Music and Wine Gala Dinner – an Incentive Must-Have

Feb 20th, 2012 by admin

An incredible Incentive evening your guests will be talking about for years

An entertaining evening with a wine expert capable of grabbing the groups’ attention

Stylish and fun – everyone gets to show their best side

A three string quartet to entertain and delight

Fantastic wine and food

The Music and Wine Gala Dinner

What better way to say thank you to your top sales people or get together your managers for an unforgettable evening than with a fantastic Music and Wine Gala dinner in Italy complete with beautiful music and world class wine and food? The guests are welcomed by the Le Baccanti corporate team and the evening’s Master of Ceremonies. The Master of Ceremonies presents the evening’s game and the wine experts and musicians. The atmosphere is inviting and unique and sure to catch your guests’ full attention. The musicians improvise music inspired by the wine being served, while each table needs to listen carefully to answer the games’ questions! After the game, guests enjoy an elegant sit down meal.

Why have a Music and Wine Gala Dinner for your next corporate incentive?

The Music and Wine Gala Dinner is not only a dinner and wine tasting, but also an evening of musical entertainment and a playful, challenging game for your guests. What better way to be inspired than with the pleasure of great food, wine and music brought together in a harmonious evening! No matter what the level of wine, food or musical knowledge your guests have, this evening will take them on an emotional adventure of new sensations they won’t soon forget.

Where can I have a Music and Wine Gala Dinner?

We arrange Music and Wine Gala Dinners is some of the most evocative and beautiful settings on earth. Ancient castles, noble palaces and famous halls are just a few of the ideal venues we are happy to book for your incentive group. Please contact us for more information.

Tags: corporate le baccanti, music and wine gala dinner, team building fun, team building italy, travel incentive, work events

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Make Your Own Wine- Creative Team Building

Feb 17th, 2012 by admin

A truly unique team building activity

Make your own wine – one of a kind!

Includes a short course in sensory analysis

Learn the secrets involved in winemaking techniques

Fun and knowledgeable wine expert and support staff lead the group!

Make Your Own Wine team building activity – how it works

The team building activity begins with the Le Baccanti wine expert’s introduction to the activity and a short course of sensory analysis and wine tasting. Participants have a chance to test their sensory analysis skills while getting an entertaining but abbreviated version of wine history and the winemaking process. Now it is time for the wine expert to explain how wine is made and show the participants how they will create their own wine – and the winemaking process begins!

Next the group is broken up into teams. Each team has everything necessary to create their own wine set up around a table. After spending time bringing their individual ideas to the table, and then debating as a group the qualities they want to express in their wine, the group begins the creation process. After the wine has been created, the groups bring their finished wine to the panel test conducted by Le Baccanti’s wine experts. Was the wine creation a success???

Why choose Make Your Own Wine as a team building activity?

This entertaining winemaking crash course is an extraordinary opportunity for your group to come together and work as part of a team and for each person to test his or her own sensory analysis skills in a fun and rewarding environment. Each team will work toward a specific goal, with strict guidelines to follow. The challenge is more about creating a successful wine than really competing against the other teams. The ability of each group to work together as a team will be shown in their ability to combine their individual tastes and ideas about wine into one cohesive and harmonious wine that reflects the group as a whole.

Where does Make Your Own Wine take place?

This truly unique team building activity can take place anywhere, but we highly recommend letting us find the perfect cellar or winery to inspire your group and set the stage for successful winemaking. At the end of the game we would be happy to arrange for an on-site lunch or dinner where your group can relax and enjoy the delights of Italian cuisine accompanied by their very own wine creations!

