The Many Flavors of Spain

Spanish villageCooking is art in motion
–Ferrán Adrià

See what’s happening at Epicurean Ways in 2009. We are putting the finishing touches on a new series of epicurean experiences in Spain called Epicurean Roads. Roads trips are designed to make culinary travel more affordable this year. Your culinary experiences including winery visits, wine tastings, restaurant dining, tapas tours, cultural visits and the Epicurean Ways expert guides will continue to immerse you in exquisite places and tastes. Authentic Spanish cuisine, noteworthy artisanal products, and wine discoveries will be within reach. Watch for our Epicurean Roads launching soon.

Epicurean Tours

Epicurean Ways specializes in insider’s food and wine tours and cooking vacations throughout Spain. Our personal expertise in the foods and wines of Spain comes from our many years of living and traveling there, forging relationships with chefs, winemakers, local guides and culinary experts.

Our trips highlight the best authentic foods and wines each region has to offer. We offer insider’s access to wineries, vineyards, olive oil producers, artisanal cheesemakers, chefs, cooking classes and memorable epicurean experiences. We guarantee you remarkable food and wine experiences.

Tour Types

Our trips fall into two categories: epicurean tours and cooking vacations. All trips include Epicurean Ways expert guides, artisanal food discoveries, memorable meals, tapas tours and wine tasting or winery tours. We stay in four and five-star hotels, Spanish paradors and renovated historic inns. All hotels offer deluxe comfort and regional character and charm. We can arrange our tours and cooking vacations with three-star accommodations upon request.

We offer scheduled tours, private group tours and custom trips.

The details of your trip are meticulously worked out in advance, freeing you to fully experience the food, wine and people. We believe that balance is important, so every trip allows time for you to explore on your own. A well designed combination of culinary activities and solo time means our trips work well for both groups and for single travelers.

Cultural Travel

Not only do we acquaint you with the food and wine, but we also visit museums and medieval villages, Moorish palaces and famed cathedrals. Our trips are culinary and cultural explorations of Spain that reveal the soul of each region.

Food & Wine in Spain

    We travel to places in Spain where the locally produced cuisine, artisanal foods and wines are presented with pride. We know and love the regions and the gastronomy in these places and are continually inspired by the many curious culinary travelers we have traveled with.

    Spanish Food & Wine Experts

      We are experts on Spain and Spanish food and wine. Call us to discuss food, wine and cultural travel in Spain, even if you are not yet at the trip-planning stage. We can recommend mouth-watering books, articles, recipes, DVDs and websites to commence your culinary explorations of Spain.

      From the Blog:

      Memorable Eating in La Rioja

      December 19, 2008

      A blog post by chef Richard Garcia describes a memorable meal he had in Briñas, a village in La Rioja wine region. Memorable for its simplicity, price (menú del día at 9 euros), array of local dishes and the chef’s words of wisdom to him:  “ Mijo, only, and I will reiterate ONLY use the very best ingredients you can get your hands on, only use food that is in season and put every ounce of love that you have into your food.” See Daily Food Bank.

      Tapas in La Rioja

      December 18, 2008

      Travel and Leisure has an new article on that quintessential Spanish activity–el tapeo or tapas crawl–in the old part of Logroño in La Rioja wine region. Calle Laurel is the famous tapas street there, and the same one we crawl on our The Wine Roads of Rioja and La Ribera del Duero upcoming trips in May and October 2009.

      Spain’s Identity Crisis

      December 12, 2008

      Culinary Travel in Spain
      A recent article in Gourmet aptly positions the current debate between Spanish culinary traditionalists and supporters of avant-garde cooking as evidence of a national culinary identity crisis. This crisis revolves essentially around the division between devotees of traditional Spanish cooking and advocates of Ferrán Adrià-style modern cooking. On the one hand there is an emphasis on refined traditional repertoires, and on the other, cooking that looks to global cuisines for inspiration and molecular gastronomy for technique. Spain shot into the world’s culinary consciousness with Ferrán Adrià’s ground-breaking methods and menus, and that ascent inspired pride in many Spaniards. They had made it on the global stage. But a growing cadre of chefs and citizens has taken issue with the new cooking, not wanting Spanish cuisine to become un-Spanish.

      Fortunately, the revolt against the modern contains not only rejection but an eye to improving traditional regional cuisines. Many Spaniards have turned a revisionist gaze to their cuisines of origin. They are reviving recipes and cooking techniques kept alive in villages and grandmother’s kitchens. A newfound admiration for artisanal food products, best if produced regionally, is leading many back to pre-culinary globalization ingredients and cooking. Yet there is a difference. This is not simple nostalgia at work. Many Spaniards have benefited from their experiences with modern Spanish cuisine, realizing that the purity of flavors and the emphasis on lightness could be brought over to the traditional side. Increasingly savvy about origins and terroir in products from olive oil and wine to potatoes and cheese, Spaniards are becoming more foodie than ever before.

      The stakes are high in this debate over what Spanish food is. In a country as food-centric as Spain is, nothing less the the national identity is at stake when the traditional cuisines are seen to be in danger of changing too much–or too little.

      See Lisa Abend’s article in Gourmet.

      Made in Spain

      December 11, 2008

      Culinary Travel in Spain
      Spanish chef José Andrés is the host of Made in Spain, the best television series on Spanish cooking. A restaurant owner and cookbook author, Andrés leads viewers through one region of Spain and its typical recipes in each episode. The DVDs of Made in Spain make a great gift for any food lover. See them here. José Andrés’ website contains a fairly comprehensive bank of Spanish recipes. Check it out.

      Vicky Cristina Barcelona

      December 4, 2008

      Check out 2 minutes of Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona on YouTube. The movie is worth seeing, if only for Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem’s performances. It’s out on DVD in January of 2009.