No Ordinary Food Tours: What’s Next in Culinary Travel Takes You Deeper

At least that was the sense for a group who’d signed up with Zingerman’s Food Tours, a sister business to the gourmet delicatessen and mail-order provisioner in Ann Arbor, Mich. The smokery visit came on day seven of a 10-day dive into Ireland’s culture, history and diversity, all through the lens of its food. So far, the travelers had made gin and shucked oysters, met the goats of cheesemakers, dined at a Michelin two-starred Turkish-Irish restaurant and downed pints of plain. 

Since founding the smokery in 1979, Barnes has become something of a national treasure for her commitment to working strictly with wild-caught fish, particularly salmon. Wearing a red smock and blue wellies, Barnes demonstrated her smoking process, then led the group on a foraging expedition along the coast, clambering over rocks and through lush forests. By the ruins of an ancient church, the group paused to sip tea made from mugwort and other herbs they’d seen along the way. Then back at the smokery, the group feasted until after dark on risotto with foraged greens and mushrooms, cullen skink—a hearty fish soup—and smoked fish with brown bread.

If the expedition sounds like an episode of a TV show starring Padma Lakshmi, Andrew Zimmern or the late Anthony Bourdain, you’re on the mark. While standard food tours often promise little more than a string of superficial restaurant visits and a token cheesemonger stop, outfits like Zingerman’s are going deeper to explore food’s cultural roots and tapping the cred of celebrity chefs and renowned experts like Barnes. It’s a format a growing number of travel companies offer food-focused travelers: not just folks who enjoy eating but people who return home with more photos of kebabs than cathedrals and think that breakfast is the perfect time to exhaustively discuss lunch (and second lunch. And dinner.). 

“Food is an incredible vehicle for getting people really excited about a different place, a different culture, maybe a piece of history they didn’t know,” said Nathan Thornburgh, co-founder, with Matt Goulding, of Roads & Kingdoms, a food- and travel-oriented media company, based in New York and Barcelona, in which Bourdain was a partner. “We were always talking with Tony about ways to expand this foundational idea into different activities.” In 2021, the company launched League of Travelers, a gastro-tourism company with chef José Andrés as an investor. It aims to offer the sort of fearless cultural deep-dives associated with Bourdain to a wider audience. Not that wide, however: The trips are limited to 10-12 people who must each file an application.

Though going solo is alluring, experienced travelers know its limits. “If I could do everything independently, and then also walk into a kitchen and have someone be like, ‘I’m going to reveal my secrets to you,’ I would,” said Elaine Golin, a New York attorney, “but it doesn’t work like that.” Just as food-TV hosts rely on “fixers”—local experts who connect them with the best producers and purveyors—a food tour is only as good as its local intelligence. In Ireland, for example, Zingerman’s works with Kate McCabe and Max Sussman, who host the Irish food and culture podcast “Dyed Green” (and run their own gastro-tour company, Bog & Thunder). Alejo Sabugo, the main fixer for the Asturias episode in Spain of “Parts Unknown,” hosts and guides League of Travelers trips such as “Salamanca and the World of Jamón” in January 2024.

New and improved food tours often put well-known chefs at the helm. New York-based Tour de Forks partnered with chef Anita Lo to lead their group trips to places like Liguria in Italy and the Yucatán, or even Long Island for a weekend. There, fans of Lo stayed at Mama Farm B&B, owned by the actress Isabella Rossellini, in Brookhaven, N.Y. The group visited a North Fork oyster farm and foraged for edible mushrooms, guided by a member of the Long Island Mycological Club. 

To prepare their own dinner one night, attendees took a cooking class from Lo, learning to prep Long Island Crescent ducks, searing the breasts and making rillettes with the legs and thighs. A pasta dish featured fronds from a basketball-sized hen-of-the-woods mushroom they’d found earlier that day. A Wolffer Estate Vineyard expert expounded on local viticulture, and poured a steady stream of wine. 

Some companies offer an even deeper bench of notable chefs. Modern Adventure of Portland, Ore., for example, offers trips like one to Peru with Bay Area chef Traci Des Jardins and Peruvian-born mixologist Enrique Sanchez. Another itinerary to the Republic of Georgia featured Bonnie and Israel Morales of Portland’s Kachka.