Tags: corporate events, Corporate incentives, Incentive travel, make your own wine corporate challenge, team building fun, Team building holidays, wine making in Italy

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Masterpiece for the Senses Corporate Events

Feb 16th, 2012 by admin

More than just a wine tasting evening – an event that stimulates the senses and evokes emotions

A thrilling journey through Siena, discovering her masterpieces of art and top wines perfect as part of a Travel Incentive trip

High quality entertainment that captures the imagination and involves guests on many levels

Team Building as you’ve never seen it before – A fascinating interplay between what is beautiful and what is delicious

How Masterpiece for the Senses works – Team Building event or simply an amazing evening for friends

Le Baccanti’s expert leader takes guests on a tasting journey of three important Senese wines, accompanying these delicious wines with the inspiration and beauty of masterpieces of art, poetry and music. The guests, comfortably seated around elegant tables, are invited to participate in this fascinating interplay between beauty and taste as they experience the wine through their own emotional reactions to the taste, sights and sounds of the masterpieces. To further heighten the senses, there is also a playful tasting game to go beyond just wine and further explore the taste of beauty through artisanal food delights of Siena.

Why choose Masterpiece for the Senses for your group of colleagues, business partners, museum patrons or friends?

Masterpiece for the Senses is an activity that has an instant emotional impact, no matter what level of enogastronomic experience your guests may have. Participants find themselves totally caught up in the rich atmosphere of magnificent sights, sounds, tastes and images of Siena’s incredible masterpieces both artistic and for the palate. The participants are enriched with this profound but also entertaining experience presented in an original and stimulating way. The event harmoniously blends the joy of tasting great wine with the contemplation of amazing works of art. The hands-on participation of guests, stimulating them through their senses, brings each guest into direct contact with il Bello and il Buono through this playful mix of culture and entertainment.

Where does the Masterpiece for the Senses take place?

For each event, we carefully work with you to choose the perfect location that will create a magical atmosphere to envelop your guests during their sensory journey. The dining room of a palace, the historical center of a small medieval village, a prestigious winery cellar, and an internationally renowned museum of art, are just a few of the places we have held these events in the past both in Italy and abroad – much to our guests delight!

The Le Baccanti team looks forward to putting on a Masterpiece of the Senses for your group – we specialize in Team Building events and Incentive travel so please contact us to learn more about our corporate event and travel planning.

Tags: corporate events Italy, Corporate incentives, Corporate travel, Italian corporate events, team building

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Gourmet Orienteering – The Treasure Hunt full of Flavor

Feb 14th, 2012 by admin

Entertainment and teambuilding while in contact with nature

The intense emotions of a contest and the delicious taste of unique and genuine flavors

A game of ability, speed, intelligence and use of the senses

Innovative Teambuilding activity- planning and executing together as a team creates a new bond

How does Gourmet Orienteering work?

The Le Baccanti Orienteering Leader introduces the game and explains the rules of Gourmet Orienteering. The participants then set off, with all the materials they will need in hand, on a route set up for them by our Orienteering experts. The search for clues and delicious ”treasures” make the game fun and exciting as participants race against the clock and the other teams to win!

Why choose Gourmet Orienteering for your next Corporate Teambuilding?

We highly recommend this unique, hands-on game that gets participants outside, exploring and getting to know the local area and tasting the local products. This is a rich, sensory experience that creates a special team bond as participants have to rely on each other to find the next stop on their route while getting to taste the local delicacies. The polar opposite of those stuffy boardroom experiences – this is vivid, hands-on and an experience no one will forget.

Where does Gourmet Orienteering take place?

The hills of Chianti or other location in the beautiful Tuscan countryside is the perfect setting for this simply scrumptious activity. However, our Orienteering team can custom design an itinerary for any countryside location, quaint hilltop village, or even bustling city like Florence or Rome!

Tags: corporate events tuscany, corporate team building, gourmet team building, travel in Italy corporate, travel incentive, treasure hunt corporate

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“Frittata alla Contadina” – Farmhouse Omelette

Feb 10th, 2012 by Jessica

As with all Tuscan recipes, this dish is simple, using the most basic of ingredients. Whilst of course it can be adapted using your own choice of fillings, it is important to realize that Italian’s don’t believe in having too many different flavors. The secret is to bring out the full flavors of the few ingredients you do use.

