Experiencing Culture Through Cuisine: Mediterranean Kitchens Cooking Vacations

When I read Mediterranean Kitchens succinct motto, I knew I’d hit pay-dirt. As an experienced food, wine, and travel writer, this has always been my fave way to travel but it takes an enormous amount of time, energy and trade contacts. Therefore, I am thrilled to give my “Good Housekeeping Gourmet Seal of Approval” to these well-organized culinary adventures—perfect for any lover of fine food and wine. Owner Lindan Toole makes sure that all the details are taken care of, so you get all of the fun and none of the hassles.

Lindan built a career based on her love of travel. She founded The Travel & Leisure Show in Toronto in 1986. Forty countries later, she started Mediterranean Kitchens, which encompasses her passions for travel, fine food, and wine, and the history and culture of the Mediterranean—although rumor has it that she’s offering a new itinerary to Jordan, and maybe one to India. To keep abreast of the latest offerings, sign up for her newsletter to find out “Where’s Jordan now?”

Regardless of which tour you select the basic format is the same. Morning cooking classes and market tours, afternoons spent visiting vineyards and food producers, then burning off a few calories during walking tours to historical archaeological sites. Evenings are for enjoying fine food and wine, either out at a wonderful restaurant that Lindan discovered or perhaps a family meal in your elegant yet comfy accommodations.

I had the pleasure of joining a small group for “A Feast for the Senses” in Fes, Morocco. This tour offered a kaleidoscope of exotic markets, spices, fascinating people, flavors, and shopping. All your senses will be titillated by the smells of the orange and rose water masking the muskiness of the leather tanneries, the sounds of the giggling children as they dart around the donkeys on the narrow alleyways, the bubbling pots of tajines at the outdoor stands, the rainbow of multi-colored hand-died fabrics as they’re hung out to dry on stakes like prayer shawls, and joyful shouts from the vendors of, “Welcome, my friend—no charge for just looking.”