Tag: Travel

NEW TRIP: TLAXCALA, Aug. 24 – Sept.1, 2025

April 17, 2025

*Starts and ends in Mexico City*

Albeit very small geographically, Tlaxcala has a great culinary tradition with many ingredients that are of vital importance to all of Mexico’s cuisines today, and to Mesoamerica in the past. It also appeals to me geographically as a belly button of Mesoamerica, and as the perfect place for starting Culinary Adventures re-focus on our nation’s traditional cuisines. It will be the rainy season, which is our season of plenty. August is the month of harvest, par excellence.

Please arrive early to Mexico City to join our group from the onset, as we gather right away on Sunday morning where, over breakfast, we dive into introductions and conversation about our trip’s focus. We will go to the “belly button” of Mexico City- which will be prescient to the rest of our trip! After a very insightful talk by our associate Jafet Durán (ardent researcher, cook and as obsessive as us in fighting to defend our traditional cuisines), we shall head to the first of two grand cooking tutorials with our friend, the renowned culinary investigator and Chef, Ricardo Muñoz Zurita. 

Arriving to Tlaxcala by land -past great volcanoes- we will plunge into an array of activities under the guidance of master Tlaxcalteca Chef Irad Santacruz and lead by traditional Tlaxcala Cooks and experts. They include a bread-making class (a longtime dream- ¡ajúa!), a look into the millenary traditions of Tlaxcalteca utensils and, of course, examining the role of corn, amaranth and other abundant rainy season ingredients in indigenous cuisine via master classes by our traditional Cooks and, a grand tutorial with Chef Irad in his own culinary investigations workshop. Returning to Mexico City, we will sum up our trip with the final master class by Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita.

“Tlaxcala: Land of the Corn Tortilla:   August 24th-September 1st, 2025” starts at $5800 with our SLIDING SCALE SYSTEM* (for 6 participants) and includes: 8 cooking classes, 6 cultural visits/talks, 8 nights hotel (based on double occupancy), 3 meals/day, ground transportation within Mexico (Mexico City-Tlaxcala-Mexico City), and all fees associated with the trip, excluding airfare to/from Mexico. [The fee for a single supplement is $400.00] Minimum participants: 6. This trip starts and ends in Mexico City.

* SLIDING SCALE SYSTEM

Group Size (per person, double occupancy)

      6              $5800           

      8             $5000

     10            $4590

     12             $4000

     14             $3700

We have limited space and reservation time, so if interested in participating, a $550 deposit is due when signing up (check, Zelle, Venmo) and final payment by July 20th. You will receive a receipt and informative trip schedule after signing up!

With our sliding scale system, your final payment will be adjusted to the number of participants accordingly- rope in your best travel partners! In the extreme case of the minimum 6 participants not being met, your Culinary Adventures Inc trip deposit and payments will be fully refunded. 

Not included: •alcoholic beverages (apart from any we consider pertinent to a class or meal) •your airfare to and from Mexico •transport from international arrival •early arrival or departure accomodations •travel insurance •excess baggage fees •airline cancellation fees. We strongly recommend purchasing refundable tickets and travel insurance. 

By starting and ending in Mexico City, we have created the option of add-ons before or after the trip to allow you further exploration of other branches of our culture such as music, dance and the plastic (aka “fine”) arts. Email us for more info!

Reflecting on the vitality of natural corn as México stands up to save its people’s origin and legacy as “people of corn”- de maíz somos y maíz comemos-  and  expunges the GMO from our crops is exciting, as is musing on the power and complex role food plays, making us who we are… and are not!

We look forward with enormous joy and appreciation to sharing, once again, our endlessly rich and unusual country. Your participation helps to preserve the legacy of our traditional cuisines- Thank you! For any questions, please email us at office@culinaryadventuresinc.com or call, text or WhatsApp Carmen: (760)577-2810.

¡Hasta pronto! Carmen and Sofía

And…We’re Off!

June 7, 2024

We are thrilled to announce the  continued pioneering legacy of Culinary Adventures Inc by offering trips from a different angle that put the now “usual” culinary trip to Mexico on its head!

We are determined to re-focus Mexican cuisines on their places of origin to build an understanding of where the contemporary (and modern) riffs are coming from. Our trips will start and end in Mexico City (unless otherwise noted), transporting as a group to the region of interest, then back for a final wrap up with our longtime friend and collaborator, Chef Ricardo Zurita. Chef Ricardo puts your experiences together cohesively in an unforgettable masterclass (and meal!) sharing his years of research, investigation and profound love for our cuisines.

Our Trips Include: •regional cooking classes •demos •3 meals/day with group, hotel (based on double occupancy) •ground transportation (and air within Mexico, when applicable) •all fees associated with the trip (entrance fees, tips and similar)  

Excluded are: •alcoholic beverages (apart from any we consider pertinent to a class or meal) •your airfare to and from Mexico •early arrival or departure accommodations •excess baggage fees •travel insurance (strongly recommended)

Group size: A maximum of 14 guests like a large family at a restaurant in Mexico, and a minimum of 6 to keep things going.

NEW ITEM: Due to inflation since 2019, we’ve come up with a sliding scale system to encourage spreading the word and, as always, make the concept of a group the size of a large family out for a meal appealing– and it is culturally understandable in Mexico. Each upcoming trip will state its own sliding scale.

I do like to reiterate that we are the pioneers of these culinary trips in Mexico and have done them with a deep respect for our country. I continue to stand up for fair payment and respect to the people in each region we visit. Our country and its rich cultures are not a bargain, nor should any culture be so, anywhere.  75% of your fee goes just to the cooks, artisans, guides and food related places and personas!

Please see Upcoming Trips for a specific trip’s information and please email,  text or WhatsApp (760)577-2810 for any questions! 