To make this for four people you will need:

For the filling: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 finely chopped stick of celery 1 finely chopped onion 1 finely chopped carrot 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley 11oz / 300g of fresh tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and puréed

For the batter: 6 eggs 1 tablespoon plain white flour salt and pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the celery, onion, carrot and parsley. Add the tomatoes, season and cook for a further 15 minutes. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the flour and some salt and pepper. In a clean frying pan, heat the olive oil and pour in the batter, cooking as if it were an omelet. When it is finished, place the omelet on a plate to cool down. Add the omelet squares to the sauce, gently stirring it all together. It should be served immediately. You can choose to serve this dish as an aperitif or as a main meal.

Tags: cooking Italian style, frittata, italian recipe, Italian travel, Italy food, Tuscany in winter, wonderful tuscan recipes

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Books Set In Tuscany

Feb 7th, 2012 by admin

One of the fascinating threads that can guide us through a visit to Tuscany are those novels that have the countryside and society of Tuscany as the backdrop to their tales.

“Under the Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes is one of the most widely loved books written about Tuscany. It tells of the true experience of the author who shares the trials and tribulations of renovating her abandoned farmhouse in the rural countryside of Cortona. A glorious picture is painted of the stunning countryside, the architecture, the food and the locals.

Taking you from this idyllic picture of Tuscany, to a much darker side of Florence is Thomas Harris‘ “Hannibal”. Following on from “Silence of the Lambs”, the serial killer Hannibal Lecter is now living a charmed life in Florence. There is a clever link uniting the past with the present, involving a family called Pazzi, a failed assasination plot and murdered bodies hanging from Piazza della Signoria . There is a parallel….

“The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje tells the story of four people living in a deserted Italian monastery in Tuscany as World War II ends. The story centres around a nameless burn victim, whose home becomes an upstairs room in Villa San Girolamo and his only comfort, the memories of a passionate yet doomed love affair. Ondaatje’s poetical style of writing is full of vivid imagery where you can see the parellel between the damaged countryside and the suffering of these 4 characters.

Finally, of course, there is E. M. Forsters “A Room with a View”. The novel focuses on a young girl who visits Florence with a group of people of her own social class. We see her being torn between the rigid, almost Victorian-like values that have been imprinted on her in England, and the spontaneous and passion lifestyle that becomes open to her in Italy.

Reading any of these books will make you want to catch the first plane to Italy and create your own very own adventure in Tuscany….

Tags: artists and writers italy, italian writing travel, tuscan travel ideas, tuscany novels, tuscany poets, tuscany writers paradise

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Leek and Ricotta Souffle

Feb 6th, 2012 by Jessica

Learn how to make it in person, with our wonderful Patrizia.

Patrizia did a cooking class with Australian masterchef winner Julie Goodwin last year. Check out her blog post about her lovely experience cooking in Florence: http://www.juliegoodwin.com.au/blog/?p=507

Leek and Ricotta Souffle

Ingredients for 4 people:

4 leeks

3 whole eggs

200 grams of Ricotta

Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, thyme and butter (to wipe over the dish before going in the oven).

Clean the leeks and finely cut into small slices. Cook in a non stick pan with extra virgin olive oil and a bunch of thyme. Salt and Pepper to taste. Cook taking care not to burn, however do not undercook either. In a bowl place the three eggs and beat them, then add the ricotta cheese and mix well. Add the leeks with the oil that they were cooked in. Work the mix well, and then pour into a well buttered souffle dish. Put in the oven at 160 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Tags: celebrity class florence, cooking classes italy, culinary holiday italy, patrizia cooking class florence

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Big Snow in Tuscany and Cucina Povera for all!

Feb 3rd, 2012 by Jessica

The Tuscan countryside is white at the moment, and we have been forced to close the office for a few days since we are all well and truly snowed in.

This weekend temperatures are set to drop to -15 degrees. Brrrr. That is cold!

