Culinary tours cropping up throughout the U.S. not only serve up America on a plate but offer food professionals paths to gastronomic enlightenment.
For chefs and food industry professionals interesting doing “field research” to expand their awareness of what is happening in other markets (and their own), foodie tours—or culinary tourism—as it is formally known, can serve as the perfect graduate course in understanding an area through its food and its food-related businesses, from restaurants to specialty stores to farmers’ markets. The tours also provide valuable insight into how consumers in different parts of the country enjoy food, especially as America is immersed in the era of the “staycation” and people realize they can be culinary tourists in their own hometown.
Back in 1998, it was Bowling Green University researcher Lucy Long who first coined the term culinary tourism. In its broadest sense, culinary tourism is defined as the pursuit of unique and memorable culinary experiences of all kinds, often while traveling.
According to ICTA President Erik Wolf, culinary tourism culinarytourism.org is a relatively new industry that is fast on the rise…so much so that in early 2007, the ICTA founded International Culinary Tourism Development to meet the rising industry demand for guidance and leadership in culinary tourism product development. Picking up where dining guides and food festivals leave off, Wolf explains that culinary tourism encompasses cooking schools, cookbook and kitchen gadget stores, culinary tours and tour leaders, culinary media and guidebooks, caterers, wineries, breweries, distilleries, food growers and manufacturers, culinary attractions and more. As savvy travelers and average families alike are still hungry for new and different experiences, culinary tour guides can be just the people to show industry folks the creative ways to address that demand in these times. For this reason alone, culinary tour operators throughout America are poised to prosper by delivering a feast of global culture and diversity—even if the destination is just a few blocks away.
This American (Slice of) Life
Food culture is intertwined with American pop culture, thanks in part to food and travel media, celebrity chefs and food personalities. Consequently, restaurants and neighborhoods can be perceived of as much of a destination as the city or region they are based in. Furthermore, the definition of what makes a place a culinary destination is constantly changing, especially in a world where Anthony Bourdain and Rachael Ray embrace the random food shop or an exquisite bite of street food on their television shows. A figurative and literal new world of international dining has opened up across America, and it is the job of a sharp and passionate guide or tour operator to take their city’s visitors to the table.
 |
While approaches to tours are as different as the cities they operate out of, one thing these savvy culinary operators understand is that an area’s food element makes one’s experience of the city more well-rounded. “People are not aware of what lies beyond the monuments and museums, and how much there is to explore in terms of food and other cultures,” affirms Jeff Swedarsky, founder of DC Metro Food Tours dcmetrofoodtours.com “Although things are generally more challenging during a recession, especially for companies providing luxury items like tours and excursions, many people are still making the trip to our nation’s capital. Although their trips may be shorter, we aim to provide added value for the visitor.
Swedarsky sees his tours as a reflection of how the District’s restaurants and shops are extensions of the people who live there. By combining regional specialties with eclectic cuisine, he not only endeavors to capture the capital’s history but also the changes in population (through immigration) that has shaped DC neighborhoods he describes as “diverse, charming, beautiful, and historic all at once.” Though he provides memorable sensory cultural feasts for visitors, it is equally important to him to help maintain the success of the District’s food institutions.
“It is important for our tours to remain popular with visitors because they support our local restaurants and food establishments,” he points out. “Our local chefs, restaurateurs and food artisans benefit by gaining a wider customer base, of both tourists and locals that may not have known they existed. Their marketing is bolstered through word of mouth, articles and other forms of media. Most importantly, they make money each time our groups go through, and I make sure to compensate them well for their time and the food they serve.”
“Good culinary tours should be more about depth than breadth,” says Robert Weinberg, founder of Philadelphia’s City Food Tours www.cityfoodtours.com. “For the food professional, the ideal tour can be a sort of graduate school, where we can get technical and are educated about topics that come up. However, if there is a chef or food industry person on the tour who knows something we don’t know, we encourage them to share. The best part of our tours, in fact, is that we offer our guests access to professional owners, who are equipped to answer a variety of questions and share their experiences.”
