Corfu’s cooking is its own: Venetian, Greek and a little British, built on olive oil, slow sauces and whatever the season brings. San Stefano Estate gives a cooking group a real farmhouse kitchen to cook it in, and a house of their own to eat it in.
The kitchen
The farmhouse kitchen is the hub of the house: a long table for informal meals and teaching, a wood stove, a gas hob, a double oven and a dishwasher, with a laundry room and second fridge next door. Meals move to the dining room, which seats ten, or outside to the tables and barbecue by the infinity pool.
What to cook
Corfiot classics make a natural programme: sofrito, veal cooked slowly with garlic and vinegar; pastitsada, spiced meat over pasta; bourdeto, a peppery fish stew; and the island’s pies, breads and sweets. We can arrange a local cook to lead sessions or to cook alongside your own teacher.
Markets and produce
- Corfu Old Town, twenty minutes away, for its market and delicatessens
- The bakery and shops of Benitses, a short walk down from the house
- Olive groves all around the estate, and hill villages within a walk or a short drive
A week for a cooking group
The house sleeps up to twelve in five bedrooms, so a typical group is eight to ten cooks with a teacher. Mornings at the market or in the kitchen, long lunches outside, afternoons by the pool or walking in the hills, and dinner on the balcony as the light goes on the mountains across the water.
Other group stays
Yoga retreatsYoga retreats at a private estate in CorfuSunrise over the mountains of Epirus, practice among the citrus trees, and the whole estate to your group.Read the guide
WeddingsPlanning a wedding at a Venetian manor in CorfuFrom an intimate ceremony to a celebration for 120, with the whole estate to yourselves.Read the guide
Walking groupsWalking holidays in Corfu from the front doorTrails into the hills start at the gate: hill villages, the Empress’s palace and lookouts over the sea.Read the guide
PaintingPainting holidays in a Venetian manor in CorfuMorning light on the sea, citrus groves and old stone, and a whole estate for your painting group.Read the guide
WritingWriting retreats in Corfu, in the Durrells’ islandA library, a balcony over the sea and long quiet days, on the island the Durrells wrote about.Read the guide
PhotographyPhotography holidays and workshops in CorfuSunrise over the mountains, golden evenings on the sea, and a house that film crews and fashion shoots still choose.Read the guide
NatureBirdwatching and botany holidays in CorfuSpring flowers, migrating birds and Gerald Durrell’s island, from a private estate among the groves.Read the guide
WellnessWellness and meditation retreats in CorfuQuiet groves, an infinity pool and sunrise over the mountains, with the estate to your group alone.Read the guide