COOKS TOURS
Cooks Tours - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Cook’s Tours | |||||
| By Claire Cathcart, Issue 28 – Spring 2006 | |||||
| (Cooking Tours) | |||||
| DESIGNER OVEN MITTS ARE THE NEW MUST-HAVE TRAVEL ACCESSORY AS DEMAND FOR GOURMET COOKING HOLIDAYS HEATS UP. | |||||
| Designed for eager travellers who literally want to get a taste of a country, tour companies located in Australia and overseas are now matching luxury accommodation with top quality cooking classes from local chefs, to create gourmet cooking holiday packages. For those with a passion for food and cuisine, the world is literally your oyster if you choose the right mix. Virtuoso accredited Wentworth Travel agent Beverly Cohen says she now offers package tours internationally due to a growing demand for cooking holidays. However, Cohen warns travellers to do their research, as “there are so many offered, and some (are) not so good”. Recommended by Cohen and included in the top 100 best holidays in the British Sunday Times, Tasting Places offers cooking tours throughout Europe and the Far East. With itineraries that incorporate more hands-on cooking classes than most, their Fattoria Montelucci package in Tuscany for example, set on 500 hectares of Italy’s rolling hills and olive groves, is authentic and luxury Italy combined. If experience in the industry is what sets gourmet cooking holidays apart, Better Homes and Gardens chef Maeve O’Meara’s tours are a shoe-in. O’Meara designs tours for Australian travel company ‘Gourmet Safaris’, which offers walking tours ranging from strolls throughout Sydney’s suburbs (home to authentic Italian, Greek and Mediterranean cuisine), to full-on Australian and overseas cooking holidays. O’Meara says, “I have always adored finding new spices and new foods and different places, and through my research… I knew a lot of great places and people.” However, if an entire cooking holiday is not for you, whisk yourself away just for the day: you can also participate behind-the-scenes in top class cuisine. For those short on time, a variety of prestigious cooking schools are also available, such as the well-known Le Cordon Bleu, a name synonymous with culinary excellence. Their school located in the heart of Paris, offers gourmet sessions ranging from ‘canapés’ to ‘freshly baked patisseries’. But for those who want indulgence and comfort with just a soupçon of cooking, many luxury hotels offer specialist classes. If Thai is your style, The Four Seasons in Chiang Mai offers daily cooking classes in an award-winning designer kitchen. Thai chefs will accompany you on a tour of the local food markets before you create your own Thai dishes under the watchful eye of a Master Chef. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| Tasting Places: www.tastingplaces.com | |||||
| Gourmet on Tour: www.gourmetontour.com | |||||
| Gourmet Safaris: www.gourmetsafaris.com.au | |||||
| Le Cordon Bleu Paris: www.lecordonbleu.com | |||||
| Four Seasons Chiang Mai: www.fourseasons.com | |||||
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