Lucia
Cesarina from 2024My speciality: Orecchiette with tomato sauce.
I live in: Lecce
Spoken languages: Italian and English
Good to know
I offer vegetarian alternatives
Hi from Lucia!
"You always cook thinking of someone, otherwise you're just preparing food"What I love most is passing down the traditions of my region through culinary art, that is, everything that has been passed down to me by my grandmothers since I was a child. A journey that goes from homemade pasta, to traditional pittule, to the typical sweets of my land.
My specialities
- Salento appetizers such as pittule, friselline, and sceblasti.
- Orecchiette with tomato sauce.
- Pasticciotto or tiramisu.
Experiences
Cooking classes (7)
Reviews
5.0
45 reviews
- Lucia was a wonderful teacher and host. I had a great time cooking with her and enjoying her company. I really felt relaxed and she was so helpful. She shared information about the region. I highly recommend it.
- Esperienza fantastica! Lucia ha spiegato in modo approfondito tutte le tecniche, sia moderne sia quelle tradizionali “da nonna”. Anche due principianti come me e la mia amica siamo riuscite a preparare tre tipi di pasta e un tiramisù, e tutto era assolutamente delizioso. Lucia era molto appassionata delle tradizioni e dello stile della cucina locale, e si percepiva chiaramente che cucinava con amore. La consiglierei a chiunque, indipendentemente dal livello di esperienza in cucina.
- Lucia was amazing, we had such a lovely experience in her home and felt very welcome. We made some amazing traditional things for the region of Zollino and we were told some amazing legends and stories behind it all. Lucia even played and sang for us the Taranta folklore song 👏🏻. I recommend Lucia highly.
- We had such a lovely cooking class from Lucia! It was really our best thing we did during our stay in Puglia. Lucia is so sweet and so patient. She explains really good how everything works and what the best way is to make the dishes. We enjoyed it so much! I will come back with my kids next time. Lucia is the best! She is the best teacher and host you can wish for. Thanks so much Lucia!
- This cooking class was so unexpected in all of the best ways. From the moment we arrived to the meetup spot (this gorgeous cafe in Leece), to us getting to know each other as we walked around the local market, to the tour of the surrounding area (including this amazinggggg bakery that I can still smell when I think of it) and getting to know the genuine history and culture of Lucia's home... And that was only the START!!! All before we even arrived to her beautiful home for our cooking class! It was such a beautiful introduction and made us more excited for what was to come. Once we arrived to her home and began cooking she was so patient, kind, helpful, and NON judgemental - I felt 1000% comfortable and supported and honestly encouraged the entire time! I learned how to make two types of beautiful pasta (orecchiette and macaroni) but also the most amazingggggg tiramisu! I went into this class not knowing we were going to make tiramisu and honestly, was not excited when I found out because I'm not a fan of it at all but when I say.. we learned to make it the RIGHT way - I mean it. I left her home feeling confident in my new cooking abilities and loving a dessert I walked into the room hating. She set the table and we had a lovely local wine, some super yummy appetizers that were local to the area (my fav were these potato sticks - similar to hush puppy type of texture but not spicy soooo good!!) followed by the pasta we made ourselves and dessert! We spent the entire time laughing, bonding, talking - building a genuine connection! No kidding like our souls had all met before. It really felt like we (Lucia our host, Paolo our translator, my brother and myself) knew each other for years!! The most amazing moment of the entire experience that I will never forget is when they serenated us with a song of their culture, a freedom song of sorts, it was so beautiful that it genuinely brought my brother and I to tears. Not cute tears, but full on ugly crying. Having them open their doors to their culture and share something so intimate with us was amazing and we felt honored. It was something out of a movie. If you're looking for an experience that will move you from start to finish and to be hosted by someone who's heart shows through their actions and their cooking, I could not recommend Lucia's AMAZING cooking class enough. You will leave with your stomach and your heart full and memories that will last a lifetime.
Laurene - February 2026
Sara - January 2026
Susie B - December 2025
Marieke - December 2025
Sasha Bowers - October 2025