Pandemic-Born Online Cooking Club Celebrates 2 Years
During Italy’s strict lock downs of 2020, a charismatic architect-turned-cooking-teacher lost her main source of income: guests from the U.S. visiting her home in Tuscany for cooking classes, food tours, and vacation rentals. With nowhere to go, she teamed up with friends from the U.S. to try something new, teaching her cooking classes online. The small international team had no idea if their Cooking Club concept would last beyond the initial three month experiment.
Castagneto Carducci, Italy, September 07, 2022 --(PR.com)-- “That worked very well for over 20 years until the pandemic hit,” Chicca Maione said of her home cooking classes in Castagneto Carducci, Italy.
During Italy’s strict lock downs of 2020, the charismatic architect-turned-cooking-teacher, lost her main source of income; guests from the U.S. visiting her home in Tuscany for cooking classes, food tours, and vacation rentals.
With nowhere to go and no one coming to Tuscany, Chicca teamed up with various friends from the U.S. to try something new, teaching her cooking classes online. At first, she offered the classes for free.
Participants were delighted with the experience and many donated generously in gratitude.
Then, collaborating with an American couple who had previously lived and worked with her in Tuscany, the idea to form an online Cooking Club started taking shape.
“At the start, we said we would be happy to have just 15 paying founding members, but we had about 75 members sign up right away. We were amazed,” Chicca said.
Among other benefits, Chicca’s Cooking Club gives members a seasonal pass to six live cooking classes. Participants cook alongside Chicca while she broadcasts live from her home in Tuscany.
The American couple, Jedd and Michelle Chang, helped administer the Club and facilitate interaction between Chicca and her class participants on Zoom. Chicca’s partner, Arnaud Bachelard, a native of France, operates Chicca’s video feed by smartphone.
Each class features a new Italian recipe, which Chicca writes herself, pulling from her own family recipes as well as regional traditions. In the habit of cooking at home every day, Chicca’s mantra in the kitchen is “the simplest use of the best ingredients.”
The small international team had no idea if their Cooking Club concept would last beyond the initial three month experiment. But feedback from the founding members was encouraging and they continued to improve on their offering with each new season.
By January 2021, the team’s introductory free class garnered about 600 registrations and more than 380 participants from four continents, 14 countries and 23 States in the US.
“This is the largest class I’ve ever taught in my life,” Chicca said in an interview with The Guardian, who featured Chicca in a February 2021 article about female entrepreneurs in the pandemic.
Class participants shared praise in the Zoom chat:
“Enjoyed cooking with you all... It is way past midnight in India but we're all ready to have a lovely midnight snack.” - Nisha
“Wow! This has been soo exciting and neat. I love Zoom and how it brings the global community together. I live in the U.S. and to participate in a cooking class from Tuscany, Italy is way Cool. Thanks for this opportunity. It's been Great!” ~ Karla
At its founding, Chicca’s Cooking Club brought people together during a time of isolation and allowed them the sense of travel without leaving the safety of home. Chicca’s Cooking Club membership rose to about 200 people while the pandemic wore on.
As one class participant shared early on, “When the class started and Chicca started talking, my wife burst into tears. So being able to do something like this, those deep connections of food and travel and trying to hold it together until the world returns at least a bit more to normal, mean a lot.”
Now, two years and over 50 classes since its inception, the world has changed, but Chicca’s Cooking Club is still in action.
Some members have come and gone as their schedules fill back up with in-person activities. But a solid group continue cooking alongside Chicca on Saturdays, trying her latest recipes, and engaging with their global community in the Club’s private Facebook group.
These days, Chicca enjoys seeing more Cooking Club members in the classes who have invited friends over for cooking parties, working together to roll out gnocchi dough or chop vegetables together. The connection her classes foster are no longer purely virtual.
Chicca is also seeing many more visitors coming back to Tuscany. Tour groups and independent travelers are coming back into Chicca’s kitchen in real life, gathering around the long wood table on her patio for a dinner feast under the Tuscan sunset.
Still, Chicca actually finds that she prefers the online cooking class experience to hosting in-person classes. She looks forward to seeing her Cooking Club members on Zoom, not to mention having fewer dishes to clean up after class!
