Intensive Cooking
Intensive Cooking
When we describe the cooking vacations we offer, we usually describe them as recreational cooking vacations for people who like food, like wine, like to cook, and like to travel. Most of them are appropriate even for people who consider themselves novices in the kitchen. But some of our clients are much more experienced in the kitchen, and we also get professional chefs who want to travel to foreign lands on a cooking class vacation to hone their skills and learn new recipes and techniques. For these clients, we offer our “intensive cooking” culinary vacations.
What can one expect on an intensive cooking vacation? Well, first, more cooking. Usually, to be considered intensive, our clients will cook every day, or almost every day, and sometimes more than once a day. Also, the skills and recipes they tackle will usually be more advanced, whether it be deboning a chicken, making phyllo from scratch, or learning to spin sugar.
More about Our Intensive Cooking Vacations
What else can you expect on an intensive culinary vacation? Usually, they will include plenty of foodie visits, whether to see masa being ground in Mexico, to a foie gras farm in France (yes, to learn more about this sometimes controversial method of animal husbandry) or to see orecchiette being made by hand on the streets of Bari. You will learn about the regional ingredients, from the cured meats and cheeses to the vegetables and legumes, and will explore the wines on wine tastings and wine tours.
Of course, even our most passionate chefs, be they professional or home chefs, want to get out of the kitchen and see the place they are visiting as well, so most of our intensive cooking vacations also include cultural visits and excursions as well, or at least time on your own to explore.
What else might you learn on our intensive cooking vacations? It depends on the destination of course. In Italy, you might learn different types of regional kinds of pasta, while in France you might delve into sauces and pastries. In Spain. your focus might be meats or fish, depending on where you travel, and in Greece, you could delve into the local produce. Where ever you travel on an intensive cooking vacation, and whatever hands-on cooking classes you enjoy, you are sure to learn more about the local gastronomy and culinary way of life.
Some examples of our intensive cooking vacations include:
Savor the Flavors of the Languedoc
Enjoy daily cooking sessions and gastronomic excursions with your culinary instructor, who is an accomplished chef. Learn the art of French cooking, and pair your dishes with excellent local wines on this cooking vacation in the Languedoc.
Enjoy an intensive cooking vacation in southern France. Hone your skills and master new techniques while learning authentic French recipes with your chefs. Stay at a French gite on your French culinary vacation.
Cook with one of our favorite chefs in Burgundy during this intensive cooking vacation featuring authentic French cuisine. Pair your creations with local Burgundy wines that you can explore on Burgundy wine tours.