If you can’t get to Italy this summer, you can find the next best thing in North Beach with a series of hands-on cooking classes featuring the finest cuisine Italia can offer. 

Sept. 14–16, Tante Marie’s will offer The Cooking of Italy, a three-day cooking “vacation” that explores the cooking of northern, central and southern Italy. Participants will cook a wide variety of dishes and taste appropriate wines. The cost for the series is $450, and the number of students is limited at 16.
Mary Risley, the founder and owner of Tante Marie’s Cooking School, has sponsored many of these participation classes over the years, but she never tires of the camaraderie created by a group of strangers who bond while making great food.

“Every time I walk into Tante Marie’s during one of these events and see people cooking together, eating and drinking and having fun, I’m thrilled. They learn because everybody actually cooks every recipe. It’s a total participation experience, and it’s the best way to learn, but we also make it fun.”
Some of the dishes that will be prepared during the classes include grilled eggplant portafolio with fontina and tomato oil; shrimp spiedini with pesto, fingerling potatoes and chickpea mint aioli; Sicilian tuna “meatballs” with heirloom tomato sauce; funghi al cartoccio al forno (wild mushrooms baked in parchment with prosciutto); and bustrengo (polenta apple cake from Bologna).

Chef Malcolm Jessop is the featured instructor. He comes to San Francisco with over 30 years of experience cooking in fine dining restaurants and hotels. A graduate of Westminster Culinary School, Jessop completed a four-year apprenticeship at London’s Grosvenor House. It was during his two-year stay in France that he truly learned to appreciate cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients from local farmers’ markets.

Jessop loves French cooking, but he also covets Italian food for many reasons. “Italian food is so varied and different based on region,” he said. “In the north, the food is more focused on things like polenta and mushrooms, for example. It’s more refined than the food you’ll find in the south of Italy, where you’ll encounter it’s Arabian influences, such as the presence of things like golden raisins in the dishes. You’ll find more tomato sauces in the south as well. And in the central region, you’ll find more refined foods – gourmet items, such as the prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.”

There’s a lot of area to cover, so Jessop will teach an average of 15 recipes per day. “I will impart a lot of information, but everyone can work at their own paces. We normally get folks who are novices and others who are very skilled home chefs. It’s great to see everyone working together to create this wonderful food,” he said.

For more information about The Cooking of Italy, call 415-788-6699 or visit www.tantemarie.com.