Food is one of those pleasures that are available to a person throughout his life. Today, gastronomic tours are increasingly popular, and interest in them increases every year. Tours devoted entirely to cooking and the culinary theme are much more than simply absorbing delicacies, albeit in places of their immediate origin.

Food and culture of eating in this or that area is truly a native national treasure, as the French would say “the case of many pinches”. Sometimes you can learn much more about the country from the contents on the plates, rather than looking at the museum among the numerous exhibits. And there are no untasteful cuisines, they are for an amateur, so the choice of country depends solely on your gastronomic preferences. Each country has sufficient prerequisites to successfully develop this tourism industry. Another thing is that not everyone takes advantage of this opportunity.

In the photo: Rtveli - a festival of grape harvesting in Georgia

Perhaps some people imagine that a gastro tour is day after day tasting dishes in fashionable restaurants, of course, awarded Michelin star. But it's not. Of course, dinners in restaurants have a place to be, but the meaning of the tour is absolutely not that. More specifically, the tourist will have to understand the country and make up its image through the prism of culinary traditions, so to speak, with language buds to recognize the very essence. A gastronomic tour is an exclusive thing, and what is exclusive by definition can not be cheap.

Pictured: Belgian chocolate workshop

Pictured: That's how Swiss cheese rests.

What is a gastrotur?

The program of any gastro tour includes tasting various dishes of local cuisine. In general, gastronomic tours are divided into two types: rural and urban (although this division is very conditional). Rural (sometimes called “green”) combines ecotourism and implies acquaintance with culinary traditions and dishes of the province, prepared exclusively from natural products, i.e. the native national cuisine, as it is. Gastrotur in the province is a delicious, homemade food, excursions to various private farms, where they breed, for example, snails or grow geese for foie gras. It is also a joint collection of vegetables and fruits, visiting rural fairs.

In the photo: Mexican national cuisine, included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List

Urban gastrotour is more familiar with Haute cuisine, in which the national cuisine acts in modern processing or sometimes in the interpretation of venerable cooks. In this case, the tour is replete with trips to the cult catering places of the selected region, master classes, lectures and open lessons on the preparation of a particular dish from chefs, as well as visits to factories and workshops where food is prepared and their subsequent tasting.

Where to go on tour?

To date, the most popular countries in gastronomic tourism are Italy, France and Spain. I think that guessing these three leaders would not be difficult. Each of these countries has rich, vibrant and characteristic culinary traditions, of course, mind-blowing in taste. At the same time, we take into account that it is impossible to cover the entire cuisine of the country in one trip, since each region has its own authentic cuisine. This is how tours are most often built, for example, the culinary traditions of Tuscany or Piedmont in Italy. In general, just choose the most interesting region for you and start a leisurely acquaintance with the country at the tip of your tongue.

Pictured: Spanish paella with seafood

As noted above, gastro tours are not a cheap pleasure, but a good gastrohyde is ready to share the accumulated secrets of the region for its weight in gold. However, with a great desire, you can organize a trip with an addiction yourself, but before that you will have to carefully scour the reviews of tourists about cafes and restaurants and generally carefully plan your tour, including independently agree with private farms on excursions. A great help in this will be various gastronomic festivals. If you are planning a trip to Bavaria in October, the leimotif of your trip will be excellent German beer and famous Bavarian sausages. And it doesn’t matter how many times in your life you have eaten Bavarian sausages, because they are still tastier than in Bavaria.

Another important factor will be seasonality. For example, from the end of September to October in Kakheti grape harvest begins and with it comes the season of young wine. Why not meet the beautiful Georgia?

The famous French chef and traveler Pascal Ischak said, “It is better to starve than to eat without appetite.” Take care of your appetite as your first love.

Text by Diana Yusupova

Photo: frontnews.ge, two-cooks.ru, volvoab.com, fototelegraf.ru, cookdiary.net