Workshops
Themed and guest-led culinary experiences
WHEN
April 27 – May 2, 2026
PRICE
Single Room: €4,100 Double Room: €7,500
EXAMPLE PROGRAM
Planned activities and schedules may change at short notice due to seasonal rhythms of life in Sicily.
Monday, April 27
3:00 pm | Arrival and settle into your accommodations
7:30 pm | Welcome aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
Tuesday, April 28
9:00 am | Breakfast
9:45 am | Garden tour with Fabrizia
10:30 am | Baking session: Defining conceptual frameworks, timelines, and getting organized. The mise en place of everything you need to know before you begin. We’ll discuss how to prepare unique flavors, textures, colors, and more, as you design and map out your unique cake.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Butter making class! Learning how to make delicious butter from fresh milk to incorporate in our buttercreams later.
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
Wednesday, April 29
7:45 am | Departure to visit Filippo the cheesemaker and picnic breakfast at his farm
12:30 pm | Sicilian cheese tasting followed by lunch
5:00 pm | Baking session: Building flavor through local and regional products like grains, nuts, cheeses and more. We’ll make the foundation of what will be our show stopping layer cake: a light, not-too-sweet sponge, made with regional grains and infused with your unique herb and spice pairings.
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
Thursday, April 30
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:30 am | Baking session: Making flavourful mousses, ganache, and fruit-based preserves for our dream layer cakes. In other words - the flavorful and rich creamy fillings that bring your cake into focus. We’ll finish by building the cake layers, so it can rest and settle overnight.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Baking session with Enza: Discovering the Sicilian classics
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
Friday, May 1
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:30 am | Baking session: Finishing up our cakes - we’ll whip up a rich buttercream and discuss the inventive ways to coat a cake, including creative applications through piping and other decorative techniques. And last but not least: a joyful finish to every cake, with an abundant, colorful explosion of fresh ingredients to garnish and decorate your finished masterpiece.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Tea and cake time! Enjoying your own layer cake creations
7:30 pm | Dinner at Case Vecchie
Saturday, May 2
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:00 am | Goodbyes and departure
info
Costs include
Accommodation at Case Vecchie or one of the nearby cottages, shuttle from/to Roccapalumba train station, indicated lessons, meals, wine and excursions.
Meals
Lunch and dinner are served with wines from the Tasca d’Almerita estate. Typical meals and cooking lessons include three or four courses.
Unfortunately we cannot host people with celiac disease or a vegan diet. This is due to the lack of availability of special ingredients in our rural and isolated location.
Transportation
Airfare and private transportation to and from Case Vecchie are not included in the cost. At the time of booking, please let us know if you would like to book a ride to and from the estate.
More Than Cake: Building Layers of Flavor
with Natasha Pickowicz
Join four-time James Beard nominated pastry chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz for an intensive, immersive and joyful look exploring the vast and varied world of cake. Through this course you’ll investigate the way myriad technical strategies, an endless pursuit for baking knowledge, and an obsession with aesthetic and philosophical principles intersect to shape a dessert that is wholly you. Natasha will guide you through her tried-and-true strategies for not just executing technically perfect and deeply delicious cakes, but to bring them to life using Sicilian regional and seasonal (and sometimes unexpected) ingredients, handled and arranged with an eye for visual rigor, form, and a sense of play.
Natasha Pickowicz
is a California born, New York City–based chef, a four-time James Beard Foundation Award finalist, and the author of More Than Cake, which was a New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2023 as well as a 2023 James Beard Foundation finalist.
Much of her pastry work explores the relationship between baking and social justice, including ongoing collaborations with seminal New York City institutions like Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, God’s Love We Deliver, the Brigid Alliance, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, for whom she produced a massive city-wide bake sale, raising more than $200,000 between 2017 and 2024.
Pickowicz’s recipes and writing have been published in the New York Times, Vogue magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Food & Wine, New York magazine, Cherry Bombe, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @natashapickowicz.
The whole experience, from the accommodations (food, the beautiful location) to all the people we encountered was top notch. The kitchen crew was awesome in every way! I will definitely recommend to friends. David was great, enjoyed his casual style and expertise.
J.N.
David Tanis Workshop
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and thought the standard of the course was exceptional. I have taken other cooking classes in other countries, and this course was by far more authentic, serious, in-depth and has inspired me.
J.S.
David Tanis Workshop
Everything about the week was worth the effort to get there and the planning was well worth it. It was a week of gourmet eating. The participants were all enthusiastic about being there and that helped make the overall "experience".
S.M
David Tanis Workshop
I loved everything, beyond beautiful surroundings, fabulous food, wonderful instruction and opportunity to learn about Sicilian cooking, as well as the knowledgeable and very helpful staff. The flowing wine and other guests, who just happened to be amazing also added to my exceptional experience!
B.W
Tomato Paste Workshop
We've been telling everybody what great experience we've had at Case Vecchie: breadmaking, Sicilian cooking lessons, daily walks to the winery, visit to the flour mill and ricotta maker and the sheep, your beautiful grounds filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens and the chicken coop.
Y.W.
Breadcamp
My stay at Casa Vecchie absolutely confirmed for me that my future is in food, I cannot thank them enough for solidifying that for me. My stay at Casa Vecchie absolutely confirmed for me that my future is in food, I cannot thank them enough for solidifying that for me.
J.C.
Pasta Workshop
That was such a great experience and it was so much fun to be with all of you during the week. Please extend my thanks to the entire team who made things so fantastic. I can't wait to get started in my own kitchen!
C.H.
Pasta Workshop
That was such a great experience and it was so much fun to be with all of you during the week. Please extend my thanks to the entire team who made things so fantastic. I can't wait to get started in my own kitchen!
C.H.
Pasta Workshop
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