Schools are cancelled today, and snow is predicted again in Florence tonight. The weather contrasts sharply with last weeks glorious warm sunshine, now it feels like winter has arrived all at once. The snow that should have arrived around December has caught up with us in one big, heavy dump.

The wind chill right now is the hardest to swallow, and the main reason why the villages are not full of gleeful children throwing snowballs. Its cold outside, and at least out near my house in Volterra – people are staying inside where its warm.

Just to give you an idea of how much snow were talking about…

So on days like this, recipes like the following are downright necessary. Since none of us can get to the supermarket, La Cucina Povera is proving extremelly effective.

If you have left over Capsicums in the fridge like me, this is a lovely hearty option:

Peperonata

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 green pepper (weight around 700-800 grams)

700 grams mature tomatoes

4 red onions

extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

1 Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. When the oil is almost smoking, add the onions (sliced finely). Sprinkle with a little salt and sauté for 2-3 minutes, until the onions just begin to color.

2 Wash the peppers. Add the peppers and stir well to combine with the onions. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring often. The peppers should be al dente—cooked, but with a little crunch left in them.

3 Add the diced tomatoes, and cook just one minute further. Season to taste.

4 Turn off the heat. Grind some black pepper over everything. Can be eaten hot or cold.

Tags: cooking italy, cucina povera, food in italy, snow italy, snow tuscany, Tuscan cooking

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Onion and Barley Soup

Jan 26th, 2012 by Jessica

This is a delicious Italian winter favorite, great for cold nights around a warm fire!

1.5 liters of vegetable stock

150 grams Pearl barley

4 red onions

2 cloves of garlic

One potato

One laurel leaf

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Black pepper

Parmigiano reggiano

For the vegetable stock:

Boil 1.5 liters of water with a carrot, a stick of celery, a zucchini, a tomato, a handful of beans and a handful of spinach or silver beet. Boil togetherÂ until the tastes and smells have formed a tasty broth which can then be filtered into stock.

Preparation:

Slice the onion and cook with plenty of oil along with garlic and laurel leaf. When the onion begins to color add the potato chopped in small cubes. Mix and leave over a low flame for a few minutes, then add the broth adding some black pepper and salt. Bring to boil. Add the barley(pre rinsed) and leave to boil until ready (around 30 mins). Serve with grated parmesan cheese and grated black pepper.

Tags: gourmet italy, Italian barley soup, Italian food and wine, Italian soup, onion and barley soup, Onion soup, recipes Italy, Tuscan food

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Sips&Sups in Washington D.C.

Jan 24th, 2012 by admin

I am very tired, I must confess!

I just got back from the THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON WINE DINNER CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET AT ORIENTAL GARDEN with the oldest wine shop in America: Acker Merrall & Condit. I’ll report on this later as I had 16 amazing wines that are worth mentioning.

I am tired though because I had a very long week-end supporting the cause of Martha’s Table and D.C. Central Kithchen.

Alice Waters, Joan Nathan and Jan Burhman

Jan Burhman,Â Joan Nathan and Alice Waters

My three muses in D.C.:

Jan came all tha way from Martha’s vineyard and she is the reason why I am here,

Joan invented everything,

Alice leads the way!

-over 350 people for the Sips at the Newseum

-roughly 400 people for the Suppers with 20 homes and 40 chefs

-$250.000 raised!!!

Everything else is people getting together to share ideas about how to help those in need, how to experience better nutrition and how to be more useful and nicer to one another and…to eat and drink well.

This is my third year in a row and now I feel home. Indeed, I have been fed breakfasts, lunches and dinners just like home! I have seen hundreds of people coming to help in any way or form and then sharing a meal together: on the way back to New York I travelled with Liz and Jeffrey, two of the volunteers that silently made all this happen.

The Long Week End in Pictures:

First came the unveiling of Alice Waters portrait at the National Portrait Gallery,