On our culinary vacations you will have:
-Personnalised attention
-An english speaking guide
-Transfers from and to the airport
-All transfers during the trip
-Top Chefs for your cooking classes
-Luxuous accomodation
-The freshest products in the elaboration of the menus
-A great selection of restaurants
-A fantastic selection of Catalan and Spanish wines
-No obligation to cook, you can just watch and enjoy the menu
-Classes in English
-Flexibility of the team
-Changes on the schedule if required
Our team
Some History of Catalan Gastronomy:
Catalan cuisine has had many influences, from the first Greec settlement in Ampurias, who tought the Iberians how to make wine, to the Romans, with their sensitivity for balancing the flavours, and their healthyness, but also the Arabics and the Juews have been an important step in Catalan Cuisine’s History. In the last centuries the major influence comes from French cuisine, which has helped the Catalan Chefs to be more subtile and fine in the presentation, adapting the Tasting Menus on their own way, adding their mediterranean art and originality.
Catalan cuisine, and specially Emporda and Girona cuisine, by its situation between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea, uses from both the countryside and the sea its basic ingredients. It even sometimes mixes sweet and salty, like adding fruit in a meat dish, or dried fruit (fruits secs) in a stew.
The biggest secret of Emporda Cuisine is the use of high-quality local produce: rice from around the village of Pals, with a quality that makes it the basic element of a multitude of dishes; prawns from Palamós; fish from the Costa Brava, like the ganxó blue fish, served alone or garnished; the vegetables used fresh- raw or cooked in salads, casseroles and stews.
Summary of products: The ‘angel-hair’ escarole and the white-eyed bean are typical products of the Empordà which, for various reasons, had once ceased to be grown. Now a group of market gardeners of the Empordà have begun to revive their use and they can be enjoyed at the restaurants.
Other typical products of our land, as the traditional local produce with a long history of use and preparation, are: the home-made pastries called bunyols, the cottage cheese and cream cheese that help to make up excellent salads and desserts; and sauces and preparations like sofregits, picades, alli oli. (basic sauces)
Our cuisine remains alive not only through the force of tradition but also the energy of its experimentation and the creation of new dishes.
These, then, are the origins of our best-known dishes: grilled vegetables, salads, stuffed apples, fricando, roast meats, cuttlefish with peas, fish stews, rice dishes, chicken with Dublin Bay prawns, creams, and much more.
We have been researching for a while in the region of Provence, in France, and we have finally made the decision to also organize culinary vacations there, as we have found Chefs and people who still keep the authentic roots of this unique French Region. I was born in Paris and I have lived some time in Aix-en-Provence, so I already knew the region.
Please visit our new site: www.provencecookingtours.com
Recepie sample:
Emporda Rice (North Catalonia rice recepie)
INGREDIENTS:
4 persons
400 g. rice
200 g. squid rings
150 g. pork
4 sausages
¼ chicken
4 prawns
4 onions
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
2 artichokes
60 g. peas
2 litres fish stock
Oil
Salt
Parley
Garlic
PREPARATION:
Place an iron casserole dish on the stove, add oil and fry the chicken, pork and sausages until golden brown then remove from the casserole dish.
Cook the onion until it is dark brown. Add a small amount of water every now and again to help the onion caramelise and create a jam texture. Stir constantly.
Once the onion is the right colour, add the previously diced green peppers and a few cloves of garlic (whole). Once all this is dark in colour, add a small amount of fresh grated tomato.
Add the diced squid and artichokes and stir constantly for 15 minutes. Add a few drops of water to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn.
Add the rice to the casserole dish and stir in with the onion and squid, then add the fish stock and previously cooked meat. Leave to cook for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the casserole dish. Add salt and leave for 16 minutes. Then remove from stove and let the rice cook using the residual heat of the iron casserole dish (this will ensure the rice doesn’t overcook).
-Personnalised attention
-An english speaking guide
-Transfers from and to the airport
-All transfers during the trip
-Top Chefs for your cooking classes
-Luxuous accomodation
-The freshest products in the elaboration of the menus
-A great selection of restaurants
-A fantastic selection of Catalan and Spanish wines
-No obligation to cook, you can just watch and enjoy the menu
-Classes in English
-Flexibility of the team
-Changes on the schedule if required
Our team
Some History of Catalan Gastronomy:
Catalan cuisine has had many influences, from the first Greec settlement in Ampurias, who tought the Iberians how to make wine, to the Romans, with their sensitivity for balancing the flavours, and their healthyness, but also the Arabics and the Juews have been an important step in Catalan Cuisine’s History. In the last centuries the major influence comes from French cuisine, which has helped the Catalan Chefs to be more subtile and fine in the presentation, adapting the Tasting Menus on their own way, adding their mediterranean art and originality.
Catalan cuisine, and specially Emporda and Girona cuisine, by its situation between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea, uses from both the countryside and the sea its basic ingredients. It even sometimes mixes sweet and salty, like adding fruit in a meat dish, or dried fruit (fruits secs) in a stew.
