Cooking on vacation? You must be kidding!
For many, an essential ingredient to being on vacation is freedom from kitchen duty. Yet, the popularity of cooking TV shows and a yearning for authentic travel experiences has a growing number of travelers spicing up their vacations with cooking classes and culinary tours. Here’s a taste of some foodie-friendly vacations.
Savor the Southwest
Part of the fun of traveling is trying different foods and getting a taste for dishes you just don’t get back at home. From the adobe houses to the smell of the piñon trees burning in kiva fireplaces, Santa Fe is so different from what we see, smell and experience back in the Midwest. That goes for the culinary scene as well.
Chiles, the ubiquitous culinary symbol of Santa Fe, are served roasted, fried and even dipped in chocolate at breakfast, lunch and dinner. To opt out of the chile would be sacrilege, and why would you? The chile is part of this town’s flavor.
Immerse yourself in this unique Southwestern cuisine, which fuses Native American foods with Mexican flavors, by taking classes at one of the local cooking schools. Santa Fe Culinary Academyis a professional program that also offers classes for visitors. Learn how to make New Mexican classics like chile relleno, tamales or posole, a hominy stew traditionally served on Christmas Eve.
The Santa Fe School of Cooking isn’t a professional school, but you can learn plenty of new techniques, tips, or even take in the restaurant scene with them. One creative class offered is “Cooking with Georgia O’Keeffe,” where you explore O’Keeffe’s ideas about food and cooking. “Both O’Keeffe’s art and cooking were about elegant simplicity,” says chef Michelle Roetzer as she guides guests through recipes from the book, “A Painter’s Kitchen: Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O’Keeffe.”
Southern Comfort
You’ve heard about southern hospitality. It’s true, things move a little slower down south. Maybe it’s the heat, or perhaps courtesy and cordiality is just how they’re raised. Either way, life feels a little different in the South. South Carolina, known for low-country cooking, is also home to some of the country’s best barbecue. The new South Carolina Barbecue Trail has paved the way for visitors to experience this slow-cooked favorite at more than 163 barbecue restaurants across the state.
Wine and Dine
Sonoma County, Calif., is known not only for great wine, but for great food as well. You can sample some terrific pairings each March during Sonoma County Restaurant Week. Or go on a delicious adventure with Savor Healdsburg Food Tours. Wednesday through Sunday, three-hour tours give visitors a taste of the area’s culinary history and insider advice on the hottest restaurants. Relish Culinary Adventures in Healdsburg also offers tasting tours, or you can take hands-on classes from the wine country’s top chefs.
Photo courtesy of Savor Healdsburg Food Tours
French Connection
Want to go on the ultimate foodie vacation? If your answer is, “mais oui,” you should check outCooking with Friends in France, which organizes culinary vacations at Julia Child’s former home in Provence. When you’re not experimenting in Child’s former kitchen, you’re headed out on market tours and tasting tours of southern France. Bon appétit!
What if you want to perfect your pastries and serve dessert that’s simply magnifique, but you can’t quite make it to France? Voilà: L’ecole de la Maison, the French cooking school at the Osthoff Resort in Wisconsin’s Elkhart Lake, is at your service. It’s only a two-hour drive to this classic Midwest waterfront resort where you can learn to make crème brulée, crêpes Suzette and other classic French bistro items. The best part, says Scott Baker, Osthoff Resort’s food and beverage director, is “the end of class, when the group can sit down together and reap the rewards of their delicious culinary creations.” Ooh la la!
Local Flavor
Hop from one specialty-food shop to another along Galena’s historic Main Street. Walls of theGalena Garlic Company are lined with handcrafted seasonings, aged balsamics and infused olive oils. At the Galena Canning Company you’ll have your pick of the freshest homemade jams, dips and salsas. In between, there are tea shops, artisanal cheese shops and tasting rooms from local vineyards.
Want to know where your food comes from? Of course you do! That’s why the locally grown food movement has been growing. Galena’s farm-to-fork restaurant, One Eleven Main, prides itself on bringing diners the freshest foods straight from the heartland. Pork from nearby Arnold’s Farm, beef from Lange Farm in Wisconsin, cheese, produce, baked goods, even the alcohol, are all locally sourced. Another charming ingredient: Striking black-and-white portraits of the restaurant’s food providers decorate the walls.
Hungry for more? Get a taste for the local flavor on your next getaway. You might find it’s the secret ingredient to a great vacation!
Top photo: Osthoff Cooking School
