IT IS CHILLY in Florence when we get off the fast train up from Rome. The calories from the rushed breakfast, the café latte in the dining car as the sere landscape whizzed by, are fast wearing off as our taxi crosses the river and winds through the narrow lanes of the old San Frediano district of artisan workshops.

In Via Camaldoli, we find a plain two-storey shopfront that bears the nameplate Associazione Culturale Arte e Gastronomia Orientale. Since 1983, the association has provided cooking classes in English and Italian, teaching locals the finer points of Italian and Asian cooking.