Weinberg notes that City Food Tours focus mostly on Philadelphia’s hidden gems. Although several eateries and shops have approached him about inclusion, he and partner Eric Matzke are selective about what will make the cut for a tour above and beyond it being specific to Philadelphia. The expert-on-staff or owner needs to be available on the site when City Food groups come and have adequate space for the group to move around.
“Whether the spots specialize in handmade artisanal food or imported upscale exotic products, they are the source for these foods in Philadelphia,” Weinberg says. “Naked Chocolate, T-Bar, Joe’s Coffee and Bruno Cheese are all Philadelphia institutions offering experiences you cannot find anywhere else, and are essential spots locals turn to when they want the best of something.”
Although Savor Seattle Tours founder Angela Shen savorseattletours.com hails from Minnesota, she believes a successful tour should involve the same sense of excitement and wonder she encountered getting to know the city. What still excites her about Seattle is the regional fresh produce, wine production and seafood, along with the area’s unique geological attributes which she feels heightens the experience of eating, whether its on the fly at Pikes Place Market or on a more formal gourmet tour.
“It is incredible what we have at our fingertips, and culinary tourism is enabling people who have an avid interest in food, from professionally trained chefs to anybody who watches The Food Network, to experience Seattle’s food culture,” says Shen. “Beyond that, the food tour offers great value. Instead of spending $100 to eat at one restaurant, a visitor can spend the same amount of money to experience a diversity of things a city has to offer, as many as 15 to 20 different places in a short period a time and also get a sense of what characterizes that region.”
Something to Sink Your Teeth Into
Because seasonality plays such a strong role in Seattle’s food culture, Shen’s tours include recipes based on what’s in season. From her perspective, a food service professional benefits by seeing how local chefs work with what is in season at that moment. She also highlights a downtown gourmet tour that’s very “hands-on,” enabling visiting food pros to meet local owners and chefs eager to share their thoughts on their signature dishes, what inspires them and how they got into the business. As a result, her tours have attracted chefs and cooking clubs from Canada and New York, as well as individual chefs from other cities.
“I work with DC restaurants to create dishes that are unique to those places, and meals not on the menu that highlight local specialties,” Swedarsky comments. “What (food pros) will get a different feel, not just about that part of the city, but about the restaurant, what makes it tick and what inspires the owners and chefs creatively, hearing their story or their history in the area. It is certainly a different perspective of a restaurant than one would have if he simply came in and had menus handed to him.”
Shane Kost, owner of Chicago Food Planet Food Tours ChicagoFoodPlanet.com, sees Chicago as a microcosm of America’s collective eating habits. For this reason, he feels food service professionals will take back with them a holistic view of the bond that a food lover has with a restaurant, a restaurant has with their specialty food store vendors, a specialty food store has with their customer, and so on.
 |
“Chicago's most famous chefs shop at the stores we visit on our tours, so we are confident a culinary student, chef or restaurant owner would benefit,” Kost states. “Chicago is the test market for the U.S. We have a great cross section of people in all walks of life living among over 100 neighborhoods. As the saying goes, if you can get a product to work here, it will work anywhere. After all, the first Starbucks outside of the Northwest was opened here. Although Chicago has blossomed behind celebrity chefs like Charlie Trotter for the past 20 years, we have seen a transfer of the guard to our new crop of celebrity chefs, including Grant Achatz (Alinea), Homaro Cantu (Moto) and Michael Carlson (Schwa).”
Kost wants people taking his tours to note it is its citizens who have helped to put them on the culinary radar for the rest of the world to enjoy. “One reason is Chicago's ability to blur the lines that divide each of our thriving neighborhoods,” he continues. “We're able to showcase cinnamons from Indonesia and Vietnam, a tea store that originated in Germany and procures teas from over 15 countries, latkes from an Ashkenazic Jewish deli, as well as Chicago traditions like deep-dish pizza or our Chicago-style hot dog. In one sense, Chicago has allowed the world to change it through it's multi-cultural and sophisticated neighborhoods. On the other hand, Chicago has introduced star chefs, outdoor markets and lively neighborhood specialty food stores that have changed the way the world enjoys food.”
