A quick city escape to a “maritime” kitchen
La Botte Piccola is pleased to take you on a journey of discovery of Genoese culinary traditions through a cooking course held in a historical restaurant in the lovely sea-side suburb of Pegli, located in the west of Genoa, away from the classic tourist itinerary.
This quick city escape will give you the opportunity to discover traditional Genoese dishes, travel cooking par excellence, in a suburb which, due to its mild climate and pleasant surrounds, was last century the destination of European tourism.
It will be a weekend fully immersed in culinary culture and in the lesser-known Genoa. You’ll spend two interesting days in the company of the cook at the historical restaurant “da Teresa” who will guide you in discovering the maritime and commercial roots of¬† “Genoa the Superba” and of her cooking traditions, in a course divided into two sessions.
From the preparation of tasty and elaborate traditional dishes to sharing meals with the cook, in these three days you will have the opportunity to taste typical traditional dishes and to sample the menu of one of the best restaurants in Genoa, “Baldin“, with the meals being prepared by the imaginative young chef, Luca Collami, a member of the Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe Association.
With Cappon magro, Cima and other local delicacies that you’ll learn to prepare, you’ll have the opportunity to become familiar with a unique example of the Italian culinary heritage, due to the wealth and variety of its primary ingredients and to its cosmopolitan identity. You’ll discover how the elements that make up the cuisine have been dictated by Genoa’s historical trade relations, the starting point of an ages-old merchant empire.
There are strong links between this inaccessible land and its culinary traditions, where the difficulty of transporting goods by sea explains why the need to preserve foods is closely tied to its gastronomy; the skilful mixture of a variety of ingredients modified the primary materials, principally in order to preserve them during the long sea voyages and in times of difficulty in provisioning foodstuffs. A people of sailors and navigators who braved the sea while transporting food which had to last.
Cappon magro, Cima, savoury pies, stuffed vegetables and pesto are the quintessential elements of a metropolitan cuisine made of elaborate dishes evocative of long voyages; a cuisine which, with curiosity, made use of all the delicacies which, through its trade, it discovered, incorporated and reworked.
At “da Teresa” you’ll learn the subtle art of blending used in Genoese dishes; you’ll be surprised to observe how the city of navigators par excellence in reality makes little use of fish in its recipes and how, instead, all the flavours of the vegetable garden have a prime role in its rich and skilful mixtures.
At “Baldin” you’ll have the opportunity to taste the same dishes; the underlying theme is travel and traditions but reinterpreted with a modern take.
In order to thoroughly soak up the culinary atmosphere, la Botte Piccola has had the idea of accommodating you in the simple inn above the restaurant hosting your cooking course in Pegli. The inn is an excellent starting point to visit the attractions of this area, a splendid suburb with a mild climate and a history of tourist accommodation of the first order.
In its past, Pegli saw the building of the villas of the most important Genoese noble families; at the end of the 19th century it reached the height of its splendour and fame both in Italy and in Europe. The excellent climate, the beauty of the natural surroundings, the sea, the parks in the villas and the accommodation capacity of its hotels made Pegli one of the best known tourist localities in Liguria at that time. In 1846 came the decisive turning point with the opening of the park of the Villa Pallavicini, commissioned by the Marquis Ignazio Alessandro Pallavicini and designed by the architect Michele Canzio.
The villa is definitely not to be missed. As well as being one of the most important historical gardens at an international level, it represents one of the best and rarest examples of Romantic-style gardens in Europe. A wealth of surprises were designed by the architect Michele Canzio who, at that time, was the set designer of the Genoa Opera Theatre, the Carlo Felice; the Chinese and Moorish-style pavilions testify to the builder’s particular interest in Oriental artistic expressions.¬†
Another attraction not to be missed, in the same area, is the Museo Navale (Nautical Museum) which will prove to be an opportunity to place the city’s culinary culture in its context of voyages and domination of the seas. The theme of the collection is the relationship between the Ligurian Riviera and the sea: it examines, starting from the Middle Ages, the ways in which the coastal villages, differently from the cities and the Republic of Genoa, took up particular forms of trade, navigation, fishing and ship-building.
The atlases of the period on display show the coast and the Mediterranean, the colonies which, like Chios and Tabarca, maintained strong ties with the Riviera, and 18th century images which document the development of the northern coast of the Mediterranean.¬†
Moving on to the centre of Genoa… and an obligatory stop off is the Palazzo Ducale which is currently hosting a historic exhibition, in its wealth of material, dedicated to the singer-songwriter Fabrizio De Andre’; definitely not to be overlooked…
On this trip, we’ve decided to leave a lot of free time to allow the traveller to decide how best to discover the city, a fascinating sea-port which reveals its beauty only with careful observation…
The transfers haven’t been included so as to leave the visitor free to decide the length of the visit using public transport. On request, it’s possible have the use of a car, just as it’s possible to request guided tours of palaces which are normally closed to the public or of historical shops, or to plan a very special outing in the sea near Pegli, on the fishing boat which supplies the restaurant “da Teresa” with its fresh fish.
Composition of the trip:
Arrival early afternoon
First session of cooking course
Dinner at “da Teresa”
Morning, second session of cooking course
Lunch at “da Teresa”
Dinner at “Baldin”
Free time in which we strongly recommend visiting the Museo Navale, Villa Pallavicini and/or the Fabrizio De Andre’ exhibition.
The cost of this weekend per person is ‚ā¨ 270.00 and includes:
2 nights Bed & Breakfast
2 cooking sessions (Friday afternoon and Saturday morning)
Friday Dinner at the restaurant “da Teresa”¬†
Saturday Lunch at the restaurant “da Teresa”
Saturday Dinner at the restaurant “da Baldin” (it is possible to change this booking to another mealtime during the weekend)
Guided tour of historical shops
Visit of Palazzi dei Rolli (UNESCO World Heritage site) normally closed to the public
Entrance to exhibitions
Boat trip with the fisherman who supplies the restaurant