The best shortcut we know to immerse ourselves in a country is to explore its cuisine in a hands-on way. Set within magnificent surroundings while participating in the creation of authentic culinary dishes, it is a premier cultural experience that makes appreciating both people, their heritage, and history delicious. Most people are familiar with The Ritz Paris’s on-site École Ritz Escoffier, which offers cooking classes for adults and little ones. We took a more out-of-the-box approach to the destinations and meal components themselves. While there is a wide variety of culinary experiences we can arrange with our travel partners, this is just some food for thought.
1. Oriental Thai Cooking School – Bangkok, Thailand
Embark on a culinary voyage into the heart of Thai cuisine at the renowned Oriental Thai Cooking School. Owned by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, the school is situated alongside the Chao Phraya River, across from the hotel. Students arrive by hotel boat and embark on hands-on classes under the watchful eye of expert chefs. The six-day morning course focuses on the world of spices and herbs, in addition to traditional techniques, and students ultimately learn to plan a Thai meal. Monday to Thursday classes focus on sourcing ingredients and learning techniques. After gaining a firm foundation of Thai cuisine, Friday and Saturday mornings are used to put them into practice.
2. Treetops Lodge & Estate – Rotorua, New Zealand
An all-inclusive luxury retreat along New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, and that place name is no exaggeration; Treetops features an array of accommodations set within the 2,500 acres of 800-year-old growth native forest. With two lakes and four rivers set within the world’s best rainbow and brown trout fishing region, the resort’s culinary team prides itself on its Estate to Plate philosophy, with most of the dishes featuring ingredients reared or grown on the estate and nearly 100% pesticide-free. These include world-class game featuring deer and boar that naturally roam the estate in addition to sheep and goat, the aforementioned trout, and estate-grown fruit and vegetables, including unique native herbs from the forest. For the culinarily curious, Treetops also features three distinct educational Signature Experiences that highlight hunting, foraging, and preparation. These include Estate to Plate Safari, Wild Food Cooking School, and the Indigenous Food and Heritage Trail.
3. Sazón Cooking School – San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Housed in an elegant 18th-century mansion, Sazón Cooking School is just around the corner from the Casa de Sierra Nevada, a Belmond Hotel. San Miguel is renowned for its extraordinary food culture and is home to some of Mexico’s best restaurants, making the destination an ideal culinary vacation. Because the school is owned by Belmond, an impressive stream of renowned guest chefs from other Belmond hotels come to teach cooking classes here. With a maximum of 12 students, daily classes here include a tour of San Miguel Market with the chef in a series of 3-hour classes conducted twice daily, although private classes are also available. Students will explore regional favorite traditional specialties as well as take home techniques to create modern masterpieces.
4. Within the Wild – Kachemak Bay, Alaska, US
This Alaska adventure experiences company owns Tutka Bay Lodge, a 6-room resort on 20 acres at the edge of the Kenai Peninsula. Accessible only from May through September by boat from Homer or seaplane from Anchorage, guests at this resort enjoy premium coastal cuisine infused with a wilderness twist. The menu at this all-inclusive resort is crafted by a mother-daughter team and their ace staff. Mom is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef who also hosts cooking classes in an old 83-foot fishing boat imaginatively converted into a culinary space. Here, students learn to prepare dishes using fresh Alaskan seafood and locally foraged ingredients, all while surrounded by pristine forests and glacial views. Students will visit oyster farms, harvest and cook mussels and crab from Tutka Bay or salmon caught on fly-fishing excursions, make sea salt to take home, and forage for wild edibles such as sea lettuce, blueberries, mushrooms, and birch syrup.
5. La Pitchoune – Châteauneuf de Grasse, France
Affectionately known as “La Peetch,” this is the house that Julia (Child) built. No mere hotel with a cooking school, this is an “unfussy” Courageous Cooking school that runs part of the year as a villa rental. Owners claim it as the first recipe-free cooking school in the world, making this a cooking boot camp in the heart of Provence’s picturesque countryside. The experience includes a week of daily hands-on cooking classes of 6+ hours with no more than seven other adult students. The sessions teach how to prepare classic French dishes while building core techniques. Classes are accompanied by food-related learning each day, transportation to learning and dining venues, and all meals, some cooked by students, some by staff, and some by the admittedly delicious venues in the greater Provençal region. The experience also includes a lifetime membership to the school’s digital platform. Added summer camps are often announced; these involve more students but also make the nearby home of Child’s colleague, Simone Beck, available for lodging and gathering space.
