This fall, turn your travel experiences into a celebration of food and wine. From Western Australia to Mexico and Bhutan, these are the gastronomic adventures to travel for.
Margaret River Gourmet Escape
AUSTRALIA
Each year in November, this verdant region of Western Australia hosts a gastronomic event that attracts worldwide attention – the Margaret River Gourmet Escape festival. Taking place this year from the 16th to 18th November, the three-day festival features a series of gourmet beach barbecues, forest feasts and wine tours among its 45 events, which are held against a backdrop of Western Australia’s stunning landscape, bringing together some of the world’s most renowned chefs and sommeliers. This year’s chef line-up includes Rick Stein, Luke Mangan, Guillaume Brahimi and Nigella Lawson. The Gourmet Village lies at the heart of the festival experience with more than 120 artisan food producers, winemakers and brewers gathering to share their excitement for Western Australia’s flourishing food and drink scene.
Image: Instagram @gourmetescape
The Atlantic Hotel
UK
Make the journey to the island of Jersey off England’s south coast this fall to discover the local ingredients and culinary scene it’s celebrated for. One of Jersey’s most luxurious places to stay, The Atlantic Hotel, is enhancing the culinary experience you have here by becoming a part of Climavore Jersey—a group aimed at pioneering conservation cooking—and by launching its new Tasting Room offering seven-course gourmet menus. The Tasting Room is an extension of the hotel’s Ocean Restaurant by renowned chef Will Holland, serving unique dishes that are an expression of Holland’s vision of providing a modern adventure in food and wine. Expect dishes like Jersey scallop carpaccio with avocado, passion fruit and shizo. The hotel’s involvement in Climavore Jersey then gives insight into the way the ingredients we eat can have a positive impact on the environment with specially created dishes to try – seaweed and shellfish are particularly dominant as they’re lauded for their integral role in the preservation of the coastline.
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Valle Food & Wine Festival
MEXICO
Catch the second annual Valle Food & Wine Festival as the revelry takes place this October. In what’s now rated among the world’s most-worth-visiting wine regions, Valle de Guadalupe, a line-up of renowned chefs from the US and Mexico will gather to celebrate the region’s burgeoning food and wine scene. From the 5th to 7th October, people will gather at chef Javier Plascencia’s Finca Altozano to cook amid the vineyards and mountains over open-fires and in barrel smokers. This year’s chef line-up includes the James Beard Foundation Award winners Dominique Crenn, Jonathan Waxman and Rick Bayless along with more than 25 of the region’s top winemakers, craft brewers, musicians, artisans and artists. VIP tickets include premium Baja wines and appetizers by the Chef’s Table star Dominique Crenn along with Benito Molina and Drew Deckman.
Tambo del Inka
PERU
A hotel that combines an homage to traditional Peruvian culture with a contemporary approach, Tambo del Inka is among the top hotels in the Andes, with two pools and a spa to enjoy when you’re not out exploring the landscape it overlooks. By catching the end of the dry season (September and October) you can also experience its new Sacred Grains and Greens offering – a three-night stay giving you an immersion into the produce and landscape of Peru. The new package includes a bike excursion through quinoa fields and guided tour of the Maras salt flats with a picnic lunch incorporating local superfoods such as maca, sacha inchi, kiwicha and more. You’ll also have a cooking demonstration giving insight into indigenous cooking methods and go to Superfood School to find out about the local ingredients history and health benefits. Top this off by dining on fine Andean cuisine at the hotel’s panoramic Hawa Restaurant.
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COMO Uma Bhutan
BHUTAN
COMO Uma Bhutan has opened up the opportunity for guests to delve into authentic Bhutanese cuisine while staying at the two hotels COMO Uma Paro and COMO Uma Punakha on the six- or seven-night Himalaya Explorer itinerary. This gastronomic experience involves a half-day Bhutanese cooking class that looks into the techniques and ingredients native to this country. Led by the executive chef at COMO Uma Paro, Tshering Lhaden, who also worked at COMO Resorts in the Maldives and Caribbean, this culinary experience is designed to give a deeper understanding of the country’s culinary heritage and how it varies between the valleys. The cooking class takes place in the Punakha valley where fresh organic vegetables are sourced from local farms. After a walk around the lodge’s organic garden and cooking class in the open-air kitchen, you’ll be able to enjoy the meal you’ve prepared on a terrace overlooking Mo Chhu river.
Lympstone Manor
UK
On September 19th the Relais and Châteaux country house hotel Lympstone Manor will host its inaugural Protégé Dinner to celebrate the chefs who trained under the hotel’s owner and Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines in their formative years. For this event, eight of these chefs will be joining Caines in creating a collaborative eight-course tasting menu, accompanied by wines selected by the master sommelier Edouard Oger. Dishes will include wild River Exe fish with Exton saffron and estuary sea herbs cooked up by chef Tom Williams-Hawkes, Exmoor venison with celeriac, cavolo nero and blackberry by chef Liam Finnegan, and roast veal sweetbread ravioli with watercress and truffle by chef Robby Jenks. A dessert incorporating caramelized white chocolate, raspberry and pistachio will be prepared by chef Mike Tweedie who now cooks at Adare Manor in Ireland. Combine this dinner with a stay in the Grade II listed Georgian mansion.
Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort
SRI LANKA
Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort has just announced the launch of the new culinary experience, Harvest Table, based around the resort’s home-grown organic ingredients, sustainable farming and local cooking techniques. Executive chef Chaminda Pathirana will lead you on a guided tour of the organic garden and paddy fields while learning about the local ingredients and traditional farming methods, before meeting local fisherman Ranji, who arrives through the mangrove by boat, to see what seafood he’s brought in that day. Using the ingredients you’ve chosen, the chef will then cook up a typically Sri Lankan four-course farm-to-plate meal for you to enjoy in a treehouse built amid the resort’s tropical foliage.
