For a few months each year Casa Azahar in Granada's historic quarter opens its doors for personalized cooking & wine classes to a small number of guests eager to share in the food, wine, and culture of one of Spain's most diverse & vibrant regions. Starting at
$39 per trip
Recommended by the New York Times: "perhaps you're interested in a Granada-based cooking-and-wine vacation package"
Guests cook with wild Mediterranean herbs gathered from behind the house, salad greens and vegetables from local markets, olives from the abudant groves, and prepare unique Mediterranean, Spehardic, and Mozarabic dishes. Guests will visit Europe's highest viticultural region, the up-and-coming Vinos de la tierra Norte de Granada and meet with wine makers.
Classes are available by the hour on a fllexible schedule, November-April each year.
An optional two-week English language program can includes hands-on cooking and food culture sessions led by Vaughn Perret & Charles Leary, as well as guided visits to markets, vineyards, shops, and local restaurants. All cooking programs take place in the afternoons, allowing for morning Spanish classes if desired.
Each day's program offers something different; the prepared menus shared while taking in views of the Alhambra Palace, the insider's guide to the regional production of olives and oil, and cheese, and tastings from the rich selection of local and regional wines, including the famed Sherries from Jerez and Montilla. All instruction is in English. Recipes are geared to the home cook.
Instructors Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary are the chef/proprietors of Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia, a Relais & Chateaux property. They have over 19 years of food world experience, first as farmers, wild food purveyors, and cheesemakers, and then as acclaimed chefs. They co-authored The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook: Creole Cuisine from New Orleans to Nova Scotia and The Epicurean Pilgrim's Destination Guide to Rome. They have lived in Granada since 2003.
Mr. Perret studied history as an undergraduate at Loyola University, pursued graduate studies in cultural anthropology at Tulane University, and received his J.D. from Cornell University.
Charles Leary holds a PhD and MA in history from Cornell University, and received his A.B. magna cum laude from Kenyon College.
Both Perret & Leary have taught the Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School since 2000.
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