Where We Travel

Where We Travel

There are 2 prerequisites for being the destination of a cooking vacation with The International Kitchen: it must have great food, and it must be someplace we’d like to travel ourselves. Some of these are obvious: who wouldn’t want to make home-made pasta in Italy? Or picnic in a vineyard in France? Or learn about ham and sherry in Spain? Others are the result of our own travels and experiences, places like Southeast Asia, Mexico, Croatia, even Chicago, where the food and general awesomeness of a place made us determined to share it. Regardless of the destination, our promise is an “insider’s” view into it through its cuisine, guided by a local, and surrounded by new friends. We have found, and our culinary travelers have confirmed, that experiencing a destination through its gastronomy opens up new perspectives. This means that each of our destinations offers some of the same elements. You make friends on our trips, you go places you would never find on your own, and you eat like a local (only sometimes even better). You cook with renowned chefs or the little old lady down the street; you milk goats and make cheese, then have it for lunch; you learn about grape varietals and how to pair wines and food. And this means we are always discovering new journeys, new cuisines, for our culinary travelers. Each time we travel we ask ourselves, is this a place our travelers would want to experience? Is this a cuisine they’d like to explore? Is there something we can offer – cooking classes, foodie tours, authentic tastings – that makes this experience special? If the answer is yes, we use our years of travel experience to put together a new itinerary to offer our passionate foodies. Are our destinations safe? Yes! We are careful with even our most exotic destinations, and make sure that you are taken care of from arrival to departure, that you have informed guides, and an “in” to the local culture. We have many decades of combined experience both traveling and in the travel industry that helps us make the right decisions for your trip. Where to next? If you have a culinary destination in mind and don’t see it offered, give us a call. We might be able to arrange a custom tour, if it is a destination we know well but aren’t currently offering. Or we may just decide to go there ourselves to check it out so that we can add it down the road. As always, if you have questions about any of our destinations around the world, we are here to answer them. We each have our own favorites, but we are also each able to answer questions about any of our many excellent locales.