• Anna Teresa Callen Italian Cooking School

  889 Broadway, No. 3A, 212-929-5640

  Ask Mario Batali where to learn the kitchen secrets of an Italian grandmother, and he’ll send you to Anna Teresa Callen. The warm and engaging cookbook author from Abruzzo has been schooling culinary talents like Michael Romano—and Batali’s father—since the early eighties. Callen plans the first menu, featuring, say, an Abruzzo specialty such as maccheroni alla chitarra; then her students (six per five-week, $675 class) help pick dishes from four Italian regions. The informal classes are taught in a former student’s loft, where pupils can roll up their sleeves and pitch in or just watch Callen cook. (Either way, there’s plenty of good food and wine.) The session ends with a reunion at a restaurant of the students’ choosing—though, truth be told, even Callen still has trouble getting a reservation at Babbo.

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine