Culinary Vacations?
 

Anyone done a cooking school or culinary themed vacation?

My wife and I usually end up arranging our vacation plans around eating, local cuisines, and visiting local markets and grocers (especially when overseas or in NYC).

We also started really enjoyed taking cooking classes and demos with some fantastic chefs.

It seems these themed vacations where you learn about the local foods and cooking styles are starting to become more popular and organized, just curious if anyone has done them and if there are any recommendations.

Pat

Being a Volvo driver, I suggest you come to Sweden and learn how to properly prepare a dinner with herring, potatoes and vodka. Adequately negotiated, you will have no recollection of it afterwords of course. :)

Better yet Lutefisk and vodka.

You will be ready for anything after that.

I have done 15 or 16 of such courses over the years, in 8 or 9 different countries.

This kind of thing is a hobby of mine.

Are you interested in any particular cuisine? Do you have some culinary background?

I could write a book about my experiences on these junkets. In fact I'm thinking of doing just that.

ALL my vacations are based on food. i dont even really research things to see, as much as i research food in the area. i eat locally.

southeast asia. food is great, ingredients exotic. cooking classes are inexpensive. i love em.

I take cooking classes frequently..

Mostly local..

one of my favorite classes is from Penn beside that fact that she is hot she makes Lao, and Thai cuisines easy for farang like me to prepare..

http://www.laochef.com/bio.html

She is planning a trip to se asia next year.. BKK and Vientienne

Are you going to Minnesota? SmileWavy

Dottore,
We have no formal training but have been taking classes with chefs from French Culinary Institute, CIA and other international schools. Our interest is in just about anything except American. Our favorites right now are Asian (Indonesia to Japan and anything in between), Mid East, and French. All for completely different reasons and flavors. The only two things we tend to avoid are chains and traditional american or americanized foods.

Vash, totally agree with researching and eating local. No matter where we travel, experiencing the local foods drives our plans.

Livi, I have eaten at an Ikea, does that count? :)

So how do you guys find classes and other events on your travels? Obviously internet searches work well, but have you all found any great places or other resources to help plan trips?

Pat

that's a dream of mine...but add travel from villa to villa on decent sport bikes!

The internet is the best bet.

I am a member of eGullet.com—and if you don't know this website yet, you should. It's the Pelican forum of the food world. Great threads. Very informative. Covers the globe. You can ask members in any country you are interested in about food-related travel and courses and they will get you all the current info.

You might also join the Slow Food movement. Google them. They have good programs throughout the world. Membership is a few dollars a year, and they're a fine bunch of people.

Indonesia? I did a course in Yogjakarta on "Javanese Royal Cuisine" a few years ago which was sensational. High Javanese cuisine is something that has almost died out, although a few Hotel chefs in Jakarta are trying to popularize it again. This course was organized by the Mercantile Club in Jakarta—but the Indonesian eGullet people could put you on to something similar.

Try to do a sushi course in Tokyo that includes morning shopping trips to the main fish market.

Europe has countless such programs year round. Again eGullet is the best way to research these in my view, as you will get current info from people who have actually taken them.

This is something my wife and I have discussed doing next time we are in Japan... I would love to gain some know-how to make my own sushi.

We are both very into cooking, but the only courses we have taken so far are day-long immersion courses in Thailand and France, and an afternoon Cambodian course here in Lowell (there is a huge southeast Asian population here).

Again, eGullet is your best source. They have sub-boards in just every country, so you can, eg., post in the Japan forum to get the most current info.