We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Read my full disclosure here.
Back when I visited Italy in 2017, my sister, aunt, uncle and I took an amazing cooking class near Lake Como (arranged by my favorite Italy destination specialists, Exclusively Italy). When planning this recent trip to Northern Italy with my kids, I knew I wanted to do another cooking experience somewhere! Through extensive research for a family friendly cooking class, I was so lucky to find Clara, and Cook in Milano.
The Best Family Cooking Class in Milan
Experiencing amazing food is an important part of Italian culture. Italian cuisine can vary by region, and its fun to explore the local cuisine on your Italy trip. I contacted Clara because I had read some good reviews of the cooking classes she had done for kids. The menu for our class included pizza, gnocchi and tiramisu. My kids love pizza, sometimes eat pasta, and although they had never tried tiramisu, I thought they would enjoy making it and trying it!
How to book a Cook in Milano Class
The private class was available for my dates and I was able to PayPal Clara to confirm the booking. After confirming (all communication was done over email), she asked me what type of sauce we wanted to make for our gnocchi. There were four choices, and I was excited she let me pick two – tomato for the kids and pesto, which I love! She also needed all our full names to print out our diplomas upon completion of the class. It was so easy to set up!
Additionally, Clara offers classes for small groups of adults.
Planning a trip to Italy? I am a full-service vacation planner specializing in customized Italy vacations! Click the banner below for all your travel planning needs.
To book this class with Clara, click here
Cook in Milano Review
Prior to arriving in Milan, Clara emailed me very specific directions on how to get to Cook in Milano. From our hotel, the Four Points Sheraton, it was about a 17 minute ride. We called an Uber just to keep it simple and easy, especially because our class started at 9:30am.
What I didn’t realize is that Cook in Milano is hosted out of Clara’s apartment – which was amazing to experience a meal in a true Italian home, but I was nervous the kids were going to cause a raucous in her house!
Once we arrived, we got signed in, and received our aprons and recipe books (the recipe books we took home, the aprons were just for use in the class). We washed our hands and got to work!
Clara had everything ready for us to begin in the kitchen! We started with some grating and chopping. Little man grated a big block of parmesan, baby girl cut mozzarella, I peeled potatoes and hubby cut tomatoes. I love that Clara had knives safe for kids!
Next, we got started on the pizza dough. We used some type of special mix that came with the yeast. We let the Kitchen Aid mix the dough and then we portioned it into three balls to let it rise. I had never made dough like this – and the kids loved seeing it double in size over the course of the morning.
Next up was the sauces – Hubby and I had to strain the tomatoes to simmer, and the kids helped by reading the pesto recipe and weighing the ingredients to add to the blender. I loved that the kids got to do so much of the work!
After the sauces were mostly ready, we had to start on the dessert. Clara had brewed 6 cups of decaf espresso – demi-tasse or espresso sized cups that she made with her Nespresso. So many Italian homes now use the Nespresso machine, and I love mine that I got last Christmas.
LOOKING FOR ITALY INSPIRED HOLIDAY GIFTS? Click the link for my best picks.
Little man whipped the cream, and baby girl mixed the egg yolk and mascarpone to together create the delicious creamy layer for the tiramisu. The kids then soaked the lady fingers in the coffee and started to make the layered dish. Clara showed us the high-tech way to even out the layers – see this video of little man doing it!
At this point in the morning, all we had left to do was to make the gnocchi (the potatoes I peeled were boiling then cooling), and set up our pizzas, so of course it was time for a coffee break! Clara made me a delicious marocchino –which is one of my favorite Italian coffees. I believe this is regional to the Milan area, and essentially is an espresso, with a little steamed milk foam and a cacao sprinkle on top. It’s not as milky as a cappuccino, so you can take this coffee later in the day!
After our coffee break, it was time to make the gnocchi! I had made gnocchi in my first cooking class two years ago, I had even bought a ricer and a gnocchi board to recreate this dish at home! But when I tried at my own house, despite being able to make the gnocchi balls, they all feel apart when I cooked them. I definitely needed to redeem myself on the gnocchi making!
Making gnocchi is pretty easy and the perfect pasta for kids to make by hand. We first riced the potatoes, then combined them with flour and some other ingredients. We formed a dough ball and each took small pieces to roll out into snakes. We then cut little pieces off the snake to form the balls for the gnocchi!
Last up – roll out our dough and prep the pizzas for baking! Clara added the pizza sauce to a little squeeze bottle to make it easy for the kids to spread. Last step – add the cheese and bake to perfection!
A beautiful Lunch at Cook in Milano
At the end, Clara’s assistant helped boil the gnocchi and fix it with the sauce. We had some champagne to celebrate (Sprite for the kids) and then got to sit and enjoy our beautiful lunch!
I loved the food! It was so delicious and I cannot believe we made this all together. I was so full I even forgot to get a pic of the finished tiramisu.
We all enjoyed our morning cooking and eating lunch with Clara. If you are visiting Milan with your kids (or with a group of adults) be sure to check out Cook in Milano. I highly recommend this experience!
Follow Momma To Go on social media! Twitter, Facebook , Pinterest, and Instagram
Please share:
Oh! How fun! I have always wanted to travel the world and learn to cook from all the places I’ve visited. So much fun for the kids to get to join you! I’m totally jealous 😉
maybe try to do a local cooking class? I’ve been thinking about doing that since we have been home!
What an incredible experience for your family! I can’t wait until my little one is a bit older so we can do something like this. I love cooking and traveling, so combining the two is perfect.
it was great, even for us non-cooking lovers
A family cooking class would be such a fun family night out!
we did this on vacation, but something I want to explore more of at home!
Taking a cooking class in Italy would be amazing. I would love to learn from the best.
I would absolutely love to do something like this with my family! What a fun memory!
This looks amazing! We LOVE Italian food and I would definitely want to try this with my family when we go to Milan. Thanks for the great tip!
Fun! We love Milano, but we haven’t cooked there yet.Thanks for the suggestion.
This looks like SO MUCH fun! What a great way to introduce kids to new experiences right in your own kitchen! Thanks for the great idea!
if you come back to Milan, don’t miss my cooking class and lunch in the wood!
30 minutes from MXP Milan Airport
sounds good! will do
Hello, great post on a cosy cooking class! I clicked on the link for the class and saw that the minimum age is 12, do you know if younger children like yours are still able to participate? Or do you know of other child friendly classes? Thanks!
oh weird, both my kids were under 12 when we did this in 2019. I wonder if she changed it?
I love cooking with my fam! The food looks amazing! Good jov!