Cooking and food holidays in the Mediterranean

Small group or tailor made

Cooking and food holidays can be either small group tours which depart on set dates, or tailor made itineraries allowing you to travel at any time of year. On small group food holidays, you’ll trypically travel with around eight to 12 fellow foodies, along with expert guides, spending between six days and two weeks on the road. That said, some food holidays re super flexible and can run with just two people, making them ideal for couples of a small group of friends. Other tours are tailor made, and last from four days up to two weeks, though you’ll have the flexibility to tweak your itinerary as you please, including upgrades to accommodation and transport.

Whichever way you choose to go your holiday will be as varied as it is delicious with typical itineraries including visits to restaurants, cafes and vineyards, taking hands on cooking lessons or eating traditional meals in local homes. You could be centre based, spending your entire visit at the same hotel or guesthouse and going on excursions, tastings and taking cooking lessons during the day, or go point-to-point, moving on to a new destination every day or so, allowing you to soak up the energy, culture and cuisine in several different cities or regions.

Wine tours

It goes without saying that wine plays a big part in our food and cooking holidays, whether that’s choosing the perfect pairings for your meals or getting to know the grape in greater depth. Some trips will have a full-on wine focus, with the bulk of your time spent touring vineyards and wineries as well as meeting the producers themselves. Others will build in an afternoon or two of wine tasting along with other foodie pursuits. Either way, you’ll brush up on your history and practical knowledge as well as improving your palate and getting a few extra bottles for your wine collection, too.

Vegetarian and vegan holidays

For some people a food holiday in the Mediterranean wouldn’t be complete without a hearty dose of Iberico ham, oozing French cheeses or fresh seafood, but our operators can cater for vegetarians and vegans, too. You could learn the secrets of Mediterranean vegan cooking in Greece; or spend a week indulging in wine and vegetarian cooking in Portugal.

Spain

Spain’s sunny climes, lush hills, forests and oceans produce excellent fish, fruit, vegetables, olive oil, and free-range meat – often organic, frequently local, and all cooked to absolute perfection. Fish here is excellent. Andalucíans are famous for their pescaito frito (fried fish) but this is also the heartland of Iberico ham. You can get paella just about anywhere in Spain, but if you’re looking for authenticity then head to its true homeland – Valencia.

You’ll find tapas that are a world away from the often lame offerings found outside of Spain. Simple and varied, typical tapas includes olives, tortilla de patatas, croquetas, sardines and a huge array of cheeses and cold meats. In less touristy areas, you’ll still get tapas as they were intended: free of charge with your drink.

Turkey

Skip tourist menus and dodgy kebabs and instead chow on real local cuisine at simple diners (lokantas), içkili restoran (licensed restaurants) and taverns (meyhane), or amid the fire and smoke of street stalls, and you'll discover a vibrant culinary tradition. Turkey is justly famous for its meze, which you’ll find throughout its Mediterranean region. Well loved dishes include patl?can salatas? (aubergine mash), sigara böre?i (cigar shaped cheese pastries), and imam bay?ld? (aubergine stuffed with onions and tomatoes).

Grilled meat is found everywhere and usually served simply with flatbread and some kind of salad. Arab influenced adana kebap, and ?skender kebap, which comes with a hefty dollop of tomato sauce and yoghurt, are highlights. Vine leaves stuffed with rice and spices, sarma, are popular as is Lahmacun: flat break baked with ground meat, tomato, peppers and onion. This being the Mediterranean the seafood is almost as dazzling as the coastline, with sardalya (grilled sardines) and sar?göz (black bream) both great value and delicious. Try the wine, too, and meet small local producers.