Archive for August, 2010

COOKING IN PARADISE is a rich, definitive guide to hands-on gourmet cooking vacations around the world.Ever dreamed of sauteeing in Sicily?Or having a master divulge the secrets of perfect patisserie in Paris? How about mincing in Morocco?COOKING IN PARADISE will show you how to get there and scores of other places with over 150 listings for cooking vacation programs around the world (and a handful right here in the United States too).The Naftalis give details about famous courses–like Patricia Wells’ “at home” in her eighteenth century Provencal farmhouse–but have also unearthed truly unusual fare, from a Kosher cooking course in Tuscany to an Australian country house gourmet retreat to a Mexican cuisine class held at a working hillside farm in Oaxaca.COOKING IN PARADISE provides all the information you need to book a cooking vacation today, but with its evocation of far-flung locales and over 50 unusual recipes from the schools included, it’s perfect for the stay-at-home chef as well.What better way to learn about a culture than to spend a few days huddled over a stove with a local chef cooking the region’s specialties? Cooking vacations–which become more popular with each travel season–are the perfect way to not just visit a country, but to really experience it, and even bring part of it home. If you’ve ever dreamed of sautéing in Sicily, mincing in Morocco, or stir-frying in China, Cooking in Paradise, Joel and Lee Naftali’s practical guide to cooking vacations around the world, will show you how to get there.

The book covers a wide range of cooking programs–from budget to extravagant, from half-day classes to three-week programs–in Europe, Asia, the United States and Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and Morocco. The authors provide extensive information about each program, including its history, information about the region and its cuisine, the instructors, and a play-by-play of how you can expect to spend the time. You can choose whether you want the glamour of cooking with a famous chef (from Jacques Pepin to Marcella Hazan) or the informal fun of cooking like a native (many programs are taught by enthusiastic and knowledgeable home cooks). You might spend five days cooking with Patricia Wells in her Provencal home kitchen, which boasts a La Cornue range, rotisserie, and wood-fired bread oven. There you’ll prepare traditional Provencal dishes like Saumon Entier Roti en Papillotte, Soupe au Pistou, and Tarte Tatin. Or you might prefer to spend a week cooking in the kitchens of Tutti a Tavola, a friendly Tuscan cooking school run by four women who open their homes to groups of students so they can experience four distinctly different Tuscan kitchens.

As authors Joel and Lee Naftali write, “If the heart of a home is the kitchen, then the soul of a region is the cuisine.” –Robin Donovan

Rating: (out of 5 reviews)

List Price: $ 15.95

Price: $ 13.43