May 12, 2008 2:44:02 PM
Travel
Cooking Vacations: Play or Work?
Do the words “vacation” and “cooking” belong in the same sentence?
According to the results of a 2006 survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association, some 17 percent of all American leisure travelers (or 27 million) think so. Culinary tourism – a term coined only five years ago with the birth of the International Culinary Tourism Association – is hotter than ever.
In fact, this month’s Gourmet is a special issue devoted to cooking vacations that includes first-hand reports on 40-plus cooking classes around the world, from an evening of hands-on practice in Las Vegas to an afternoon of home cooking in Kuala Lumpur. The level of detail and experiential coverage represents new heights for the epi-tourism industry that until recently was limited to the sundry listings on ShawGuides.
Eight years ago, I took a master course in Italian cuisine in a small village in the Piedmont region of Italy. Amazing and enriching though it was, I wouldn’t exactly call my experience a “vacation”; we Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners students were required to put in eight hours a day of intense study and kitchen work. Free time was limited to the weekends, but I can’t recall anyone complaining. After all, we took classes in a castle and lived among vineyards.
Regardless of the format, learning to cook a cuisine in the country of origin is an amazing experience, she says wistfully dreaming about packing her knives. If I had a magic carpet (and a bag of money), I’d be the first in line for hands-on kitchen tutorials in Bahia and Bali and Ballymalloe..oh! and there’s Croatia and Laos and Marrakech…
What say you? Do you share a similar culinary wanderlust? Have your travels taken you into the kitchen in another city, state or land? Or does the notion of cooking while on vacation seem hardly like a vacation at all? Weigh in, if you so please.
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Posted on May 12, 2008 2:44:02 PM by Kim O'Donnel | Link |
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Great question Kim!
I think I'd like to do something like you did in New Orleans. I think I'd learn a lot, get to go to the Big Easy (one of my favorite places), and help people all at the same time.
My next cooking vacation would probably be to somewhere that would teach me more about vegetarian cooking. I made beet greens for dinner tonight and dearest hubby wouldn't touch them!
And then there's another trip to Japan...