Twenty years ago, the idea of cooking on holiday was absurd. Food was a fag –
it was the kitchen you were running away from.
Then along came all those celebrity chefs, with their “anyone can do it” ethos
and exotic ideas about opening up international cuisine.
Since Floyd on Italy and Rick Stein’s French Odyssey, a holiday’s not a
holiday unless you’re diving for scallops and searing them yourself on the
beach.
Fact is, cooking is sexy, and cook schools are popping up across the holiday
planet like soufflés in a Smeg oven. Here are the tastiest.
MEZE, Turkey
Perched high in the pine forests, halfway between Fethiye and Kalkan, with
views of the preternaturally blue Lycian coastline from pool, veranda and
even bath, Yediburunlar lighthouse is reason enough to come to Turkey with a
suitcase of good books and factor 15 all on its own. Next year, however, the
owner and chef, Semra, is throwing two cook-school weeks (July 5-12 and
August 16-23) into an already spectacular mix, teaching guests how to shop
for and prepare a six-course vegetarian and fish meze feast, with just
enough time factored in for gulet cruises and walks into the
surrounding hills.
Details: Exclusive Escapes (020 8605 3500, www.exclusiveescapes.co.uk)
has seven nights, full-board, at Yediburunlar lighthouse for £950, including
daily tuition, market excursions, guided hill walks, transfers and flights
with BMI from Heathrow to Dalaman.
RUSTIC SICILIAN, Italy
There are more cookery schools in Italy than there are funghi in a
Tuscan forest, but the Anna Tasca Lanza school, on central Sicily’s
Regaleali estate, is a rare black truffle in a sack of ceps. Headed by
English-speaking mother-and-daughter team Anna Tasca Lanza and Fabrizia
Lanza, the school teaches simple but awesomely tasty traditional Sicilian
cuisine, using meat, vegetables and cheeses from the 1,000-acre estate.
Guests stay in the gloriously rustic 19th-century manor house itself, with
views out over Regaleali’s vineyards to the Madonie hills. Laced with Tasca
Lanza charisma, doused in estate wine and generously sprinkled with visits
to local markets, this isn’t so much a school as a total cultural immersion.
Details: Bellini Travel (020 7602 7602, www.bellinitravel.com)
has five nights, full-board, at Regaleali, for £1,895, including four days’
tuition, tastings from the Tasca d’Almerita cellars, and visits to local
markets; seven-day car hire can be arranged from £226. The nearest airport
is Palermo – 75 miles away – served by Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com)
and EasyJet (www.easyjet.co.uk).
TAPAS, Spain
You’ll need a basic level of Spanish to get the most from this superb tapas
school, but with notes available in English and chefs increasingly used to
English-speaking guests, even lingua-phobes should avoid dicing their patatas
instead of slicing their jamon. Based in the town of San Sebastian,
bustling queen of the Basque coastal resorts, El Txoko del Gourmet
introduces amateurs and professionals alike to the dark arts of the tapas,
or, in the words of its website, “how to enhance a simple potato to obtain
an unsuspected taste scum”.
Details: El Txoko del Gourmet (00 34 943 422218, www.eltxokodelgourmet.com)
has two-day courses for £163 and five-day courses for £397. Kirker Holidays
(020 7593 2288, www.kirkerholidays.com)
has three nights, four-star, B&B, in San Sebastian from £650 (six nights
from £896), including transfers and flights from Stansted to Bilbao with
EasyJet.
GOURMET GETAWAY, France
Deep in the heart of Gascony, surrounded by a tapestry of maize and sunflower
fields stretching uninterrupted almost as far as the Pyrenees, the
18th-century Château de Pallanne houses a school that’ll make your taste
buds whoop and your waistline shudder. Foie gras terrine with muscat jelly,
roast duck with olives, roast pigeon with armagnac and thyme – you’ll be
making them all. The course also includes market trips to Pau and Tarbes, as
well as dinner at the Michelin three-star Les Prés d’Eugénie. Despairing
livers can seek redemption with the estate’s own 18-hole golf course and
heated pool.
