station

• Hotel apron