6. Sumaq Macchu Pichu Hotel – Cusco, Perú
Known as one of South America’s best resorts, Sumaq is located at the foot of the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu near the beautiful Vilcanota River. The luxury 62-room retreat not only features innovative Peruvian cuisine sourced locally and honors indigenous sources in its operations but also an array of special experiences, including several culinary demonstrations and, for children,
mini-chef classes. The retreat features trips to the potato cultivation fields in the historic Sacred Valley of the Incas under the guidance of Manuel Choqque, a renowned expert on native potatoes. The experience is accompanied by tastes of typical dishes and fermented beverages, all made from potatoes. Other experiences include watching how a traditional pachamanca — earthen oven — is made or sampling Andean chichas (the country’s ubiquitous corn beer) made in a traditional ceramic kero.
7. Royal Mansour Marrakech – Marrakech, Morocco
This luxury oasis near the medina of Marrakech is very royal indeed. Owned by the King of Morocco, the award-winning hotel features a whopping 550 staff for 53 riad-styled accommodations. Its dining venues are run by starred chefs who oversee the recently opened (July 2023) cooking school on the premises. From pastries, French cooking, Italian cooking, and Moroccan fine cooking, as well as “local” specialties, the school has everything in which an epicurean traveler might want to explore or indulge. Each 2-hour cooking class is led by one of Royal Mansour’s chefs from the enormous kitchen island. Open to all guests, skilled or complete novices, each one concludes with an al fresco tasting of the dishes at the grand marble table under the veranda overlooking the hotel’s spectacular gardens. Maximum class size is 6 participants and reservations are required.
8. Amanemu – Ise-Shima, Japan
A luxury ryokan-inspired onsen resort from the Aman brand, Amanemu rests in the forested hills of Ise-Shima, Japan, overlooking Ago Bay. The region, once known as the “imperial bread basket,” is also home to an enormous complex of Shinto shrines and a hallowed ancient tradition of female divers, the ama, who hunt urchin and abalone and are still going strong today. Although the city is much smaller and far less glitzy than Osaka and Kyoto, it abounds with experiences bearing centuries-old relevance. In the markets here, visitors will find lobster sold in myriad forms as well as packets of marbled Matsusaka beef cultivated to be far more tender than Kobe, along with containers of pearl salt and jellied seaweed. The resort offers guests the chance to spend time with an ama diver and learn more about their unique lifestyle while enjoying a delicious seafood barbecue. Or a chance to sample the foods that are offered morning and evening to the deities honored at the Shinto shrines of the grand temple complex Ise Jingū, after which a rice porridge of fresh abalone is served for breakfast. Participants then follow the hallowed experience with a visit to a seaweed producer founded a century ago as well as the home of the sea salt maker. After lunch, the experience concludes with a visit to a cliff-side katsuobushi (bonito flake) producer.
9. Dunbrody House Hotel & Cookery School – Arthurstown, Co. Wexford, Ireland
County Wexford on Ireland’s scenic southeast coast is famed for many things: beaches, berries, and gardens as well as stately manors, just under a two-hour drive from Dublin (or two-and-a-half hours by train). And while Ireland is known for its cookery schools with their own onsite farm accommodations and published cookbook author TV hosts, we thought we’d focus on a stately country manor house with a published author and TV host, Kevin Dundon. The curriculum at Dunbrody ranges from one-day courses in Plant-Based meals, Slow-Cooking, Seafood & Shellfish, and BBQ & Grill up to a two-day “Dinner Party for Six” course with class sizes limited to a maximum of 10 students and half the class time being directly hands-on. A five-day Master Class is also offered and features more challenging dishes, including Classics and Sauces with a maximum of 5 students.
10. Four Seasons Nevis Dive & Dine – Nevis, West Indies
Slip into a wetsuit and join a Nevisian divemaster and a chef from the Four Seasons Resort Nevis, the island’s premier resort, for Dive & Dine with A Chef. This is a two-tank dive like nothing the average cook has ever enjoyed before. This is as about as hands-on as food preparation can get. Below sparkling waters and in typical Nevisian fashion, cooks explore a pristine local dive site and learn to lasso their own lobsters. Once back onshore, they learn how to prepare the lobsters as well as lionfish they — or the diving expert — might spear (lionfish are an invasive species that are surprisingly delicious once properly prepared). The experience continues with cocktails on the pier before settling into a private beach BBQ where the chef prepares the fresh catch tableside. This experience requires participants to be certified divers, if not, they can arrange to become one while there or get their certification before the trip.
VIP Contact
Contact Jack Bloch of JB’s World Travel Consultants at jackb@jbsworld.com.