“Tourists don’t go to Calabria; travelers do”. This is the first thing Joe Cairo says when I ask who his Calabrian cooking school is for. La Cuoca Calabrese - School of Calabrian Cooking is an immersive residency specializing solely in recipes from the toe of the Italian boot, which, Cairo explains, is an ancient land with ancient traditions. The school is the first of its kind, and offers the chance to delve into a slower, more experiential type of travel.

“Our goal is to teach the history of Calabria by the foods that thousands of years of foreign invasion and occupation left behind, all of which tell a story,” says Cairo. In his experience, Calabrian cooking is mostly about technique and manual skill. It relies heavily on simple ingredients, many of which have been preserved in some way.