THREE GOURMET BREAKS TO BOOK NOW FOR 2020
DISCOVER IRELAND’S LARDER
With a smattering of new Gaelic restaurants and cookbooks making headlines in the UK, Irish food is enjoying a moment. Learn more from locals as part of Ashford Castle’s new A Taste of the West experience. Whip up a satisfying soda bread in a farmhouse kitchen, visit a shellfish farmer on icy Killary Fjord and join an expert forager for an enlightening shoreline stroll along the Aughrus Peninsula. From £2,000pp for the experience and one night’s accommodation. ashfordcastle.com
COOK PASTA IN PUGLIA
Sun-bathed and fertile-soiled, the heel of Italy is renowned for its vegetable-led pastas and seafood dishes such as vitello tonnato.
Master these and more at Castello di Ugento, a honey-coloured stately home in Puglia with a renowned cookery school that reopens in April. Browse the market, tour the hotel’s organic kitchen garden and learn to cook a four-course meal that would make nonna proud. From £388pp for the experience and one night’s accommodation. castellodiugento.com
MASTER SPICES IN DURBAN
Home to the world’s biggest Indian population outside the motherland, Durban’s food scene is a vibrant, cross-cultural medley. As part of the new spice masterclass at
The Oyster Box Hotel, the city’s landmark address, you’ll delve into the fragrant belly of a 100-year-old spice emporium, try tandoori with chef Kevin Joseph and sate your appetite on the Ocean Terrace’s famous curries. From £370pp for the experience and one night’s accommodation. oysterboxhotel.com