Details: Tasting Places (020 8964 5333, www.tastingplaces.com)
has seven nights, full-board, at Château de Pallanne for £2,100, including
all tastings, tuition, excursions and transfers from Pau or Toulouse. Rail
Europe (0844 848 4070, www.raileurope.co.uk)
has Eurostar/TGV returns from St Pancras to Toulouse from £109.
SOUKS & SPICES, Morocco
Tucked away in the Palmeraie just outside Marrakesh, Dar Liqama is a veritable
pasha’s palace of a hotel, full of kilims and courtyards, antique doors and
marble floors, with views of the snowcapped High Atlas that give long, lazy
mint teas on the terrace a good name. Not that you’ll be looking for ways to
stretch out the day: there are tennis courts, swimming pools, a hammam and a
spa, while a week at the superb cook school – tagines and pigeon pie, harira
and almond pastries – includes visits to the souks and sights in Marrakesh,
as well as lunch in a converted kasbah at the foot of Jebel Toubkal
(13,671ft), the highest peak in North Africa.
Details: Best of Morocco (0845 026 4588, www.realmorocco.com)
has seven nights, full-board, at Dar Liqama for £2,365, including daily
tuition, excursions, transfers, and flights with British Airways from
Gatwick to Marrakesh.
CAPE CUISINE, South Africa
Working with South Africa’s top chefs in a variety of locations – from
butchering and barbecuing impala at a tented camp on a Limpopo game reserve
to cooking Cape Malay favourites such as bobotie and smoorsnoek in Cape Town
– Samp & Soufflé is a roving cook school that can be booked as a
one-day stopoff while you tour the country, or as a dedicated five-day
residential course in its own right. Best of a tempting bunch? The five-day
course in Franschhoek, in the heart of wine country, with four-hour sessions
every day, plus all the grape-trampling, cheese-making, fishing and
herb-gathering that you can squeeze in thereafter.
Details: Samp & Soufflé (00 27 84 900 9345, www.sampsouffle.com)
has five nights, B&B, at Rusthof Country House, a Cape Dutch-style home
in Franschhoek, for £1,788, including tuition and excursions; car hire
arranged from about £10 per day. Trailfinders (0845 058 5858, www.trailfinders.com)
has fares with South African Airways from Heathrow to Cape Town from £749.
SCHOOL OF WOK, Thailand
If Michelin gave out stars for the sheer infectiousness of a chef’s smile,
Pitak Srichan – head chef at the Four Seasons hotel cook school in Chiang
Mai – would have a galaxy of them. Almost psychotically enthusiastic (he
started out as a lowly plongeur and seems perpetually excited to be
where he is today), Srichan gives tuition that would stir the soul of even
the wobbliest wokist, although the cook school itself – an open-sided,
hilltop pavilion overlooking the lush, green paddy fields of Mae Rim valley
– would probably do all that without him.
Finishing at 2pm each day, the class allows time enough for the resort’s
activities, which include tennis, golf, horse-riding, kick boxing, hot-air
ballooning, spa, gym and pool.
Details: Tropical Locations (0845 277 3310, www.tropical-locations.com)
has seven nights at the Four Seasons from £2,331, including the six-day cook
school and Thai Airways flights from Heathrow to Chiang Mai, via Bangkok.
SOUTH INDIAN VEGETARIAN, Kerala
One hour east of Cochin, The Pimenta is a grandiose name for what is
effectively a family kitchen on a seven-acre spice plantation in the lush,
forested foothills of Kerala’s Western Ghats. With four modest bungalows,
and dinners round the family dining table, this is no marble-topped,
five-star Oberoi extravaganza, but what it lacks in glitz, it more than
makes up for in authenticity, with classes in delicious Keralan vegetarian
specialities led by the farm owner and passionate cook, Jacob Mathew, and
his 67-year-old mother. Courses comprise afternoon cooking sessions, with
mornings at nearby markets, temples, a cotton-weaving workshop and elephant
training centre, where guests help scrub and bathe the beasts.
