Four households · Four philosophies

The cooks we built this whole thing around.

Your Business is not a tour company. It is four home cooks in four Italian regions who agreed to let strangers into their kitchen for a week at a time.

A small manifesto

"We don't believe in cooking schools. We believe in cooking with someone who has been at the same stove for forty years."

— Maren Hofstad, founder · Pienza, Italy

Cook N. 01 · Tuscany

Lucia Bartolini

Pienza · 40 years cooking · 62 trips hosted

Lucia grew up in a farmhouse two ridges over from where she hosts now. Her mother and grandmother taught her cucina contadina by feel — never weighed flour, never timed a rise. She raised three kids in this kitchen and now hosts our Tuscany trips year-round.

"Italian cooking is not a recipe. It is a memory you put in your hands. Every gesture is a prayer to someone who taught it to you."

Outside the trips, Lucia runs a tiny pasta workshop on Saturday mornings for locals and supplies fresh tortelli to two restaurants in Pienza. Her son Tommaso runs the wine.

Years cooking40+

Trips hosted62

Guest rating4.97

Cook N. 02 · Sicily

Salvatore Pellegrino

Modica · 28 years cooking · 41 trips hosted

Salvatore was 14 when he started making granita for his grandmother's bar in Modica Bassa. He spent ten years cooking in Milan, then came home in 2013 because, as he says, "Milan does not have lemons that hurt your mouth."

"Sicilian food is a fight between Africa, Greece, and Spain that nobody ever wins. We just keep eating until we forget who started it."

He hosts our Sicily trips out of his cousin's stone palazzo in Modica Alta. His pastry sister Greta makes the cassata. His wife Iolanda runs the front.

Years cooking28

Trips hosted41

Guest rating4.94

Cook N. 03 · Amalfi

Anastasia Ruggiero

Praiano · 22 years cooking · 35 trips hosted

Anastasia trained at the old Don Alfonso 1890 outside Naples and worked the line in London for six years before her grandmother fell ill in 2010 and she came back to Praiano. She's been cooking from her grandmother's terrace ever since.

"On the coast we cook with what the boats brought in, what the sun ripened that morning, and what someone's nonna left at the door. The recipe is just bookkeeping."

She partners with Hotel Margherita two switchbacks below for our Amalfi lodging. Her brother Marco supplies the fish. Her best friend Anna runs the lemon grove.

Years cooking22

Trips hosted35

Guest rating4.98

Cook N. 04 · Umbria

Caterina Falcone

Bevagna · 33 years cooking · 28 trips hosted

Caterina runs Trattoria del Falco in Bevagna three nights a week. She joined Your Business in 2022, originally as a one-summer experiment, and now hosts the Umbria week from spring through November out of an agriturismo that belongs to her brother-in-law.

"Umbria is what Tuscany was before Tuscany got famous. Quieter, less photographed, more honest. The lentils are better. The truffles are cheaper."

Her truffle-hunting partner Massimo brings his Lagotto dogs once per trip. Her olive oil comes from a single press in Trevi. Her bread is baked Wednesday in a wood oven her grandfather built.

Years cooking33

Trips hosted28

Guest rating4.95

Pick your cook, pick your week

One kitchen, one cook, five long days.

$800 holds your seat. Tell us in the form which cook you'd most like to cook with — we hold your preference, then confirm a departure that fits.

Reserve your seat — $800