What is a Culinary Tour? The Best Way to Connect to a Place

Has your inner travel bug been whispering to you? "Let's go on an adventure!" it might say, or "We haven't been to that place yet." Oh, that voice in our heads that drives us to explore the greater world around us.  At Access Culinary Trips, we love to view travel through a culinary lens: tasting, smelling and cooking the foods that define so many cultures. Some might say that breaking bread in a foreign place is the best way to truly experience what it means to live there, and we'd have to agree.Perhaps you've toured with us, or maybe food is something you always keep an eye on when you travel. It's possible though that you're here to learn what exactly a culinary tour is. Let's take a look at what culinary tourism encompasses and some of the reasons we think you should try it.

Not Just Paris

While many of us are familiar with famous European cities like Paris offering French cooing classes (and there is nothing wrong with that), it's important to note that culinary tours encompass a much larger focus than just European cuisines. Asia, Central and South America, and Africa each offer unique culinary perspectives worth exploring. At Access Culinary Trips, we visit Cuba, Peru, Vietnam, Morocco, Thailand, and more.

What is a culinary tour?

A culinary tour is, by the simplest definition, a trip or discovery to a new destination that revolves around the food we eat, grow and process. For some, this could mean a short jaunt to a local cheese making factory to learn first hand how their product is created. For others, this means a tour to an exotic location where food is discovered in many ways via a guide.

Culinary tourism has become the hottest way to view a new culture, and why not? We all eat, and those who travel thirst for in-depth experiences that bring often unseen aspects of a culture to life. Food is literally at the root of every place you visit.Our culinary tours are each a unique and intimate experience. In Vietnam you would, for example, have a hands-on cooking class with a world renowned chef.  This is the real Vietnam brought to you via the knives and cutting boards, ingredients and values of Vietnamese culture; it's completely immersive.

In Cuba, we visit an organic farm where a food revolution is taking place. Out of bare-bones necessity, farmers in Cuba have returned to an organic system and the results are gorgeous fruits and vegetables from a truly local source. On this tour, we see where food is grown and we learn from farmers. To complete this circle, in Morocco we visit a local market with pack donkeys to secure fresh ingredients for that day's meal. From soil to market stand to kitchen and fire, a culinary tour can embrace so many parts of a meals preparation and the destination is always delicious.

Culinary tours allow visitors to view a culture through its cuisine, to share a meal at a communal table and to break bread with locals. This act, the sharing of a meal, is the best way to really connect with a place you seek to understand.

Learn about our award-winning culinary tours and explore culture through cuisine.