Cooking Up A Provence Vacation
A Guide to Week-long Cooking Classes
by
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You love to cook and you’re fascinated with Provencal cuisine. You’re ready to get serious and go to a Provence vacation cooking school and learn how to fix these dishes you love. You’d like to spend about a week at the school so you will have some time left to explore more of Provence. So how do you know which is the right school for you? You need to ask yourself some serious questions. This is not a simple process of selection. This book addresses those questions. First off, you need to determine how long you want to be in a class, how much money you want to spend and how much ‘hands-on’ time you really want. Classes can range in length from one day to two weeks or more. This book assumes that you will want to spend about a week in class. For most people who work, they only have a two-week vacation. One week in class will still allow you another week in which to see other parts of France. You’ve come this far, you might as well see as much or as in depth as you can. We also have to figure in travel time, which is at least a day on each end. Doesn’t leave a whole lot of time, does it? Think about how you learn best. Do you like demonstrations, hands-on, personal instructions or the anonymity of a large class? Of that time in class then, how much of it do you want to be actually working with the food and how much do you just want to watch how the instructor does it? Let’s be practical. As comfortable and as less intimidating as it might be to watch how an expert does it, you are really not going to acquire much experience unless you try it yourself. You may think that you will mainly learn some new great recipes in a class but the most valuable thing that you will learn are the techniques used to create authentic French cuisine. The techniques will also be useful to you in your general cooking practices when you return home. Do you only want to learn a few techniques and spend more time visiting markets, artisans, and historical sites? Check how much time is offered in each of the areas of hands-on, demonstrations, side trips. If you burn out quickly on lectures or working in the kitchen, you may want to select a class that only has half-day classes with the other half spent in outings. If group touring turns you off and you’re an independent soul, will there be enough free time to satisfy you?
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About the Book
Cooking Up a Provence Vacation
Eight classes with different approaches and emphasis are looked at in depth. A questionnaire helps readers define their preferences and a matrix then outlines the components of the different schools. Descriptions of surrounding places of interest and things to do outside of the class are given. Reference materials provide readers with invaluable resources: recipes from the schools; where to order French décor and cooking supplies in the US; recommended additional background readings; contact information for almost 50 cooking schools in Provence; a glossary of French cooking terms; conversion tables from metric measurements. When readers finish this book, they will feel comfortable to travel to Provence and attend a cooking class that is best for them.
About the Author
Lovern Root King has a passion for travel and gourmet cooking. She has traveled to over 70 countries and attended cooking classes with many of the top chefs in the U.S. as well as France. A Professor Emeritus in Intercultural Communications at the Evergreen State College in Washington State, she has taught college courses on travel, written a manual for living abroad, and led tours throughout the world. She has traveled to every corner of France and has lived in Provence. She is also a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.