A Pinch of This, A Smidge of That
Michele Topor’s popular and ingredient-driven cooking classes dovetailed in to Food Tours Of Boston foodtoursofboston.com, as many of her students asking her where she sourced her ingredients. Her tours are so ingredient and technique driven that no restaurants are featured on the tour. Instead, she hands out a sheet of restaurant recommendations, and surprises visitors with such discoveries as how to buy the right kind of olive oil for a given recipe, the differences between artisanal and commercially produced balsamic vinegar and tasting a prosciutto that, “melts in one’s mouth rather than leave behind shreds of dental floss.” Not surprisingly, her tours are a hit among Massachusetts chefs, and she hopes food pros from other states will follow.
“The message I hope people get from my tour is that the end product is only going to be as good as the ingredients one puts into it, especially as we read a lot of ingredient labels,” Topor notes. “Some benefits my tours offer to food service people include learning how different Italian foods and recipes were adapted to America. Though many people are familiar with Italian-American foods, what I do is reintroduce them to their Italian roots, as well as how Italians eat and shop for the best ingredients available.”
Like Topor, New Jersey-based Pat Kinney saw her food tour business grow out of her cooking classes (in her case, at The New School) and the interest her students took in unusual ingredients. However, Kinney’s tours tap not so much into an urban area or neighborhood, as it does the impact of a Japanese population moving into her area and the recent spike in the popularity of Japanese food over the bridge. Kinney also recognized that based on trends like Pan-Asian cuisine, many of the exotic ingredients could effectively be incorporated into American foods.
“A decade ago, many Japanese companies sent employees and their families to our area, just outside New York,” Kinney recalls. “There was a proliferation of Japanese grocery stores. Through that, I made a lot of friends with Japanese people who taught me to cook and prepare different Japanese dishes. Once I mastered this, I wanted to teach Americans about Japanese cuisine. Though there were a lot of Japanese restaurants opening up that became popular with Americans, they were not going to the Asian grocery stores. It then occurred to me that I could develop a tour that would help Americans decode Japanese markets and labels so they could learn to buy the ingredients to make some of their favorite dishes at home.”
If Gena Berry’s food tours through Atlanta and the South (www.culinaryworks.net) resonate with food industry folk, her previous career in the hotel and hospitality industry probably has a lot to do with it. Though her pride in her Southern heritage is evident on her tours, her knowledge of the area geographically and gastronomically allows her to offer guests a memorable context in which to experience the food. For trade guests, she uses her connections to set up meetings between chefs, restaurateurs, food purveyors and local farmers.
“If food industry visitors want to work alongside a certain chef for a day, for example, I can make that happen,” Berry says. “I can also set up a personalized tour that may include meetings with marketing departments for the Vidalia Wild Onion Council, local shrimping companies and pecan farmers through connections that I have. For the professional visitor, it’s not as much about tourist stops, as it is an insider look at things for people looking to do business with our producers. You’ve not experienced Southern food unless you have sat in the place where Aunt Ethel made the biscuits and deep fried the chicken for you. You can make Southern fried chicken in Seattle, but it is a different experience to see it made in its place of origin and eat it there.”
Getting to the Big Apple’s Culinary Core
New York City has historic status as a primary entry point for different ethnic groups, so it is no surprise that the influences they brought in continue to shape the definition of what American dining is all about, from neighborhood dives and stores to restaurants that define trends for the rest of the country and the world. As one would expect, culinary tours abound and, in fact, have been in existence long before Bowling Green’s Long coined a lifestyle term for it. That said, the city’s size and diversity practically ensure there is room for one more.
Such is the case with Jodi Auerbach, who launched her company thewellplannedtraveler.com almost two years ago. Though she has observed the current economy has tempered the public’s traveling bug, Auerbach found that she could still succeed both with locals looking for a great vacation experience in their backyard as well as visitors from other parts of the U.S. wanting to experience New York as a local would. Rather than lead tours, Auerbach puts together a customized food neighborhood “bibles” for clients’ self-guided walking tours with details and history about the tours’ stops. Auerbach also finds her clients appreciate the freedom to tour at their own pace, just as a local would.
