Culinary Capers

Flavors of Spain
About the cooking lessons:
Each cooking class will include hands on opportunities and will address the traditions and cultural aspect of the various regions.

La Rioja and Galicia
4 Hands on cooking lessons
8 days/7nights

Tour  dates see Tour Calendar

The cuisine of La Rioja is rich and abundant and like the region itself, has its own personality. We must single out such dishes as potatoes with chorizo sausage, stuffed peppers, and Rioja style roast lamb. Of ultimate importance, however are the wines that are produced in this region. La Rioja produces wines of three colors and three distinct flavors; dark reds tintos, light reds clarets and golden yellows blancos. Our culinary capers will teach you the importance of the wine and dining experience as well as hands on cooking lessons with some very well known chefs of the Rioja.

Itinerary

Day 1
Arrive at Barajas airport in Madrid. We board our coach and travel North to the Rioja to the tiny town of Albelda de Iregua where you will spend the next 4 days learning about the regions fine cuisine and experiencing cooking first hand.

Day 2
This afternoon we put on aprons and participate in a cooking class with well known Rioja Chef Oscar Dominguez Fuentes and prepare regional delicacies such as patatas a la riojana, bacalao en salsa, pimientos rellenos, and peras al vino.

Day 3
Today is a major wine tasting day, with visits to 2 famous estates; one historic, one modern. The first special winery visit is to Marques de Murrieta (beautiful, historic estate complete with castle). The next winery visit is planned for the lovely modern cellars of Finca Valpiedra. Next stop, the medieval hilltop town of Laguardia where we stop at a local wine shop for an explanation of the different kinds of highly acclaimed Spanish wines.

Day 4
We visit the pretty village of Olite, a town famous for its fairy tale castle and its wine. We’ll climb the ramparts and turrets of the castle, and enjoy an aperitif in a 14th century converted monastery. We are back in the kitchen with Chef Oscar where today we prepare tapas for this evenings’ dinner.

Day 5
Departure to Galicia. We’ll stop in a pulperia, where the delicacy of the house is cooked up right before your very eyes. We arrive at our 300 year manor old house tucked away in the forests of Touro, where we will visit the kitchen and prepare some of Spain’s favorite desserts.

Day 6
In this small town, the art of making cheese is known all over Spain. This morning we visit the colorful Market Place in Santiago,Plaza de Abastos. Be sure to stay out of the way of the Señoras who are there to buy their daily bread, fish and meat! We visit the queseriawhere cheese is still made today as it was 1,000 years ago.

Day 7
A day to catch up on sight seeing and shopping in the celebrated city of Santiago de Compostella. At our farewell dinner is tonight, we’ll relive the highlights of our culinary capers!

Day 8
Departures  from Santiago