10 Italian Cuisine Preparatory Programs

This unique course will offer students the possibility to enter the world of Italian pasta production, learning specific techniques for both dry and fresh pasta as well as how to deal with production for direct sales and catering service. This is the perfect chance for all international students who wish to learn the techniques of pasta making and production both for fresh pasta laboratory and catering to have a real professionalizing experience and make a step forward to entrepreneurship in the industry.

The "Master of Pizza", available exclusively in Florence (Tuscany), is a 70-hour intensive course over two weeks, where participants master dough fermentation, topping selection, and professional baking techniques. Every step is hands-on, ensuring a real-world learning experience.

The New Italian Culinary Program is a one-year course, organized in two educational units. It is the perfect course if you are looking for a real full immersion in Italian food and a complete study experience to become a professional chef of Italian Cuisine.

The "Master of Pasta", held in Florence (Tuscany) and Lecce (Puglia), is a 70-hour training program over two weeks, focusing on fresh pasta-making, from traditional regional recipes to modern techniques. Students work directly with high-quality ingredients, learning to create authentic Italian flavors under the guidance of expert chefs.

Whether you are a professional chef or a serious home gourmet, no other one-week course in the world will give you more knowledge and Italian regional cooking experience than the Foundation of Italian Cuisine. Several areas of the menu are prepared and presented including perfect base sauces, pasta, vegetarian and Mediterranean cuisine. Special emphasis is placed on baking, integrating specialty bread, hearth bread, pizza, focaccia, and desserts into the chef’s repertoire. Working alongside master chefs you will discover how to recreate the authentic vibrant flavors that have made Italy the food capital of the world. As always, this program is all-inclusive from the time of arrival at the airport until departure. Accommodations, ground transfers, all meals and cultural travel are all included.

Core Course: FSST 100: Experiencing Sustainable Italian Foodways (1 credit) Choose any three or more from the following elective courses: ANTH/FSST/SOC 375: The Anthropology of Food and Eating: Understanding Self and Others (3 credits) COMM/BUS/FSST 355: Digital Marketing: Wine and Wineries of Central Italy (3 credits) ENV/FSST/SOC 330: Sustainable Food Production in Italy: Local Traditions and Global Transformations (3 credits) FSST/GSCI 250: The Science of Italian Food (3 credits) FSST/HIST/SOC 350: The History and Culture of Food in Italy (3 credits)

The FSSP is a semester-long, interdisciplinary certificate program open to all students with an interest in food, sustainability and the environment. It is particularly well-suited to those hoping to cultivate a career in the food or environmental industries or seeking to continue their education at the graduate level. There are three tracks: Food Studies, Environmental Studies & Sustainability, and the dual-track. For each track, students take an Italian class, the 1-credit core course, and then choose three or four other FSSP courses. Each thematic course includes a series of co- and extra-curricular activities that are an integral part of the curriculum; they include guest lectures, site visits, field trips, culinary activities, research projects, and other hands-on experiences. These activities allow students to directly observe the concepts studied in the classroom and analyze issues surrounding food, sustainability, and the environment in an Italian and global context from varied perspectives.

This dynamic hands-on program begins with an extended tasting of the raw ingredients needed to make the perfect pizza, focaccia, and specialty bread in the Italian tradition. The science of making natural yeast, sourdough, and their eventual fermentation requirements are all covered in detail. Whether hearth-baked or conventionally made, Pizza continues to command the western world’s largest share of all sectors of Food and Beverage. Although many countries have different ways to make these classic foods, it is important to note that they are genuinely Italian and there is no better place in the world to master the art than in Italy.

The chef is certainly one of the most requested figures on the job market. It is a profession that requires passion, commitment, in-depth knowledge, and manual skills: characteristics and skills that, if cultivated and developed, can lead to great satisfaction in terms of creativity and personal affirmation. A student of CAST Alimenti, at the end of the Higher Education course, is ready to be a "modern chef" and immerse himself in a myriad of varied restaurant industry offerings.

The ‘pasticcere’ or pastry chef in the catering and hotel industries, combines in itself all the knowledge and technical skills of the traditional pastry chef, but at the same time, interprets and creates a pastry art with completely different objectives from the conventional laboratory: they contextualize their work within a team, working closely with the Executive Chef, to ensure superior quality in the catering service and within hospitality.