Like Auerbach, former New York City public school teacher Addie Tomei transformed her passions for New York City’s expansive food scene and entertaining into a tour enterprise. However, Tomei’s Savory Sojourns (www.savorysojourns.com) has been in business since 1997, and is widely regarded as one of New York City’s best-guided tours across the board. While she has some notoriety as the mother of actress Marissa Tomei, what her clients ultimately respond to is her ability to create an experience that introduces them to the city’s history and character through its food—but does it in such a way that they end the tour feeling as if they had known Addie their entire life.
“After I retired from teaching in 1995, I went to a cooking school in France just for fun,” remembers Tomei. “I really enjoyed it, and I thought it would be great to do something similar in New York. Though I toyed with bringing people to Europe, it made more sense to stick to New York because people from all over the world come here to eat.”
Tomei prefers to keep her groups small (four to twelve people), and describes her clients as, “motivated people willing to commit an average of five to six hours, and spend between $95 to $160 (and more if cooking lessons are involved)” for a tour that blends the intimate with the informative.
“My clients actively seek and shop for food items they cannot get in their own areas,” she muses. “Even with how well-traveled many of the are, it’s amazing to me that some people have not tried fresh mortadella. New York not only provides a lot of these foods, but seeing it the right way, and with a good guide, satisfies a visitor’s need to see and try all the stuff they have seen on TV, and that they may not normally have access to.”
At press time, Tomei was busy planning a six-day program for a cooking school group from Canada coming in late spring, and she still receives requests from both repeat visitors and new visitors who heard about Savory Sojourns via word of mouth. “It helps that I am Marissa Tomei’s mother, but in the end, the clients are ultimately more curious about New York’s great food,” she says emphatically.
The Best of the West
San Francisco, America’s other gateway, is also famous for its many ethnic neighborhoods. Lisa Rogovin inthekitchenwithlisa.com, however, insists what makes San Francisco a foodie destination is the year-round growing season and innovative chefs who have taken advantage of it.
“There are great ethnic foods in this city, but if you took a closer look at what makes us a truly great food city, its what started in 1971 when Alice Waters bought and opened her first restaurant, Chez Panisse, and what developed into California cuisine,” says Rogovin. “Cuisine here is all about fresh ingredients without a lot of extra adornments or sauce, or building something up on a plate, which (we think of as) New York-style. It’s less about presentation and more about closing your eyes and tasting these different things grown on nearby farms at the peak of ripeness. From the local perspective, our every move is based on dining decisions, what farmer’s markets we’re going to shop at, which supermarkets have the best ingredients sourced by local farmers, and so on.”
Rogovin notes that her tours do well with food industry people who want to learn more about the California style of “market driven” cuisine and the history behind it. “On our Berkley tour, we teach them about the history of California Cuisine and that this area is regarded as its birthplace, from Chez Panisse to the Cheeseboard Collective to the original Peet’s Coffee & Tea,” she details. “It hits visitors as a surprise that they are experiencing the actual establishments where this style of cooking took shape, where chefs started working more closely with farmers to keep a pulse on what was in season.”
Though Los Angeles’ celebrity magnet and celebrity chef-driven restaurants are known throughout the country, sisters Lisa and Diane Scalia saw their home turf as a still-emerging market for culinary tourism, and named their enterprise Melting Pot Tours (www.meltingpottours.com), in honor of L.A.’s cultural diversity. Their first tour centers around the Farmer’s Market and adjacent neighborhood, with a selection of stops that covers the bases—from the successful purveyors L.A.’s top chefs turn to, to popular L.A. street foods to bistros and high-end dining establishments. Future tours in the works will focus on Thai Town and other ethnic neighborhoods away from the Farmer’s Market core.
“We both have always been passionate about food, and I was looking for a career change after sending 20 years in real estate appraisal, which enabled me to navigate L.A. without a map,” says Lisa Scalia. “While I knew the neighborhoods, Diane knew chapter and verse on the food scene, as her career in the food industry included jobs as a personal chef, cookbook author and food stylist. Though I wanted to marry my passions for food and travel in my new career, I did not fancy taking people on trips, so I decided to take people to experience things in my own backyard.”
