Epicurean Ways Blog

Catalonia Epicurean Trip

2011-08-16T14:24:00Z

In that corner of northern Spain between Barcelona and the border with France–Catalunya’s Girona province–autumn brings warm sunny days and the feeling that the towns and beaches are reserved for you alone. The grape harvest is in, the olives are ripening on the trees waiting for their late fall or early winter harvest, and there is a stillness that puts a person’s soul at ease. It is an ideal time for a cooking holiday in a small medieval village halfway between the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea and the city of Girona.

Our annual Gourmet Emporda trip in October will introduce you to this beautiful and seemingly remote region of Spain. We will spend 6 days cooking with a professional chef, eating traditional Catalan cuisine and trying the wines at a winery near the Pyrenees, walking along the stunning Costa Brava before enjoying a fresh seafood lunch overlooking the Mediterranean, visiting an artisanal goat cheese maker, eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and learning to cook traditional Catalan dishes. The hotel, forged from a series of 15th century buildings, has an elegant restaurant run by your chef-instructor, and an outdoor terrace for breakfast and late night Gin and Tonics–the drink in Spain. Our base is a medieval village halfway between Girona–known as “little Barcelona"–and the stunning Mediterranean coast.

The trip is part cooking retreat, part food and wine adventure, escorted by a food and wine specialist guide. Join us October 21 - 26 for an insider’s experience in this little known part of northern Spain.

Gourmet Emporda

Extraordinary Women of Spain: Chefs and Winemakers Across the Iberian Peninsula

2011-07-30T00:09:01Z

What’s cooking in the world of wine and food in Spain? The big news this week is that El Bulli–the world’s most famous restaurant–in Roses, Spain is closing its doors this weekend. An enormous loss to food lovers around the world, but it doesn’t mean that Spain is left without a decent place to get a meal. The well known Michelin stars–Arzak, Mugaritz, Ruscalleda, and others–remain. And an array of non-Michelin starred restaurants as well.

We’ve noticed a rising tide of female chefs and winemakers in Spain, some new and some who have been creating food, from traditional to avant-garde, and wines in wineries from the Priorat and the Rioja to Txakoli and Ribera del Duero, for decades. Epicurean Ways and Epicopia Culinary Journeys have visited these chefs and winemakers and together we’ve created two trips showcasing Spanish women creating outstanding food and wine.

Extraordinary Women of Spain will debut in 2012 with two trips. The first trip travels to Catalunya, spending time in Barcelona, and the Penedes, and then moves to La Rioja and San Sebastián in the Basque Country. Planned for June, 2012. The second trip, in October, 2012, starts in Catalonia, and travels down the Mediterranean to the Penedes, Priorat, Valencia and Alicante, home to a bevy of award-winning Spanish women cooking.

Some of the chefs we visit and cook with are famous; others are not, but are amazing chefs. The winemakers include world-renowned masters of the craft as well as passionate owners of small wineries.

We have designed the trips for women, about women. Our guide in Spain is a specialist in the food, wine, art and architecture of the country, and is the go-to person for the international press on matters gastronomic. And she is, of course, a woman.

We would love to have you join us, with a friend.

Wine Blogger’s Conference 2011

2011-07-27T19:00:01Z

The 2011 Wine Blogger’s Conference in Charlottesville this past weekend featured over 300 American and Canadian wine bloggers, speakers Eric Asimov and Jancis Robinson, and daunting amounts of wine from the US, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Chile. (Revelation: They make wine in Texas!) Met some fascinating wine makers/sellers/writers who braved the oppressive Southern heat and humidity to taste, and then blog and Twitter about it all. Quite the weekend.

Spanish Food Wine Travel Daily

2011-07-25T17:01:00Z

Our new Spain Food Wine Travel Daily paper delivered to your inbox or Twitter feed. Check it out.

Chef Norman Van Aken’s Dream Trip

2011-04-19T21:58:01Z

Chef Norman Van Aken:

I’d take my wife and son to La Boqueria Market in Spain. My wife and I have been, but we have been promising our son Justin that we’d take him for a few years now. He’s a chef and his excitement for amazing produce and all forms of food would be as engaged as ours were when we went for the first time. As a father, it’s one of those things I’d like to give my son. We’d start with the legendary Pinotxo tapas bar and then just go!

