When Colin and Jenoa Matthes left their home state of Utah to embark on a world tour in 2019, they were drawn to the culinary scenes in places like France and Italy.
“We particularly loved the food in all those other countries. . . and how local and specialized they were in other regions. . . It’s not something we get as much in the U. S. where we’re from, where it’s more than a collection of cuisines from around the world,” Colin Matthes told CNBC via video call.
Last year, the couple created a company called Stay Awhile, which organizes trips “designed around food,” according to the company’s website.
Bologna, Italy, Stay Awhile’s first destination, where visitors took part in a month-long tasting trip and remote paintings, observing the local mortadella sausage, tasting almond and pistachio slushies (a type of sorbet) and dining on the original tagliatelle al ragout, a pasta served with a classic beef sauce and red meats.
Stay Awhile’s next prevention is a 10-day French pastry shop to Paris in June 2023, where visitors will be briefed on how to make desserts and pastries ranging from opera cake, a layered cake with coffee and chocolate, to vintage croissant, which comes to a fairly elaborate process.
While there are likely to be bakeries and department stores in each and every corner of Paris, it can be tricky to find original recipes for making cakes at home, said Matthes, who is also an amateur baker. They have been adjusted and perhaps simplified and ordered. . . I don’t feel like it fits into a genuine French éclair recipe, for example,” he told CNBC.
For consumers to cook authentically, Stay Awhile hired pastry chef Jennifer Pogmore, trained at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris. Pogmore will instruct participants from an apartment with a giant kitchen in the city’s 11th arrondissement, a domain known for its restaurants, bars and opera.
In addition to how to make French classics, the itinerary includes a day of wine tasting in Champagne as well as a guided tour of the Parisian district of Marais for patrons of specialties such as cheeses, cold cuts and chocolates.
There’s plenty of time for other people to explore the city, too. Matthes visited the Brasserie Bellanger for classical French majors and the Poilane family bakery for “probably the most productive croissant in all of Paris. “
Stay Awhile’s Paris pastry tour starts at $5,400 based on regular flights. The couple planned elegant Italian cuisine in a villa in Tuscany and a gastronomic dinner in the Spanish Basque Country, known for its small dishes called pintxos.
“The main goal is for other people to Array. . . have those deep reports on food and cooking, and especially on local and regional cuisine,” Matthes told CNBC.
Pintxos are a staple in San Sebastian, one of the most popular places for foodies in the Spanish Basque Country. The city is a center of attention in northern Spain for luxury tour operator SmoothRed. It organises wine and gastronomy tailored to the region, with sales manager Adam Stebbings recommending flying to Bilbao and then finding the cuisine of San Sebastian and the vineyards of La Rioja.
“The. . . triangle Bilbao-San Sebastian with La Rioja is very popular. It’s not just about taking an oenological tour. . . it’s a gastronomic getaway,” Stebbings told CNBC by phone.
Four days can come with two nights at Hotel Marqués de Riscal, a luxury spa hotel in Rioja, with an eight-course meal at its Michelin-starred restaurant, followed by an overnight stay at the five-star Maria Cristina hotel in San Sebastian and dinner at the Casa Julian steakhouse in Tolosa. Prices start at £2,289 ($2,650) according to the same, adding transfers but not flights.
For pintxos, Stebbings Borda Berri and MendaurBerria, two small bars in the old town of San Sebastian. 50 Smarter Places to Eat by 2021, Stebbings said.
Interest in food is growing, Stebbings said. Sales have increased 60% year-over-year since 2019, though some of that backlog is due to delayed bookings from 2020, he said. The French regions of Burgundy and champagne are very popular, he said.
Customers stay longer and load more excursions, Stebbings said. On an excursion to the French region of Languedoc-Roussillon, travelers can take a boat to an oyster farm off the coast of Montpellier. If you’re in Tuscany, you can simply charge an electric scooter tour from one or two vineyards.
Tuscany is well known for cities like Florence and Siena, both of which are close to Borgo San Vincenzo, a new luxury boutique hotel named after viticulture’s patron saint.
The hotel encourages travelers to think outdoors and revel in the region in a more original way, through olive oil tastings from small manufacturers and a cheese-making demonstration at a nearby farm.
Truffle hunting near the historic town of Montalcino and culinary elegance at a thirteenth-century castle with local chefs are popular, according to a hotel representative, while an electric motorcycle tour to the patron Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a local wine, is also a hit with visitors this year.
This fall, Borgo San Vincenzo will launch winemaker’s dinners, with one of the manufacturers’ personal tastings. the nearby Icario vineyard.
Pairings can come with pumpkin, leek and almond lasagna with Icario Trebbiano 2021, white wine or highly spiced shrimp with pioppini with Icario Nysa Rose 2021.
Local ingredients are found in the centre of Daylesford Cooking School, a biological farm and luxury estate in the Cotswolds, a picturesque spot noted for its rolling landscape and honey-coloured stone building villages.
The school’s half-day and full-day categories – ranging from artisanal baking to butchery – allow consumers to take their sights on the region.
Participants can also sleep on the farm in one of their cottages, changed from the original nineteenth-century farm, or they can do so in Kingham, a nearby village where Daylesford has cottages, as well as The Wild Rabbit, a pub with accommodation.
Daylesford also has a farm shop, an antique and lawn center, a wine shop and restaurants, as well as a spa and a variety of biological skincare products.
But despite expanding over the past 20 years, Daylesford remains an organic farm “in essence,” according to chef James Devonshire, who oversees his cooking school.
He “grows or grows a massive amount of various ingredients,” he told CNBC by phone. Travelers would possibly find a double Gloucester cheese produced in their dairy or a box of heirloom tomatoes grown in the garden.
“We use the grass as much as physically possible throughout the year,” Devonshire said, adding that the grass is not open to the public.
People choose the produce for its garden elegance, with recipes recently adding beef tenderloin with potatoes, capers and arugula and onion bhaji with roasted cauliflower.
Classes are held in a high-ceilinged stone barn, and some of the most popular categories include sofa preparation, a seasonal dinner class, and a summer course on fish frying and grilling.
While Daylesford’s and restaurants can be busy, cooking school is quieter, Devonshire said.
“It’s like a little oasis,” he said.
Do you have a confidential news tip? We to hear from you.
Sign up for loose newsletters and get more CNBC in your inbox
Get this in your inbox and more information about our and services.
© 2022 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A department of NBCUniversal
Data is a real-time snapshot * Data is behind by at least 15 minutes. Global trade and monetary news, inventory quotes and market knowledge and analysis.
Data also by