The Scalias’ tour not only folds in a pinch of Hollywood history and a dash of Travel Channel allure, but a solid behind-the-scenes look at establishments like market/specialty shop Joan’s on Third, destination restaurant The Little Door, Mishima (a Japanese food company concept restaurant) and Chado Tea Room that have stood the test of time. While there are plenty of opportunities to graze the Farmer’s Market’s most famous stalls and go-to purveyors for chefs, the personalities behind the products from these family-owned businesses come out and chat.
“A food professional would benefit from this tour because they would be sampling what is successful in LA, and why it is working,” says Scalia. “They would be able to make important contacts with local people in the industry, such as the owners of Chado Tea Room, who also own one of the largest tea import businesses in the US. Another key stop is The Cook’s Library, one of Saveur Magazine’s top 10 cookbook stores in the country. In L.A., it is considered the destination for those seeking top cookbooks and other culinary literature, and when there are signings here, you can bet some of the biggest names in town show up.”
 |
Hawaii, as one of America’s most exotic travel destinations, has more than its fair share of fine dining establishments. Bonnie Friedman had spent the better part of her career promoting some of the best-of-the-best on Maui, including establishments founded by chef Beverly Gannon. However, she discovered over the years that as average travelers became more aware of global dining trends, there was a need to think outside the dining room and connect visitors to the roots and basics of island cuisine.
“We’ve had a lot of visitors from the mainland familiar with the fine dining options, but have not yet had the opportunity to come to central Maui and discovering what local people actually eat,” says Friedman. “For Hawaii, and Maui specifically, our history is wrapped up in the local food and various ethnic groups, from indigenous Hawaiians to European settlers at the turn of the 20th century to various groups coming from Asia. The goal is to expose people, including those who have already visited Maui, to true regional cuisine and what locals eat.”
While Friedman says food industry people have not yet taken her tour, as it was launched late last year, she encourages professionals to participate for the exact same reason. “When chefs come from other destinations, they tend to visit and trade notes with local chefs and trade notes, and sample what’s truly local,” she observes. “When Anthony Bourdain came to Oahu to film his No Reservations show, he ate almost exclusively at really non-touristy places. There is something about island cuisine that chefs and general foodies alike really want to discover because there is nothing quite like it.”
Though culinary tourism experiences across the board involve some investment of time and money, the value that can be gained from the trip far outweighs the expense, both in volume and substance. Because restaurants in good and challenging economic times will continue to be visitor draws, food professionals owe it to themselves to literally put themselves in a consumer’s shoes. While they will come to appreciate what appeals to a visitor, they will learn from proprietors and chefs what it takes to keep their attention.
 |
Lancaster County, PA: Brunswick Tours (www.brunswicktours.com) offers a variety of delicious “Dutch” treats, of the Pennsylvania country variety. Their tours include Lunch or Dinner in a Real Amish Home; Graze Your Way Through a Penn Dutch Day; Penn Dutch Pie Party; and Foods of the Faithful. “With a heritage of living off the land, our area has long been known for its fresh and delicious foods,” says Lancaster County spokesperson Joel Cliff, “It stands to reason that the home of the red beet egg is naturally going to have a colorful approach to dining.”
Pittsburgh, PA: The 'Burgh Bits and Bites Food Tour (www.burghfoodtour.com) takes visitors through the city’s Strip District, brimming with Italian food markets, cheese markets, organic coffee houses, a gourmet popcorn shop and a Middle Eastern restaurant that are all local institutions. Tours are also offered in German, and a new tour showcasing Pittsburgh's Little Italy-Bloomfield is being added this year.
Providence, RI: Described as “One of the Five Best Little Italy’s in the U.S.” (according to Food Network Chef Mario Batali), the Market Tour of Historic Federal Hill with Cindy Salvato showcases traditional and modern bakeries, the wine shop that brought Italian wines and spirits to New England, butchers and poultry markets, and specialty food markets. Guests will get to meet the chefs, bakers and ravioli as well as get advice from Salvato about Italian cooking. For more information, www.rimarkettours.com.