Apple Cider from Spain

2010-12-08T02:10:00Z

Does anyone associate Spain with quality hard apple cider? More often Spain brings to mind red wine, Sherry, and perhaps Estrella beer. Little known is the fact that northern Spain produces outstanding hard cider, traditionally made in Atlantic Spain–the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias. Snooth reviews a couple of them, ranking them alongside French and American hard ciders.

Andalucía Rising

2010-12-07T17:23:01Z

People often ask me which are the most popular culinary destinations in Spain. The answer is the Basque Country and Barcelona and environs. Those regions attract the lion’s share of visitors from abroad because they have been in the culinary spotlight for decades, with the Basque chefs beginning the Spanish culinary revitalization in the 1970s, and receiving multiple Michelin stars along the way, and the Catalans tirelessly promoting their culinary heritage and being home to one of the the world’s most famous chefs– Ferrán Adrià.

In Andalucía, however, the story is slightly different. Think Andalucía and you think monuments like the Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita in Córdoba, or you think flamenco, beaches, and possibly Sherry. It’s an image problem, as many Spaniards and even more foodies familiar with Andalucía will attest: the best tapas are found in Andalucía, and some of the freshest seafood and local produce, and tastiest locally raised beef and pork, wild game and fowl are used in the South. The ingredients used are stellar. Some of the Iberian Peninsula’s most intriguing recipes–many with Moorish inflections–come from Andalucía.

World’s Best Airport Architecture

2010-12-05T20:50:00Z

Contemporary architecture in Spain, especially in the Basque Country, Barcelona and Madrid, when coupled with food and wine tours, makes for a compelling reason to visit this country of extreme contrasts between new and old, modern and traditional. Not only does the cuisine exhibit both tendencies, albeit thankfully not on the same plate; the architecture displays this visual contrast, at times within a single line of vision. Stay at Frank Gehry designed Marqués de Riscal Hotel in La Rioja and the view from your angled hotel room window is of a medieval Spanish village, soothing in in monochrome stone.

Madrid’s Barajas Airport Terminal 4 and Bilbao’s airport–La Paloma– are both featured on SkyScanner’s list of the World’s Best Airport Architecture.

Madrid’s Terminal 4 and 4S, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, opened in 2006. In 2008 it won the Best Airport in the Condé Nast Traveller Reader Awards. I have to say that I route myself and clients through Madrid whenever possible for visually exciting layovers in T4.

If you go to the Basque Country, you will likely fly via Bilbao. The airport was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava–architect of Valencia’s futuristic City of Arts and Sciences and of Ysios Winery in the Rioja wine region. Done in white and resembling a bird aloft, the airport makes for an appropriate entrance to the city that is home to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum.

Wines Worth Cellaring

2010-11-19T19:38:01Z

Snooth’s Gregory Dal Piaz recommends Spanish wines made from the little known Mencia grape as affordable wines that will benefit from time in the bottle. Look for wines from Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras–two DOs in Galicia that use the Mencia grape.

Explore the Towns Near Madrid

2010-11-11T19:16:01Z

There are things to do and see, and food to try, outside of Madrid. And the good news is that these towns are easily accessible by Spain’s train system. Segovia, Ávila, Toldeo and little known Aranjuez make for lovely day trips from Madrid.

Segovia is best known for its intact Roman acqueduct spanning town and for Cochinillo at Cándido’s, where the baby roast suckling pig is cut with a plate, demonstrating its tenderness. Ávila is a medieval walled city, typically Castilian in flavor; Toledo was the center of Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultures, and is home to one of the best restaurants in Spain; Aranjuez is the site of Spanish Royalty’s summer palace and the place to be in May for fresh strawberries. And some awesome cuisine at the hands of contemporary chefs.

We love visiting these towns when we’re in Madrid. Let us help you plan some days out, on your own or with one of our private food and wine guides.