For Modern Adventure’s 7- to 11-day-long trips, expect to pay from $4,700 to $14,900 per person. You’ll need to dish out at least $9,873 per person for League of Travelers’ trips, usually about a week. Zingerman’s trips run 7 to 10 days and start at $9,500. Seems extravagant, but demand generally outstrips supply, with many of these adventures selling out months in advance.

For those who want to travel without a group or request specific dates, there’s Modern Adventure’s super-luxury “Paragon” tier of private food tours. Trips start at about $60,000 per person with intriguing options such as Japan with Kyle and Katina Connaughton of Single Thread farms, the three-Michelin-star restaurant in Healdsburg, Calif., and South Korea with husband and wife team, Junghyun and Ellia Park, of New York City’s acclaimed Atomix. That’s some very fine dining.

Epicurean Routes

Five long food trips led by culinary notables whose mission is to teach and tempt your taste buds

“New luxury [travel] is access—being able to go to places. Into people’s homes and go deeper,” said Modern Adventure’s founder Luis Vargas. Here are ones that do:

1. Talk of the Town

The storytellers at Atlas Obscura partner with Culinary Backstreets for their unique Gastro Tours. “Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure” offers a six-day download of the metropolis’s foodways, from urban markets to island farms with a local guide.

From $2,880, AtlasObscura.com

2. Say Yes to Yunnan

In cookbooks such as “Every Grain of Rice,” Fuchsia Dunlop explores China’s culinary diversity. That makes her a worthy guide to the Yunnan province, which borders on Tibet, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. On Wild China’s 10-day culinary tour with Dunlop, you’ll taste delicacies such as rushan, a local cheese, and learn the story behind iconic dishes such as Crossing the Bridge noodles. From $5,869, WildChina.com

3. Israeli Gears

Chef Michael Solomonov and author Adeena Sussman, two leading interpreters of Israeli foodways, lead this nine-day tour that brings alive the street food and cocktail scene in Tel Aviv and the markets of Jerusalem, with visits to desert farms and wineries in between.

From $8,600, ViaSabra.com

4. For Heaven’s Steak 

Meat-lovers will savor a visit with José Gordon at Bodega El Capricho, renowned for its aged steaks, on a 10-day Madrid and Castile tour with Cúrate Trips by restaurateurs Katie Button

and Felix Meana along with Paladar y Tomar.

From about $8,000, CurateTrips.com

5. A Jaunty Jolt

See where two of life’s greatest pleasures, chocolate and coffee, originate on Moka Origins’ 10-day “Cacao & Coffee Sourcing Safari” to Uganda. This trip takes you to cacao, coffee and vanilla farms, and features wildlife experiences like chimp tracking in Kibale Forest National Park.

From $4,950, MokaOrigins.com

Culinary Quickies

Immersive daylong tours that let you fill-up on food and facts

1. Bosporus Bites

Culinary Backstreets grew out of an Istanbul-based food blog and now operates food tours in more than 15 cities, from Tokyo to Tbilisi. In Istanbul, pick from seven full-day tours spanning both sides of the Bosporus.

From $110, CulinaryBackStreets.com 

2. Go Roman

It isn’t hard to eat well in Rome, but connecting the best bites with the Eternal City’s history and culture takes a pro. Cookbook author Katie Parla leads walking tours like “Roman Cuisine in Prati and Trionfale,” through residential districts north of the Vatican.

From $474 plus tastings, for up to six, KatieParla.com

3. Queens for the Day

With residents speaking more than 160 languages, Jackson Heights is one of the world’s most diverse spots. That translates into an eclectic food scene, illuminated by Eat Your World’s Queens Food Tour, on which you might nosh on Tibetan momos, Colombian arepas, and Indian chaat.

From $70, EatYourWorld.com

4. Curry Favor

In Mumbai, specialized workers known as Dabbawalas deliver home-cooked meals daily with a level of reliability that’s made them a Harvard Business School case study. No Footprints tours give you a hands-on packing and delivery experience, and afterward, a vegetarian thali lunch.

From $301 for two people, NfpExplore.com