The Awaiting Table Cookery School

L’Orata Spensierata, our food blogger, is still traveling in the world of Italian cuisine taught to foreigners, as part of the I love Italy project.

After our visits to Hawaii with Rosa Mariotti and Tokyo with Claudia Casu, we return to Italy to Lecce, in Puglia. An ancient city, with a mild climate, Lecce is full of charm and famous for its Baroque architecture and proximity to the sea.

This is where the Awaiting Table Cookery School, a school teaching the Salento cuisine, cooking, and culture to international visitors, has been based since 2003.

The soul of the project is Silvestro Silvestori, who, after years of studying and working in the United States, has returned to the city of his grandparents to follow an idea and a passion. Silvestro told me a little about his students and his school, answering my questions about what visitors are looking for and what he is trying to teach to them.

The Awaiting Table Cookery School has hosted students from fifty-six countries in the world!!

In his experience, Australians are looking for history; English crave the heat, fish and wine; and some students come looking for recipes, but, once they arrive, they discover the Italian lifestyle and fall in love with it.

Silvestro Silvestori is a chef and sommelier instructor and employs a staff of five very talented people. During their stay, students not only cook, but also make wine, oil, bread, and seven types of local pasta … plus a different typical dish for every week of the year!

The Awaiting Table Cookery School is a school (open year-round except August), but also a cultural center that promotes local food and wine as well as other local products, such as ceramics and textiles. The students buy the products because they are of high quality, and in doing so stimulate the local economy and promote the style of Salento around the world. 

The Awaiting Table Cookery School was born from Silvestro’s passion for his land: “Seeing the curiosity and interest in people’s eyes is a great satisfaction” he tells me.

“I was born a sociologist, and for me, wine and cuisine reflect this region and its people,” tells me Silvestro Silvestori founder of The Awaiting Table Cookery School.

Silvestro is keen to stress that cooking and wine are the best way to tell the story of a people and a region. To understand Salento – says Silvestro – we must start with a plate of ciceri and tria (a typical dish featuring pasta and chickpeas).

It is a vegan dish that demonstrates the lack of animal products in Salento, just like the figs dried in the sun or chickpeas cooked in the characteristic pignata (terracotta dish) on the same fire that warms the house.

For fifty-six countries The Awaiting Table Cookery School is a window allowing the world to look inside Salento.

For more information, or to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the school and the places it can take you, visit their website, Facebook page or Instagram profile.

For engaging and informative videos check out their YouTube channel.