Chicago, IL: Valerie Beck’s Chicago Chocolate Tour (www.chicagochocolatetours.com) is a two-hour guided tasting tour of Chicago's most popular chocolate stores, some of the city's secret chocolate treasures, and a satisfying dip into the deeply rich history of chocolate. Visitors then walk off the calories through stops by Chicago’s beautiful architectural landmarks. The city’s dedicated North Shore tourism office also offers a popular Evanston Culinary Tour, spotlighting an eclectic mix of bakeries, spice shops, markets, restaurants and local landmarks that has made the elegant suburb a true food destination. Call 847-763-0011, ext. 2 for more information. Taste of the Neighborhoods offers visitors a unique opportunity to savor cuisines from all over the world all in one place, and through the eyes and experience of guide Evelyn Thompson. For more information, contact Chicago Neighborhood Tours, (312-742-1190), chicagoneighborhoodtours.com.
Traverse City, MI: Learn Great Foods (www.learngreatfoods.com) offers agri-culinary tours are designed to enlighten visitors to American heartland high points in Illinois and Michigan about the natural link that exists between sustainable farming, great cooking and the environment. Founder Ann Dougherty’s tours focus on places where foods are raised, caught and made – farms, fisheries, wineries, microbrewers, etc, with heavy emphasis on healthy, sustainable practices.
Milwaukee, WI: Theresa Nemetz started Milwaukee Food Tours (http://www.MilwaukeeFoodTour.com) in May 2008 to rave reviews, introducing visitors, weather permitting, to the wonders and treasures of different neighborhoods in this all-American city influenced by its original Irish, Italian and German settlers. Tastes include beers, cheeses, sausages and pizzas.
Ybor City (Tampa), FL: Career waiter Joe Roman, 80, is revered in Central Florida as a true food historian, thanks to a special Over 100 Years of Columbia Restaurant History tour. As the “Columbia Restaurant Ambassador,” the 50 year veteran conducts tours of the historic Columbia Restaurant from 12-2 p.m. Monday –Friday.. For food professionals, the tour is noteworthy as Roman was the 2004 recipient of the Iris D. Larson Hospitality Award and other accolades. (www.columbiarestaurant.com)
Charleston, SC: Culinary Tours of Charleston Experience examines the city’s history through the history of its food and its chefs, bakers, artisanal food producers, chocolatiers and specialty shops. Local specialties include Stone Ground Grits, Charleston Benne Wafers, Collard Greens and Lowcountry Barbeque. www.culinarytoursofcharleston.com/
Myrtle Beach, SC: On the Grand Strand Culinary Tours, visitors can have a Shrimp and Grits cooking lesson aboard a casino boat, learn how to shuck oysters and eat a Spot Sandwich on white bread at local family restaurant with an outdoor dining room, in addition to being introduced to some of the best fine dining opportunities in the area. (www.grandstrandculinarytours.com)
New Orleans, LA: Nobody gets out of New Orleans without consuming a substantial amount of food. However, New Orleans Culinary Tours (www.noculinarytours.com) adds historical substance to the sampling of its sensory delights. These tours offer insight into what makes New Orleans’ cuisine so distinctive, including its location as a port city as well as the mix of groups who settled there over its history. More importantly, guests learn the important distinctions between Creole, Cajun and even French cuisine during stops at such landmarks as Napoleon House and Tujague’s.
Dallas, TX: On a Food Roots Experience, guides introduce visitors to rich abundance that each region of Texas offers through premium dining events featuring the best in food and wine, while keeping with the Food Roots philosophy: exploring regional and native food from historical, cultural and contemporary points of view. Producers, growers and makers share the story of their land and their bounty, challenging visitors to change the way they think about and interact with food. (www.foodroots.com).
Tuscon, AZ: On the local Gray Line’s Best of the Barrio Culinary Tour, spend four hours eating your way through the cuisine of South Tucson's historic Barrio neighborhood. Sightseers will find handmade pastries and tortillas at La Estrella Bakery, traditional Sonoran-style Mexican entrees at Micha's, ceviche and fish tacos at Rodriguez Fish Company, Sonoran hot dogs and carne asada burritos at El Guero Canelo, and, finally, "raspados" (shaved ice, ice cream, fresh fruit) at Oasis Fruit Cones. Cost is $59 per adult for tour and food. Call (520) 622-8811, or visit www.graylinearizona.com and go to Sightseeing Tours.
