Margaret (Peg) Kern has been fulfilling her clients’ travel dreams since 2004 when she joined The International Kitchen as a tour coordinator after leaving academia. She has been part owner of The International Kitchen since 2015, and assumed primary ownership in 2024. In her time as president of TIK, Peg has expanded the company to include more trips, new destinations, custom itineraries, and a robust food and travel blog.

Raised in a small town in Ohio, Peg always wanted to see the world. She started doing so by heading to New York City for college, where she graduated cum laude from Columbia University. One of the highlights of college for her was a junior year spent in Rome, Italy, studying Italian literature and art at the University of Rome la Sapienza. Her interest in travel blossomed into an intense and enduring love for Italy.

After returning to Rome for a year (and enjoying work in a couple of Roman
eateries), she headed to Chicago for graduate school. Peg received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Italian literature from the University of Chicago, graduating with honors, where she then taught for two years as part of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities.

By 2004 Peg was ready to leave academia behind to pursue other interests, and when she saw an ad for a boutique tour company that specialized in food-themed tours, she jumped at the chance to the join the team. That company was The International Kitchen, one of the premier providers of culinary vacations and food-themed travel since 1994.

Having lived for several years in Italy during the preceding decade, Peg was particularly keen to introduce travelers to the authentic Italy she knew and loved, but she quickly expanded her areas of expertise to include the rest of Europe, most notably France and Spain. She stepped back from the company for a few years to start a family but came back full force in 2015 when she assumed co-ownership of the business. She has instilled the travel bug in her sons and enjoys traveling with the whole family to check out cooking classes and food tours in destinations around the world.

Peg’s experience in traveling and living in Europe has made her well suited to plan trips for her culinary travelers, and she couples that with years of experience in restaurants and the food service industry. Although her work in the food industry began inauspiciously in high school at the local McDonald’s, she has worked at restaurants and bars in the US and Rome, and worked as a private chef on Long Island.

A consummate foodie, Peg enjoys cooking for her family, entertaining friends at lavish dinner parties, and judging her sons’ home-cooking competitions. Some of her favorite food activities include perfecting her bone broth, making bread from her 30-year old Italian Mother yeast, and exploring the many ethnic cuisines so wonderfully available in Chicago.

Peg’s favorite destination remains Italy, including the regions of Lazio, Sardinia, Campania, Tuscany, Umbria, Sicily, Abruzzo, Lombardy, the Veneto, and Piedmont – to name a few.

Her philosophy when it comes to writing about food and travel is to share what she knows and to explore what she loves.


Posted

December 26, 2016

By Peg Kern

Feast of St. Stephen

Filed Under  Special Occasions, What's Up at TIK

Happy Feast of St. Stephen! December 26 is a holiday in many European countries in honor of the saint who is considered the first Christian martyr. In other parts of the world (the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, to be specific) it is celebrated as Boxing Day. December 26 has many traditions attached to it. In Wales, the day traditionally included beating female servants with holly branches (seriously!). In… Read
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Posted

December 19, 2016

By Peg Kern

Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve: An Italian Baccalà Recipe

Filed Under  Recipes, Special Occasions

Codfish is a popular dish around the world during the Christmas holiday season, and we often get asked for Christmas Eve cod recipes. In Portugal, it's a tradition that dates back centuries. In Mexico and Brazil, it also often has a place at the table. And codfish is frequently part of Italy's Italian Christmas Dinner known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes–a Christmas Eve meal that's also celebrated by… Read
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Posted

December 1, 2016

By Peg Kern

Orecchiette al Ragù di Braciole

Filed Under  Destination Features, Food History, Recipes

Puglia is known for its agriculture and rural landscape; as such produce is in abundance in the heel of Italy. But their gastronomy is known for so much more too, including a pasta known as 'orecchiette,' which translates to "little ears." Take a stroll through the vibrant city of Bari during our best-selling culinary vacation in Puglia, and chances are you'll even see nonnas (grandmothers) making the ear-shaped pasta by… Read
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Posted

November 14, 2016

By Peg Kern

Five Things to See in France

Filed Under  Destination Features, Travel Tips

Have you been to France? If so, chances are you've visited Paris, seen the Eiffel Tower, explored the Louvre, and walked along the Seine. But France is full of other wonders to see, and today we'll talk about a few of them that are off the beaten path that you can find on our culinary tours in France. Five Sites Not to Miss in France Verdon Gorge Perhaps it's a… Read
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Posted

November 2, 2016

By Peg Kern

Tuscan Recipe for Necci (Chestnut Flour Crepes)

Filed Under  Destination Features, Food History, Recipes

The fall is one of our favorite times to travel to Europe. From Spain's Basque Country to Italy's heel (the region of Puglia), Europe is full of autumn bounty from September through November. One sure sign of fall for me is the reappearance of chestnuts, which make the appearance in a number of authentic Tuscan recipes. On the streets of Rome you can smell the distinct fragrance of chestnuts roasting,… Read
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Posted

November 1, 2016

By Peg Kern

Boles de Picolat (French Catalan Meatballs)

Filed Under  Destination Features, Food History, Recipes

Boles de Picolat is also known as Catalan meatballs … and it's a dish you'll often find on our culinary tours in southern France, in particularly the Languedoc-Roussillon region. But wait, you might be wondering, isn't Catalonia in Spain? It very much is, but the northern part of the region is actually in the south of France. As such, there are some interesting overlaps in culinary traditions between Spain and… Read
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Posted

October 19, 2016

By Peg Kern

French Recipe for Ratatouille

Filed Under  Food History, Recipes

The south of France is known for a number of famous meat dishes (Cassoulet anyone?) but it is also a land full of wonderful vegetables found in the local open-air markets which you can make on a French culinary vacation. And many of these vegetables get combined in one of the most famous of southern French dishes, the vegetables stew known as "ratatouille." This hearty dish is made even more… Read
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Posted

October 17, 2016

By Peg Kern

Our Favorite Cities on our Provence Cooking Vacations

Filed Under  Destination Features, Travel Tips

This week we're featuring the south of France, and we thought we'd start with everyone's favorite: Provence! Everyone knows or has heard of the charms of the Provencal countryside: fields of lavender, perched rocky villages, acres of vineyards, and so much sunshine! But Provence features some really amazing cities as well, each worth exploring in its own right on our Provence cooking vacations. So what are our favorites? 1) Marseille… Read
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Posted

October 7, 2016

By Peg Kern

French Recipe for Daube de Cèpes

Filed Under  Kitchen Tips, Recipes

We're finishing up our week-long discussion of hearty dishes that you can make on our cooking classes in France with a wonderful French recipe from the Languedoc part of southern France. Hearty dishes can be vegetable (or in this case mushroom) based. Of course, to be hearty there has to be fat, and here that is provided by rendered duck fat and pancetta! Browse our cooking vacations in France. Daube… Read
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Posted

October 3, 2016

By Peg Kern

Tuscan Recipe for Ribollita

Filed Under  Destination Features, Food History, Recipes

It's October and the weather is making us think of hearty fall dishes. We're big fans of soups and stews in the fall, and there is none more comforting or hearty than Tuscan "Ribollita," which you can learn on our Tuscany cooking tours. It might not look appetizing in pictures - it pretty much always resembles brown mush! - but it's hugely delicious. The name literally translates to "re-boiled," as… Read
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