“At Home in Sicily”

How to shop for food, create menus, lay tables, manage daily meals and host in style, as they do in old-world Sicily.

In collaboration with Monica Consoli, a celebrated Sicilian home-chef and Gabriella Matarazzo, a prominent local matriarch at her country estate, Commenda di San Calogero.

In line with The Thoughtful Table’s focus on provenance, relevance and elegance, this is a full immersion in the traditional, time-tested ways of effectively managing a home kitchen and an ample, hospitable table, for family and friends.

A cookery course of carefully curated, timeless recipes that make a house a home; from basic sauces to preparing and cooking vegetables; simple week-day suppers, elegant dinners and Sunday lunches with a twist: easy, transferrable, kitchen techniques, rich in Sicilian heritage and adaptable to modern demands and constraints.

In addition to arming you with a set of practical and elegant foundation recipes, the weekend will also cover tips on keeping a pantry and stocking a freezer, manage leftovers, shopping for good quality foods, successfully planning menus, organising original dinners and memorable tablescapes, for every day and special occasion. There will also be a shopping trip to the renowned fish and food market in Catania followed by a lunch at the legendary storico mercato di pesce, for a full taste of the immensely rich and layered Sicilian food culture, with its unique array of fresh produce and raw ingredients, whose influences span European, Arab and African continents.