The biggest secret of Emporda Cuisine is the use of high-quality local produce: rice from around the village of Pals, with a quality that makes it the basic element of a multitude of dishes; prawns from Palamós; fish from the Costa Brava, like the ganxó blue fish, served alone or garnished; the vegetables used fresh- raw or cooked in salads, casseroles and stews.
Summary of products: The ‘angel-hair’ escarole and the white-eyed bean are typical products of the Empordà which, for various reasons, had once ceased to be grown. Now a group of market gardeners of the Empordà have begun to revive their use and they can be enjoyed at the restaurants.
Other typical products of our land, as the traditional local produce with a long history of use and preparation, are: the home-made pastries called bunyols, the cottage cheese and cream cheese that help to make up excellent salads and desserts; and sauces and preparations like sofregits, picades, alli oli. (basic sauces)
Our cuisine remains alive not only through the force of tradition but also the energy of its experimentation and the creation of new dishes.
These, then, are the origins of our best-known dishes: grilled vegetables, salads, stuffed apples, fricando, roast meats, cuttlefish with peas, fish stews, rice dishes, chicken with Dublin Bay prawns, creams, and much more.
We have been researching for a while in the region of Provence, in France, and we have finally made the decision to also organize culinary vacations there, as we have found Chefs and people who still keep the authentic roots of this unique French Region. I was born in Paris and I have lived some time in Aix-en-Provence, so I already knew the region.
Please visit our new site: www.provencecookingtours.com
Recepie sample:
Emporda Rice (North Catalonia rice recepie)
INGREDIENTS:
4 persons
400 g. rice
200 g. squid rings
150 g. pork
4 sausages
¼ chicken
4 prawns
4 onions
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
2 artichokes
60 g. peas
2 litres fish stock
Oil
Salt
Parley
Garlic
PREPARATION:
Place an iron casserole dish on the stove, add oil and fry the chicken, pork and sausages until golden brown then remove from the casserole dish.
Cook the onion until it is dark brown. Add a small amount of water every now and again to help the onion caramelise and create a jam texture. Stir constantly.
Once the onion is the right colour, add the previously diced green peppers and a few cloves of garlic (whole). Once all this is dark in colour, add a small amount of fresh grated tomato.
Add the diced squid and artichokes and stir constantly for 15 minutes. Add a few drops of water to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn.
Add the rice to the casserole dish and stir in with the onion and squid, then add the fish stock and previously cooked meat. Leave to cook for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the casserole dish. Add salt and leave for 16 minutes. Then remove from stove and let the rice cook using the residual heat of the iron casserole dish (this will ensure the rice doesn’t overcook).
Culinary Vacations in Spain.
SPAIN tASTE
ABOUT US Culinary Vacations and Cooking Holidays and in Catalonia, Spain.
Your guide and driver will be Yvan Vinals, who started Spain taste a few years ago, with his wife who is a wine specialist. He has been following all the great Chefs of Catalonia, starting of course by Ferran Adria.
It is actually the extreme generosity of Ferran in his sharing of knowledge that first attracted Yvan. He then studied the history of Catalan gastronomy and met young Chefs who also come from traditional cuisine but that give a personal touch to the old recepies. Through meeting these chefs, Yvan wanted to share the magic that these Chefs give their commensals, and decided to organize culinary vacations in Catalonia.
Yvan and his wife would like to share their culinary discoveries with you in a way that you would keep these memories forever.
Our
main Chef Vicenc Fajardo has lived a part of his childhood in
Australia, where he started his cuisine studies. Then he continued in
the Sant Narcis Cooking School of Girona. He has worked in many
important restaurants like La Cuina de Can Pipes and now runs the
Restaurant La Placa, in Madremanya, near Girona, with his wife who is
the sommelier Monica. He will give you his knowledge on the Catalan
culture and gastronomy in a perfect english in his own kitchen.
08470 Barcelona / Email: info@spaintaste.com
/ Tel.: (+34) 93 847 51 15
© 2005 Spain Taste All Rights Reserved
One review
from P. and V. from South Africa:
P. and I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the most wonderful week. It was perfect in every way, the visits to meet interesting and friendly people, the accommodation, the sight-seeing and of course the eating!
We re-visited everywhere that you took us to and with Jaume and Vincenc's help, we had another week of incredible food and sights. In three weeks we did not have one disapointing meal.
Then too, we have to thank your wife for organising the hotel in Barcelona, the Ciutat, it was very good, well-positioned good rooms and friendly, helpful staff.
We arrived back home on Thursday and we have been singing your praises ever since.
P. and I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the most wonderful week. It was perfect in every way, the visits to meet interesting and friendly people, the accommodation, the sight-seeing and of course the eating!
We re-visited everywhere that you took us to and with Jaume and Vincenc's help, we had another week of incredible food and sights. In three weeks we did not have one disapointing meal.
Then too, we have to thank your wife for organising the hotel in Barcelona, the Ciutat, it was very good, well-positioned good rooms and friendly, helpful staff.
We arrived back home on Thursday and we have been singing your praises ever since.