Giardini Naxos: Sicilian Cooking Class & Seaview Lunch

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.94 (179 reviews) 97% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/21

Duration4h

GroupUp to 20

LanguagesEN · IT

Mobile ticketAccepted

Cook fresh Sicilian dishes by the sea with Chef Mimmo in Giardini Naxos

You’ll cook side-by-side with Chef Mimmo in Giardini Naxos, learning hands-on how to shape pasta and prepare classic Sicilian dishes just steps from the sea. Taste local wines, cheeses, and homemade cannoli as sunlight pours in from Taormina Bay. Expect laughter, flour everywhere, and real flavors you’ll remember long after you leave Sicily.

Step-by-step itinerary

Cooking class and Sicilian lunch

Meet Chef Mimmo at Ahoy Bistrò Siciliano
Enjoy wine tasting with focaccia and cold cuts
Wear apron and prepare three Sicilian dishes
Make six types of fresh pasta by hand
Cook fish alla ghiotta with tomatoes and capers
Eat Sicilian lunch by the sea
Taste small Sicilian Cannoli with Limoncello

The Experience

“You’re using too much flour!” Chef Mimmo grinned at me, shaking his head as I tried to roll out my pasta dough. We were just steps from the beach in Giardini Naxos, and honestly, I could smell the sea through the open windows — salty and bright, mixing with the basil on my fingers. The kitchen felt more like someone’s home than a class. There was this gentle clatter of plates and laughter bouncing off the walls. Mimmo poured us each a glass of local white (crisp, slightly peachy), and we nibbled on focaccia and cheese while he told stories about his grandmother’s caponata recipe — apparently she never measured anything either.

I didn’t expect to actually make six types of fresh pasta myself (my orecchiette looked more like tiny hats than ears), but Mimmo was patient. He showed us how to twist and pinch the dough just right — “like this, see?” — and when I got it wrong he just shrugged and said that’s how new recipes are born. We tasted slices of salami so peppery it almost tingled, and I tried to say “caponata” in Italian; Li laughed at my accent. The fish alla ghiotta was simmering on the stove, filling the room with this sweet-sour tomato smell mixed with olives and capers from the Aeolian Islands. Outside, you could see Taormina across the bay — sunlight flickering on water. It all felt slow, easy.

Sitting down for lunch together after cooking felt like being invited into someone’s family for Sunday dinner. We ate what we’d made — messy plates of pasta with tomato sauce that tasted brighter than any jar back home — plus that fish dish I still think about sometimes when I catch a whiff of olives or lemon zest. The cannoli were tiny but packed with ricotta (I may have eaten two), washed down with cold limoncello that left my tongue tingling. At some point Mimmo handed us certificates; I laughed because mine had flour fingerprints on it already.

What’s included

Your day includes hands-on Sicilian cooking lessons with Chef Mimmo right by Giardini Naxos beach, all ingredients provided (including local produce like Bronte pistachios), wine tasting paired with focaccia and cheeses, a full homemade lunch featuring your own pasta and fish dishes, mineral water throughout, coffee or tea break, small traditional cannoli with limoncello for dessert—and even an apron plus certificate to take home as proof (flour smudges optional).

Good to know

Wheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Mulinciana Sicilian Cooking Class Taormina