Details: Haritha Farm (00 91 485 226 0216, www.harithafarms.com)
has three nights, full-board, for £363, including four days’ tuition, or
£727 for seven nights, full-board, including seven days’ tuition.
Trailfinders (0845 058 5858, www.trailfinders.com)
has flights from Heathrow to Cochin with Etihad Airways (via Abu Dhabi) from
£445; transfers to Haritha Farm cost £15 per taxi.
STREET FOOD, Vietnam
There are reasons aplenty to visit Hoi An – colonial architecture, bustling
back lanes, great beaches at Cua Dai – but for foodies, the old seaport city
should mean only one thing: Trinh Diem Vy, universally known as Ms Vy.
Founder of four of the best restaurants in Vietnam, the outrageously
energetic Ms Vy now runs a cook school at her newest restaurant, Morning
Glory. Drawing on her love of street food, remembered from childhood,
courses range from 90-minute masterclasses (£4.90) in spring rolls and
crispy crepes to all-day private sessions (£61.50, with discounts for more
than one person), mastering signature dishes such as crispy tuna in tamarind
sauce.
Details: contact Morning Glory Cook School (00 84-510 241555, www.hoianhospitality.com).
Hoi An Beach Resort (510 927040, www.victoriahotels-asia.com)
has beachfront doubles from £80, B&B. Travelmood (0870 815 9400, www.travelmood.co.uk)
has fares with Cathay Pacific from Heathrow to Saigon, via Hong Kong, from
£500.
LATIN PREP, Mexico
Nearly 6,500ft up in Mexico’s central highlands, Casa de Sierra Nevada is a
collection of six colonial mansions – including a 16th-century archbishop’s
residence, the town’s former customs house and more bougainvillea-strewn,
fountain-littered courtyards than a conquistador’s palace – with one of the
best cook schools in Latin America. No more than a tortilla toss from the
cathedral and main square of San Miguel de Allende, the hotel’s cook school,
Sazon, is led by a roster of the great and good of Mexican cuisine, while
courses include market tours and tips on making the perfect margarita.
Details: tuition at Sazon (00 52 415 154 7671, www.sazon.com)
costs from £22 per day. Exsus Travel (020 7292 5050, www.
exsus.com) has five nights, B&B, at Casa de Sierra Nevada, from
£1,450, including transfers and flights with BA from Heathrow to Mexico
City.
BEST OF BALINESE, Indonesia
Cook schools aren’t rare in Bali – from the five-star Four Seasons, in
Jimbaran Bay (www.fourseasons.com/bali),
to the humble but utterly lovely Taman Rahasia guesthouse in Ubud (www.balisecretgarden.com),
the island’s hotels are spilling over with the things – but none beats Bumbu
Bali, in Tanjung Benoa. Run by Heinz von Holzen, one-time executive chef at
the Grand Hyatt in nearby Nusa Dua and author of several definitive tomes on
Balinese cuisine, the cook school (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) takes place in
what is widely regarded as the best Balinese restaurant on the island,
kicking off with a 6am visit to local vegetable and fish markets. Students
prepare – and then feast on – Indonesian specialities such as pork satay,
grilled fish in banana leaves and shredded chicken with jackfruit.
Details: £37.25 per day; contact Bumbu Bali (00 62-361 774502, www.balifoods.com/bumbu).
In Nusa Dua, the stunning Amanusa (361 772333, www.amanresorts.com)
has suites from £165pp, room-only; in Tanjung Benoa itself, just next door
to Bumbu Bali, Taman Sari (361 773953, www.tamansarisuite-bali.com)
has 10 stylish thatched cottages from £19pp. Malaysia Airlines (0871 423
9090, www.malaysiaairlines.com)
flies from Heathrow to Denpasar, via Kuala Lumpur, from £589.