Chicca’s Cooking Club is an online membership where home cooks around the world learn to make authentic Italian dishes, taught live from Tuscany by Chicca Maione. For details about the Club, see https://cookingintuscany.cc/club.
During Italy’s strict lock downs of 2020, the charismatic architect-turned-cooking-teacher, lost her main source of income; guests from the U.S. visiting her home in Tuscany for cooking classes, food tours, and vacation rentals.
With nowhere to go and no one coming to Tuscany, Chicca teamed up with various friends from the U.S. to try something new, teaching her cooking classes online. At first, she offered the classes for free.
Participants were delighted with the experience and many donated generously in gratitude.
Then, collaborating with an American couple who had previously lived and worked with her in Tuscany, the idea to form an online Cooking Club started taking shape.
“At the start, we said we would be happy to have just 15 paying founding members, but we had about 75 members sign up right away. We were amazed,” Chicca said.
Among other benefits, Chicca’s Cooking Club gives members a seasonal pass to six live cooking classes. Participants cook alongside Chicca while she broadcasts live from her home in Tuscany.
The American couple, Jedd and Michelle Chang, helped administer the Club and facilitate interaction between Chicca and her class participants on Zoom. Chicca’s partner, Arnaud Bachelard, a native of France, operates Chicca’s video feed by smartphone.
Each class features a new Italian recipe, which Chicca writes herself, pulling from her own family recipes as well as regional traditions. In the habit of cooking at home every day, Chicca’s mantra in the kitchen is “the simplest use of the best ingredients.”
The small international team had no idea if their Cooking Club concept would last beyond the initial three month experiment. But feedback from the founding members was encouraging and they continued to improve on their offering with each new season.
By January 2021, the team’s introductory free class garnered about 600 registrations and more than 380 participants from four continents, 14 countries and 23 States in the US.
“This is the largest class I’ve ever taught in my life,” Chicca said in an interview with The Guardian, who featured Chicca in a February 2021 article about female entrepreneurs in the pandemic.
Class participants shared praise in the Zoom chat:
“Enjoyed cooking with you all... It is way past midnight in India but we're all ready to have a lovely midnight snack.” - Nisha
“Wow! This has been soo exciting and neat. I love Zoom and how it brings the global community together. I live in the U.S. and to participate in a cooking class from Tuscany, Italy is way Cool. Thanks for this opportunity. It's been Great!” ~ Karla
At its founding, Chicca’s Cooking Club brought people together during a time of isolation and allowed them the sense of travel without leaving the safety of home. Chicca’s Cooking Club membership rose to about 200 people while the pandemic wore on.
As one class participant shared early on, “When the class started and Chicca started talking, my wife burst into tears. So being able to do something like this, those deep connections of food and travel and trying to hold it together until the world returns at least a bit more to normal, mean a lot.”
Now, two years and over 50 classes since its inception, the world has changed, but Chicca’s Cooking Club is still in action.
Some members have come and gone as their schedules fill back up with in-person activities. But a solid group continue cooking alongside Chicca on Saturdays, trying her latest recipes, and engaging with their global community in the Club’s private Facebook group.
These days, Chicca enjoys seeing more Cooking Club members in the classes who have invited friends over for cooking parties, working together to roll out gnocchi dough or chop vegetables together. The connection her classes foster are no longer purely virtual.
Chicca is also seeing many more visitors coming back to Tuscany. Tour groups and independent travelers are coming back into Chicca’s kitchen in real life, gathering around the long wood table on her patio for a dinner feast under the Tuscan sunset.
Still, Chicca actually finds that she prefers the online cooking class experience to hosting in-person classes. She looks forward to seeing her Cooking Club members on Zoom, not to mention having fewer dishes to clean up after class!
Chicca’s Cooking Club is an online membership where home cooks around the world learn to make authentic Italian dishes, taught live from Tuscany by Chicca Maione. For details about the Club, see https://cookingintuscany.cc/club.
Contact
Chicca's Cooking Club
Michelle Chang
+1-503-852-1120
cookingintuscany.cc/club
Images and free class experience available for media reps
Michelle Chang
+1-503-852-1120
cookingintuscany.cc/club
Images and free class experience available for media reps
Contact
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