Gourmet Barcelona

A culinary vacation to indulge yourself in authentic and undiscovered Catalan cuisine. Explore specialty food shops, taste artisanal products and Catalan wines. Experience one of Europe’s most vibrant cutting edge cities with insiders.

Two full-day cooking classes with Alicia, an expert Catalan chef who manages to enchant and entertain while delivering exacting instructions, introduce you to emblematic Catalan dishes. Catalan cava and wines from the DO Penedes, Priorat and Montsant regions are paired with the food.

An architecture tour shows you Barcelona’s fascinating heritage ranging from Roman era to 19th century Modernism.

An exploration of tapas in this epicenter of both traditional and avant-garde gastronomy lets you in on the genius at work here in this Catalan capital.

Each morning, a chef’s tour of the best of Barcelona’s specialty food boutiques. Learn about little-known Spanish and Catalan cheeses, visit a shop that sells only bacalao (salt cod), and see a wood-burning oven from 1851 roasting hazelnuts, almonds and coffee. Shop for your cooking class at the Mercat de la Boquería, Barcelona’s acclaimed market.

Barcelona

Barcelona–joyful, exuberant, slightly chaotic and definitely Mediterranean–captivates scores of visitors. It may be her benign Mediterranean climate; her architecture that includes 9 Moderniste World Heritage Sites, a labyrinthine Gothic quarter, and the stately 19th century Eixample neighborhood; her life-lived-out-of-doors quality; or the wealth of cafes, bars, restaurants and bakeries gracing her streets.

The sense of relaxation that prevails in Barcelona seems to work better than a spa vacation. The pleasures of life–food and wine–regain their rightful place on this food centered vacation.

4 Days/3 Nights

Day One
Arrival at your four or five-star hotel on Barcelona’s famous Passeig de Gràcia in the heart of Moderniste Barcelona. Take time for a swim in the rooftop pool or a stroll on this famous shopping street. We meet at a specialty shop for a tasting session in their cellar focusing on wine, jamón ibérico, cured sausages and cheese.

Day Two
After breakfast you meet your chef for a tour of Barcelona’s specialty food boutiques in the ancient Barri Gòtic and trendy Born districts of the city. Then it’s off to cook. Cooking and eating are leisurely affairs, lasting from morning through to the end of siesta (5.00-6:00 PM). The streets will be just coming back to life as you emerge from the cooking session, which makes it a great time to stop by Els Quatre Gats, the legendary Moderniste café that hosted Picasso’s first exhibition. The building was built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1896. Nearby is the Palau de la Música Catalana, Domènec i Montaner’s Moderniste concert hall and a World Heritage Site.

Dinner will be on your own. We can arrange for a local Barcelona culinary expert to accompany you to one of Barcelona’s traditional, signature or avant-garde restaurants. Of course, we can suggest restaurants in your choice of style and range.

Day Three
After breakfast you again meet your chef for a tour of Barcelona’s specialty food shops including a shop which sells jamón ibérico, Spain’s famous ham. You will then tour the Mercat de la Boquería, located on Barcelona’s landmark street, La Rambla, and buy the ingredients for the cooking session. You will choose the menu in consultation with Alicia, the cooking instructor. Possibilities include a multitude of traditional Spanish tapas, or typical Catalan dishes such as suquet (a Catalan Bouillabaisse), mar i muntanya (a seafood and landfood stew), esqueixada (salt cod salad), or ànec amb peres (duck with pears).

After lunch, your private guide will lead a walking tour through the neighborhoods of your choice. We recommend the Barri Gòtic whose highlights include Roman ruins, Barcelona’s cathedral and beautiful medieval palaces, or the Eixample, the 19th and early 20th century neighborhood whose blocks are punctuated with Moderniste landmarks designed by Antoni Gaudí, Domènec i Montaner, and others.

A tapas tour is next. You can choose to dine in a single tapas bar chosen by your guide, or sample from three or four counters. Tapas in Barcelona range from traditional Spanish to avant-garde Catalan.

Your specialist guide for the architecture tour and the tapas tasting is a longtime Barcelona resident who hails from the US. As the author of two bestselling Barcelona guidebook series, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Barcelona’s architectural history and insider’s stories to entertain. He is also a gastronomy critic who is always current on the Barcelona culinary scene.

Day Four
Breakfast and departure. You may want to stay on in Barcelona to take in museums (Picasso Museum, the Fundació Miró or the superb Catalonian National Museum of Art); visit Gaudí’s whimsical Parc Guell or unfinished masterpiece the Sagrada Familia church; explore Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic and medieval call (Jewish Quarter); or simply stroll down Las Ramblas to the beach. 

What We Include:

• Two cooking classes in private Barcelona home
• 2 lunches with wine
• 3 nights four-star accommodation
• Gourmet breakfast daily
• Tapas tour
• Wine, cheese and jamón dinner
• Mercat de la Boquería tour
• Tour of gourmet shops
• Architecture tour

Not Included:

• Airfare to/from Spain
• Airport transfers
• Meals not specified
• Accident/baggage/trip cancellation insurance
• Gratuities to guides
• Personal expenses

Pricing:

• SPECIAL OFFER. Reserve for dates through 2008 and save 10%!
• 2 participants $1550
• 3-4 participants $1400
• 5-6 participants $1325
• Single supplement $350
• Non-cooking participant Call for price

Prices are per person based on double occupancy. All prices are in U.S. Dollars.

The program and the dates are fully customizable for groups of 2 or more. Please contact us if you would like a variation on this trip. Minimum of 2 people. Maximum group size is 6 people.

Upcoming Dates:

• Custom dates available year round
• October 16-19 FULL
• October 29-November 1
• November 12-15
• November 26-29
• December 15-18
• 2009
• February 16-19
• February 20-23
• March 10-13
• March 26-29
• 

Reservation

All reservations are subject to our Terms and Conditions.

Please fill out the form below to reserve or to inquire about a tour. If you prefer, call us toll-free at 866-642-2917 or email us at .

Once we confirm your booking by email a deposit of $500 per person is required. We will send you an invoice for the deposit. You may pay securely through PayPal via credit card or bank transfer.

Full payment for the trip is due 60 days before the program begin date. For reservations made less than 60 days before the program begin date, full payment is due at the time of booking.

We strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance to protect your travel investment. A number of companies offer travel insurance. Epicurean Ways offers our travelers AIG Travel Guard travel insurance. See our Travel Guard ProtectAssist Gold (pdf) or Essential Expanded Silver plan brochures (pdf). Call or email us with any questions regarding travel insurance.

We are very pleased that you have decided to travel with us. We are available to answer any questions you might have. Please email or call 866-642-2917. In Spain call 951-190-478 or 669-109-292.

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Upon receiving this reservation form, we will email you an invoice. Please tell us how you would prefer to pay:

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Credit card payments and bank transfers will be securely processed through PayPal.Payments may be made in currencies other than U.S. dollars.

Trip Info for Catalan Cooking in Barcelona

Preferred Dates	Select a date: Custom dates available year round">Custom dates available year round October 16-19 FULL October 29-November 1 November 12-15 November 26-29 December 15-18 2009">2009 February 16-19 February 20-23 March 10-13 March 26-29 ">
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