Los Angeles, CA: Les Dames D’Escoffier member Nancy Zaslavsky (www.nancyzaslavsky.com) focuses on the best of East L.A.'s Mexican markets and Mexican food meccas. Her groups visit a panaderia (bakery), savor tortillas made by the traditional hand-made method, purchase still-sizzling carnitas and explore a huge marketplace crammed full of Latin American products including exotic tropical fruits, unusual grocery items, bottled table salsas, piñatas, cheeses, cremas, traditional sweets, Mexican cuts of meat and a cooking equipment store. Tours run $75 and are offered on specified Saturdays 10AM to 3PM for groups of at least ten participants. Veteran Newsweek journalist Gerry Furth-Sides uses her experience on the beat to bring visitors “The Day of Chocolate” guided tasting tours. Participants shuttle to some of Tinseltown’s finest chocolatiers, VIP-style on an air conditioned bus, and conclude the visit with a molé lunch and cookbook at the landmark El Cholo Restaurant. ($150 for the day; $75 for 1/2 day, with lunch, mediaate@aol.com). Anne Block has been offering her posh Take My Mother Please (www.takemymotherplease.com, $350+) guided tours for small groups since 1994. She has extended the Los Angeles venues to worldwide tours with itineraries for special interest and vacation travelers, along with trip planning.
San Francisco, CA: If San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of your musts, consider seeing it through the eyes of Chef Shirley Fong-Torres (author of The Woman Who Ate Chinatown). On this nationally acclaimed tour (including kudos from The New York Times), Fong-Torres deftly whisks you past tourist traps and introduces you to the markets, dim sum houses, specialty shops, herbal shops, back alleys and tea houses that form the tapestry of America’s best known Chinatown. www.wokwiz.com
Portland, OR: Cruise West’s Taste of the Pacific Northwest sails through the rich food history of the Pacific Northwest along the Columbia River and through Washington's Wine Country. The Pacific Northwest's respectable wines and other epicurean delights will be introduced with a special series of tours, tastings and excursions. For 2009 deployment dates visit www.cruisewest.com. Mexico/Latin America
San Juan, PR: While the dining scene in San Juan is ablaze with a pan-American palate and great rum cocktails, it really comes alive with Saborea Puerto Rico, a culinary festival that celebrates both the island’s Caribbean traditions and other worldwide flavors. For more information, visit www.saboreapuertorico.com.
Mexico: Nancy Zaslavsky offers private tours with built-in cooking classes that bring the unique flavors of Mexico’s different regions to life. On her guided tours, she leads adventurous cooks to her favorite insider places in Mexico, guides hands-on cooking classes, demos, tastings, and market tours as well as visits to exciting shopping spots and cultural landmarks. For those who to prefer to travel on their own, she also offers custom day-by-day “Culinary Highlights Tour,” as well as insider assistance, with hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus local guides.
Pricing begins at $500. www.nancyzaslavsky.com.
As the largest culinary tourism operator in Canada, EdibleBC specializes in consummate Canadian culinary experiences, ranging from chef guided market tours of Vancouver’s top culinary districts such as Chinatown and Granville Island, to more exotic and length tours like gourmet kayaking and yacht based adventures which feature chef/guides. In the coming year, they will take their unique form of culinary tourism across the continent, and offer visitors the best of Canada’s cities, wine production areas and artisan production areas. www.edible-britishcolumbia.com
Outside North America
Chef and Les Dames d'Escoffier International member Joanne Weir has enjoyed widespread recognition as one of the world’s foremost food tourism guides. Her week-long culinary tours in Europe and beyond (Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Thailand) and cooking school in San Francisco has led to the production of a PBS cooking series taped in her San Francisco home kitchen in San Francisco launched this January. Just as each episode of the show has a distinctive hands-on approach and wine pairings, her tours bring that to life, on an even bigger scale. For more information, visit www.joanneweir.com.