MODERN BRITISH, North
Yorkshire Housed in the Georgian stables of Swinton Park, a 17th-century,
30-bedroom, AA three-rosette castle hotel near Ripon, the cook school here
stages three-day residential courses with Rosemary Shrager, a one-woman tour
de force with a veritable smorgasbord of TV hits under her apron,
including ITV’s recent Rosemary Shrager’s School for Cooks. “It’s all about
confidence,” gushes Shrager. “People arrive scared and go home desperate to
arrange their next dinner party.” Running midweek, courses start at 4pm on
the first day, finishing at 3pm two days later, with all dinners and lunches
cooked by the newly confident you. As for après – along with
Swinton Park’s 200 acres of private parkland, the North York Moors are right
on your doorstep, yours for the calorie-burn on horse or foot, though you
may have to be prised from the hotel’s spa first.
Details: Swinton Park (01765 680900, www.swintonpark.com)
has two nights, full-board, from £560, including tuition.
MASTERCLASS, London
Well-connected – the chef Alastair Little is a partner in the firm – Tasting
Places has set up hands-on cooking days with chefs from the best London
restaurants. Okay, it’s not a residential cooking holiday as such, more a
quick-fix, one-day slurp at the font of a Michelin deity, but with a menu of
head chefs to choose from that includes Eric Chavot from the Capital, Alan
Bird from the Ivy, Angela Hartnett from the Connaught, Matthew Harris from
Bibendum, and Simone Zanoni from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, we’d be derelict
in our duty if we didn’t include this one.
Details: Tasting Places (020 8964 5333, www.tastingplaces.com)
has masterclasses from £160, typically lasting two to three hours, followed
by lunch (included), often with the chefs.
SMOKING LESSONS, The Highlands
The latest project from Bill and Sukie Barber (purveyors of staggeringly
lovely fare at Old Pines Restaurant with Rooms, at Spean Bridge, until they
upped Agas and moved to the Ardnamurchan peninsula in 1994), Bluebell Croft
is 6½ acres of Highland magic fair, overrun with pigs, cows, geese, chickens
and sheep in the shadow of Sgurr Domhnuill, 20 miles southwest of Fort
William. Along with their much-loved livestock and organic 50ft polytunnel,
smoking is Bill and Sukie’s serious passion these days, and they now run
two-day courses on building your own home smoker, as well as how to brine
and cure fish and meat – procured, of course, from farms and fishing boats
within a caber toss of the croft.
Details: the next course (March 11-12) costs £150 for the first person,
£50 for the second, including all tastings, two lunches and one dinner. B&B,
£30; or one-week self-catering on the croft itself costs from £550 (sleeps
four). Contact Bill or Sukie (01967 402226, www.bluebellcroft.co.uk).
Forget the rest, if you want the best then go soon to www.divinacucina.com to get details about a Tuscan cookery school in Florence, Italy - conveniently very close to the Mercato Centrale and the renaissance Basilica San Lorenzo and Medici palace in wonderful central Florence. The school is run by an American lady from her apartment literally a stone's throw from the Mercato - check out her website which is a feast of information on regional Italian cuisine and wine especially that of Tuscany. The best culinary website I've seen. Florence mustn't be missed if you're a lover of Italian cuisine, cafe bars, trattorias, Italian plonk, renaissance art, Cathedrals, Churches, palaces, suave Italian men, beautiful Italian women of all ages and the best coffee and cakes you'll ever come across especially the Baba Rum. Eat Pasta with Wild Boar Sauce (Pappardelle sul Cinghiale) and you'll think you've died and gone straight to heaven and cut out the middle man.
Would Dr. Jimmy lie to you ?
Dr. Jimmy, Nottingham, England