The tour of French and Spanish Basque regions, for example, includes a wine tasting in a Medoc castle and a visit to a family farm that specializes in making foie gras. If you're looking for a heady diet of Tuscan tidbits, meet Umberto Menghi. The course, run by his sister and local well-known chefs, includes instruction on how to transform Arborio rice into risotto ai funghi , how to make homemade pasta and more. Paul Prudhomme wannabes should run for this culinary adventure in New Orleans. Demonstrations are set up in local restaurants, and visitors get to belly up to the chef's table.
Similar packages are available in the Finger Lakes, China, Latin America and India.
There is nothing uglier than a traveling vegetarian who can't find good food. Here's a list of vegetarian-tour operators that offer vacations, activity holidays or courses with exclusively vegetarian or vegan food. A big draw must be the vegetarian safari into Zimbabwe's pristine wildlife reserve. Today the country is a hot destination, for both its natural beauty and its exotic culture. On this special food-oriented tour, you'll visit various ecosystems and also discover the country's ancient culinary secrets through lectures and cooking demonstrations by one of Vietnam's master chefs.