Gastronomic Catalonia: Barcelona and beyond
15–21 September 2008 (EV 118)
7 Days, £1,980
Lecturer: Gijs Van Hensbergen
- Eat well, drink well: 3-Michelin-starred lunch, award-winning chefs and quality wine producers.
- Sightseeing ranges from mediaeval to Modernist art and architecture.
Food is at the very core of Catalan existence. Food culture and interest in dietary matters reach back to the period when the Greeks first settled at Empúries. The Carthaginians brought lentils, chickpeas and fava beans, the Romans introduced the vine and olive and four centuries of Moorish domination brought sweetmeats, spices and aubergine.
Barcelona’s covered food markets are among the most enticing in the world, set out under ceilings of Art Nouveau stained glass in a city engulfed in the exuberance of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural confections.
The Nouvelle Catalan cuisine offers complex techniques which find their echo deep into France. The chefs that create them are some of Barcelona’s most renowned: Sergi Arola, Spanish chef of the year 2004, 3-Michelin-starred Santi Santamaría and Xavier Pellicer, who runs the most up to date establishment in town.
Historically the region also extends into France. There are the fishing ports, the Pyrenees and the Vallées Orientales, and the wines: Priorato, rich and tannin-steeped, and sweet Moscatel, peasant foil for the Gewürztraminer experiments of the last decade. Catalan wine is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance.
Itinerary
DAY 1: BARCELONA—fly at c. 11.30 a.m. from London Heathrow to Barcelona, capital of Catalonia—visit the Adriá family’s chocolate emporium—dinner in one of the city’s leading restaurants—first of three nights in Barcelona.
DAY 2: BARCELONA—the Art Nouveau Boquería with its extraordinary displays of fresh produce—the Barri Gotíc, the most complete surviving Gothic quarter in Europe— the soaring Sta Maria del Mar, Catalonia’s finest Gothic structure—a wine tasting including rare Catalan reds—lunch in the restaurant of the stylish 5-star Hotel Arts to sample Sergi Arola’s contemporary Catalan cooking—the Palau de la Música, the ornate concert hall by Gaudí contemporary Domenech i Montaner—overnight Barcelona.
DAY 3: BARCELONA—the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, home to the greatest collection of Romanesque frescoes in the world, and the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion—a 1900 lunch with recipes from the gent de bé – Barcelona’s legendary good families – at Gaudí’s neo-Baroque Casa Calvet—visit his La Pedrera building of 1906–10—overnight Barcelona.
DAY 4: BARCELONA, SANT CELONI, MAS PAU—walk in Gaudí’s Parc Güell—lunch in the small town of Sant Celoni, where chef Santi Santamaria holds three Michelin stars—continue to the 16th-century manor house of Mas Pau—first of three nights in Mas Pau.
DAY 5: GIRONA, EMPURIES— visit the Gothic cathedral in Girona—important illuminated manuscripts and tapestries are found in the chapterhouse—light lunch with tasting of the region’s acclaimed white wines—the ancient city of Empúries, first point of contact for Greek traders in 550BC—overnight Mas Pau.
DAY 6: BANYULS-SUR-MER, COLLIOURE (FRANCE), CANTALLOPS, MAS PAU (SPAIN)—visit the charming town of Banyuls-sur-Mer and the pretty port of Collioure, a favoured retreat for Matisse and the Fauves—light lunch of anchovies, a key local industry—visit the vineyard of one of the Empordà’s finer producers—dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant at Mas Pau.
DAY 7: FIGUERES—free time in Figueres to visit the Dalí museum—drive to Barcelona for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 6.00 p.m.
Practicalities
Price: £1,980 (deposit £200)–this includes:–air travel (economy class) on scheduled Iberia Airlines flights (aircraft: Airbus 320)–travel by private coach with some use of the metro in Barcelona–hotel accommodation as described below–breakfasts, five lunches and four dinners (including two light ones), with wine, water, coffee–all wine and food tastings–all admission charges–all tips for restaurant staff, drivers, etc.–all state and airport taxes–the services of the lecturer–single supplement £190 or £260 (for a superior room in Mas Pau)–price without flights £1,880.
Gijs van Hensbergen: Read languages at Utrecht University and art history at the Courtauld Institute, London University, followed by postgraduate studies in American art of the 1960s–has worked in England, the USA and Spain as exhibitions organiser, TV researcher, critic and freelance writer–author of Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile, Guernica and numerous articles for publications including the Burlington Magazine and Wall Street Journal.
Hotels: in Barcelona (3 nights): a 4-star hotel very well placed for buildings by Gaudí and other modernist architects–rooms are modern, comfortable but on the small side–rooftop terrace and Michelin-starred restaurant (though the chef is Basque - Mart’n Berasategui - and so this is an option for an independent meal)–near Figueres (3 nights): converted 16th-century farmhouse set back from the road in gardens–renowned for its restaurant with comfortable rooms alongside.
How strenuous? Meals can be long and large and so expect some late nights–a lot of walking in Barcelona, some of it over uneven paving–average distance by coach per day: 52 miles.
Music. It may be possible to book tickets for the opera at the Liceu or a chamber concert at the Palau de la Musica–details will be circulated to participants nearer the time.
- Small group: this tour will operate with between 10 and 22 participants.
