Discover Authentic Catalan Cuisine

This program features leisurely paced explorations of Catalan food and wine while allowing ample time to explore the region surrounding your cooking school/hotel.

This is a cooking-intensive culinary vacation featuring four cooking classes and one cooking demonstration, wine tastings, and visits to an artisan cheese maker, an olive oil mill, wineries, local markets, and Catalan restaurants. Your hotel is a beautifully converted luxurious village townhouse in Madremanya, a quiet village near Girona. Your instructor for the week is Vicenç, the hotel’s chef. His restaurant specializes in Catalan cuisine with a contemporary twist. His wife Mònica, a sommelier, conducts two wine-tasting sessions, and chooses the wines that accompany the meals.

Itinerary, Prices and Dates

For a detailed description of the Culinary Adventures in Andalucia program, see Itinerary; for prices, see Prices/Dates.

The Empordà

The Empordà region of northern Catalonia juxtaposes a stunning Mediterranean coastline with picturesque medieval villages, encircled by green fields, olive groves and vineyards. 

The Empordà region is ideal for slowing down. Without making too much effort, you can go for walks or bicycle rides (bicycles supplied at the hotel) in the countryside or drive to the beach (17 miles) and walk along the costal walkways. The medieval villages in the area are fascinating to explore, as are Girona, with a 13th-century call (Jewish Quarter), Figures, where the Teatre-Museu Dalí is found, and Cadaqués, a beautiful costal town where Dalí’s house is now a museum, All are a reasonable distance (15 minutes – 1.5 hours) from Madremanya.

Catalan Cuisine

The bounty of land and sea is evident in Catalan cuisine. Prawns, shrimp, squid, sea urchins, salt cod, anchovies, wild game, sausages, veal, duck, chicken, rabbit, peppers, tomatoes, wild mushrooms, eggplant, rice, broad beans– all are major players in the cooking. Catalan cuisine is characterized by the wide variety and incredible freshness of its traditional ingredients.

Authentic Catalan cooking, harkening back to its medieval roots, relies on unique combinations of ingredients and flavors. Spices or chocolate may be added to savory dishes, duck or chicken is often cooked with fruit. Rice dishes are made with seafood, chicken, rabbit, or even snails. Seafood is used frequently in Catalan cooking, starring in dishes such as Suquet, a Catalan bouillabaisse, and Mar i muntanya (sea and mountain), pairing lobster or prawns with chicken or rabbit. A traditional dish of the Empordà region, Es niu (the nest), pulls together doves or quail, cod tripe, dried fish, cuttlefish, sausage or meatballs, and occasionally rabbit.

7 Days/6 Nights

Day One
Arrival at your charming village hotel. Tapas and cava (Catalan sparkling wine) will be served before dinner, and you’ll meet Vicenç, your instructor for the week. Vicenç will make a dinner consisting of a specially designed menu of regional in-season specialties, featuring dishes such as Coca (a Catalan type of pizza) topped with Minorcan sheep’s milk cheese, roasted vegetables, and anchovies from L’Escala, Squid with artichokes and green beans, or Grilled duck breast with a raspberry and redcurrant sauce, followed by, perhaps, Crema catalana and a local sweet wine, Garnatxa d’Empordà.

Day Two
After breakfast we explore two medieval villages of the region. We visit a local cheesemaker and then venture to a small coastal town on one of the most famed stretches of Catalonia’s exquisite Costa Brava (wild coast). We have a splendid lunch in a famed restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean. After a walk along the camí de ronda (seaside path) or a stroll along the beach, we return to the hotel for a rest or a swim in the outdoor pool. In the evening we have our first cooking class and a tour-of-Spain wine tasting session led by Mònica. the sommelier.

Day Three
Today’s cooking lesson will take place in Palafrugell in the home of an outstanding local cook, Conxa. After shopping together at the daily outdoor market for ingredients, Conxa will share secrets of Catalan home cooking. In this hands-on class you prepare dishes such as Faves a la catalana (Catalan style beans), Esqueixada (salt cod salad), Mar i muntanya (sea and mountain), or Canalons (cannelloni). A fish auction takes place that afternoon in the port town of Palamós as the fishing boats unload their catch. We return to the hotel to rest. Dinner in a traditional Catalan restaurant in Ullastret, a nearby medieval village.

Day Four
Today you will visit Girona’s fantastic food market with Jaume, the owner of the hotel and a renowned chef of the Empordà, buying the ingredients for your cooking class at the hotel. Dishes prepared will vary according to the season. Cook a four-course lunch with paired wines. The remainder of the day is free to take a walk or a bicycle ride (many pleasant routes in the area, bicycles provided), lounge by the pool, or explore the region. Dinner on your own.

Day Five
Today your cooking class will focus on preparing Catalan-style fish and seafood soups, stews, and rice dishes. After a luxurious lunch and a very Spanish siesta, or a leisurely paseo, you are free to visit Girona with its medieval call (Jewish Quarter), Figueres with its Dalí Museum, or simply explore the inland or costal villages of the area. Dinner at the hotel.

Day Six
The Empordà Denominación de origen wineries have experienced a quiet revolution of late, experimenting with a host of grape varieties and modernizing their methods. We will tour two wineries in the area. After lunch we will visit an olive oil mill and taste their wares. That evening the hotel’s chef will show us how to make a variety of tapas. A tapas dinner at the hotel with local wines and cava brings our gastronomic week to a delightful close.

Day Seven
Breakfast in the hotel, followed by departure. Transfers to Girona provided.

What We Include:

• Accommodation for 6 nights
• Daily breakfast
• 5 lunches and 5 dinners with wine
• 4 cooking classes
• 1 cooking demonstration
• English-speaking guide and cooking instructors
• Winery visits and tastings
• Visit to artisan cheese producer
• Olive oil mill tour and tasting
• Transport for group excursions
• Restaurant gratuities

Not Included:

• Airfare to/from Spain
• Meals not specified
• Car rental, if chosen
• Accident/baggage/trip cancellation insurance
• Gratuities to guides
• Personal expenses and excursions

Pricing:

• $3395 for 4+
• $3050 for 6+
• $495 single supplement

Upcoming Dates:

• June 29-July 4 (6 days–5 nights)
• September 7-13
• October 19-25
• October 26-November 1
• Other dates may be available. Please call or email for information.

Reservation

Please fill out the form below to reserve your tour. Or, if you prefer, call us toll-free at 866-642-2917 to make a reservation. All reservations are subject to our Terms and Conditions.

A deposit of $500 per person is required at the time of booking. We will confirm your reservation upon receipt of the reservation form and the deposit. For reservations made less than 60 days before the program begin date, full payment is due with the reservation form.

We strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance to protect your travel investment. Epicurean Ways offers our travelers AIG Travel Guard travel insurance. See our Travel Guard ProtectAssist Gold (pdf) or Essential Expanded Silver plan brochures (pdf).

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.