Affordable cooking class in Florence?

There are two other cooking schools that I am aware of in Florence. One is Scula de Arte Culinaria Cordon Bleu conducted by Cristina Blasi and Gabriella Mari. My wife and I both took a 1-day class at this school. The other cooking school is Accidental Tourist. The cost of our cooking class was comparable to Judy Witts' Divina Cucina. However, our class was about 5-6 hours long and I see on the Scuola de Arte website that the classes are less expensive than we paid (100Eu) but they are now mostly 3 hours for the 1 lesson. Cooking classes are not cheap. Also, our school, which was great, wanted cash in advance by wire transfer which we refused to do. We did have to show up with the cash however.

Thank you for such a swift response Larry. I will follow up on those leads. I don't mind the expenses so much as long as I get the chance to learn some recipes. I don't want to spend a couple of hundred Euros learning how to pick tomatoes at the market and boil some pasta! Thanks again!

No market touring with Scoula de Arte. Our class was on Italian provincial. We had pasta (of course), rabbit and a desert. Cristina and Gabriella also have about 3 cookbooks that they have authored. We have one of them. Their kitchen is within walking distance of the Bargello and il Duomo.

I can recommend Cook Eat Italian at www.cookeatitalian.com if you want to pick up some authentic Italian cooking tips. It was very reasonably priced -I think about 75-80 Euros- and of course you get to sit down and eat what you've made at the end with a glass of wine or two. The group was small so we received a good amount of attention from the chef and it was a participatory class so we really got involved with the prep work and cooking. It was a lovely day.

We did a class with Melanie at the Spice Lab this past Septmeber. We LOVED it- we now make fresh pasta regularly at home :) One of the best things was the class is a maximum of 4 people, so it is extremely hands on. We started with a tour of the market in Florence, then cooked 4 courses in an olive grove in Tuscany (they also have a kitchen in Florence). Check out Spice Lab on TripAdvisor- 100% recommended.

Carl: If you have time for a day trip, I would highly recommend you take the bus a half hour of of town and attend a Tuesday class at Organic Tuscany. http://www.organictuscany.org/one-day-cooking-classes.html
I attended the week-long culinary vacation there a couple years ago, and it was life-changing. Manuela is a wonderful teacher, and the food is top-notch. You won't be disappointed.

Carl: If you have time for a day trip, I would highly recommend you take the bus a half hour of of town and attend a Tuesday class at Organic Tuscany. http://www.organictuscany.org/one-day-cooking-classes.html
I attended the week-long culinary vacation there a couple years ago, and it was life-changing. Manuela is a wonderful teacher, and the food is top-notch. You won't be disappointed.

Does Cordon Bleu do demostration classes or its hands on?