Read about the towns near Madrid worth exploring.

How many bars in Spain?

2010-11-09T16:04:00Z

Spain has over 300,000 bars and restaurants, according to a recent report, which equates to approximately 150 people to each bar. The region with the most bars is Andalusia, with 53,046 bars.

In Spain, you are never far from refreshment. A few things to keep in mind regarding these numbers: People in Spain frequent bars for everything from a morning café con leche to tapas with friends to late-night cocktails. Bars are social gathering spots, day and night, and patrons may drink beer, wine, liquor, coffee, soda or water. Children accompany parents, groups of friends gather, individuals stop in for a quick plate of tapas or bocadillo (sandwich).

Bars are great places to stop when thirsty, hungry, tired or to make a phone call or read the paper. Much of Spanish life is lived on the streets, and bars form an integral part of street life. So, when in Spain, live as the Spaniards do. Stop in at a bar and try the coffee–usually excellent–or a caña (beer) and a plate of olives or boquerones.

Source: Damian Corrigan at About.com

La Vida Tapa

2010-10-26T00:37:00Z

Ferrán Adrià muses on tapas and life: “Para nosotros la vida tapa es un concepto global que une la gastronomía a una forma de entender la vida. Una forma divertida de comer que convierte a quien participa en intérprete de una obra de teatro, de una revista de coristas, de un vodevil circense, en protagonista de un entremés cantado. Una puesta en escena de la vida misma. En la vida tapa no hay lugar para el aburrimiento, para la tristeza y la soledad, lo hay para las risas, la complicidad y las buenas compañías”

Read about Ferrán and Albert Adrià’s new tapas bar in Barcelona. Named Tickets, it is slated to open 11-1-11

Eat, Pray, Love Style of Travel

2010-08-17T03:12:00Z

Many women are traveling alone, something we knew long before the release of the film version of Eat, Pray, Love. In fact, more women than men are traveling on their own. So don’t hesitate to call us to book cooking classes, a walking tour through the winding streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, or a private wine tour in La Rioja or the Priorat. In the company of our guides for at least some of your time in Spain, you will see the food, wine and places through the eyes of a local. Some travelers have even told us that they feel they’ve gained a friend after spending a few days with our guides. CNN reports on the trend.

Stunning Spain Photos

2010-08-11T14:11:00Z

Stunning Spain photos. Sorry, no food shots, but take a look anyway.

Cheese in Spain

2010-08-01T20:11:00Z

Spain has become the culinary star of Europe in the past decade, the destination of choice for an ever growing army of chefs, restaurateurs and foodies, who have become increasingly enamored of the country’s top modern restaurants and in the process have the discovered the greatness of Spanish regional cuisine and wines.

Less well known, but growing exponentially in popularity are Spanish artisanal cheeses, of which there is a broad array ranging from the spectacular vegetable rennet tortas del Casar and de la Serena (sheeps’ milk) from Extremadura to sublime Monte Enebro (goat’s milk), made by a single producer in Ávila, to Valdeón, one of the world’s great blue cheeses (cow’s and mixed milk), to the most famous of Spanish cheeses, Manchego. Catalunya produces several exceptional cheeses, the most famous of which is Garrotxa. Galicia makes several delicious cow’s milk cheeses--Tetilla, San Simón and Arzua-Ulloa. Navarra produces the ewe’s milk cheese Roncal in several Pyrenean villages and the Basque Country is famous for Idiazábal, another distinguished sheep’s milk cheese. Andalucía has an increasing number of wonderful ewe’s milk cheeses such as Payayo and and goat’s milk cheeses from Ronda and Grazalema. Add to this Asturias, known as the Parque Nacional de Quesos (Spain’s National Park of Cheeses), where exceptional cheeses such as La Peral, Cabrales, Gamonedo, Beyos, Afuega ‘L Pitu and Peñamellera are made, and cheese lovers have a new whole world to discover.

–Gerry Dawes
See “Cabrales and Beyond” by Gerry Dawes in Culture: The Word on Cheese, Summer 2010