          Hasta pronto- Carmen

“Cocina de fiesta: Oaxaca” August 31-September 10, 2024

June 7, 2024
Cook Reyna Mendoza at market in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca

For our Oaxaca trip, we will begin (and end) in Mexico City, flying as a group to and from the Nation’s capital to Oaxaca City. There we shall contrast, what I call, the Euro-centric methods and viewpoints of local Chefs with the reality of the truly sophisticated origins via regional Cooks.

Fiesta is a word misunderstood and mistaken not only outside of, but within Mexico. There exists no one fiesta in Mexico, there are countless- and we are going to Oaxaca to explore the day by day making of just one celebrated in the Zapotec town of Teotitlán del Valle, where the renowned Cook, Reyna Mendoza, will demonstrate and share her culture’s traditions in a day by day breakdown of preparations for a specific fiesta. This is not voyeuristic; this is a sharing of knowledge and traditions, with Cook Mendoza taking our guests into her culture and thereby building deeper understanding and respect for and of each other.

Please arrive early to Mexico City to join our group from the onset, when we gather around 5pm at our hotel for introductions and a conversation about our trip’s focus with Jafet Durán, followed by cena at one of our favorite (now Michelin noted!) restaurants. The following morning, post breakfast, we head to the airport and fly to Oaxaca. Here, we will have daily classes and experiences in Teotitlán del Valle with Cook Reyna Mendoza and other noted talent; contrasted by classes and demos with regional chefs and their delicious innovations with their beloved region’s ingredients. And of course, there will be market visits, market meals, hip meals, mezcal tasting, non food related cultural excursions and yes, a little free time to explore on your own.

On our final full day back in Mexico City, Chef Ricardo Zurita will put together our culinary experiences in Oaxaca cohesively, at an unforgettable class and meal, sharing his years of investigation and love for Oaxacan cuisines. Departure morning includes breakfast at our hotel and transportation to the airport.

“Cocina de fiesta: Oaxaca 2024” starts at $6250* (see SLIDING SCALE SYSTEM) and includes: 7 cooking classes, 4 demos, 9 nights hotel (based on double occupancy), 3 meals/day, RT airfare within Mexico (Mexico City-Oaxaca-Mexico City), and all fees associated with the trip, excluding airfare to/from Mexico. [The fee for a single supplement is $400.00] Minimum participants: 6.

* SLIDING SCALE SYSTEM

Group Size (per person, double occupancy)

      6              $6250           

      8              $5350

     10             $4850

     12             $4550

     14             $4250

We have limited space and reservation time, so if interested in participating, a $550 deposit is due when signing up and final payment by July 30th. Your will receive an informative trip schedule after signing up.

With our sliding scale system, your final payment will be adjusted to the number of participants accordingly. In the extreme case of the minimum 6 participants not being met, your Culinary Adventures Inc trip deposit and payments will be fully refunded. 

Not included: •alcoholic beverages (apart from any we consider pertinent to a class or meal) •your airfare to and from Mexico •transport from international arrival •early arrival or departure accomodations •travel insurance •excess baggage fees •airline cancellation fees We strongly recommend purchasing refundable tickets and travel insurance. 

We look forward to receiving you in Mexico, sharing aspects of our cultures not designed for the tourist but indeed to create comprehension and esteem amongst each other! As I stated years ago, on our very first trip, I want to create Mexicophiles! For any questions, please email us at office@culinaryadventuresinc.com or send a text or WhatsApp to Carmen: (760)577-2810.

Hello Out There!

February 1, 2024

To both those who know me and those I have yet to meet- ¡¿cómo están?!!! Mostly leaving the exhausting Covid era out of the conversation- I do send my love to those affected by it and loving remembrances to those we lost.

After a long hiatus from our travels with groups, I am very happy to announce upcoming trips and a variety of services, some born from the pandemic- and others which have always existed on my part but not “advertised” in the past by Marilyn per se! Also, I have new coordinators assisting in the set up and investigation for trips. Jafet Duran and Cecilia Gaitan, both originally from Ricardo’s fold. They are invaluable to me. Some of you may well have met them at one point.          During Covid, I kept sane by teaching regional Mexican home cooking via Zoom for UCSD (University of California San Diego), consulting for several US located Mexican restaurants (with my team!) and translating cookbooks for Larousse México, plus the random projects Ricardo often throws at me!

UPCOMING TRIPS -oh those words are music to my ears- •OAXACA–Cocina de fiesta– September 1-8, 2024 •Yucatán–A fondo– for food professionals, November 9-17, 2024… On the drafting table are two summer trips of a slightly different nature, deeply rooted culturally and visually striking- more to come on them… And as always, I do like to reiterate that we pay people fairly, something I insisted on when Marilyn first proposed this business to me. Mexico is not a bargain or a deal. No one’s culture should be that.

New services for everyone– •We now offer personalized trip set ups for a fee, with or without one of us on hand to aide and assist in person. •We will also offer the flexibility of an alternative trip for aficionados or food professionals on most trips offered, if a minimum number of participants is met. This allows our food professionals to get their “manos en la masa” for the benefit of their profession and our aficionados to fulfill their culinary obsession of Mexican foods! •Dates not right for you? •Want to go at another time? •Have a group of staff or friends wanting to go? Text (760-577-2810) or email me office@culinaryadventuresinc.com and let’s see what we can work out!

New for food professionals– •Recipe development •staff training in food and culture in Mexico or on site at your restaurant •sourcing of service equipment such as linen, tableware, crockery, glassware and furniture •sourcing of ingredients (allowed by USDA!)…These are many of the “new” and some already existing services we want to offer our food people!

This is all for now, I will follow with more soon. And those of you who are already our people -our gente- an email will go out soon. ¡Hasta pronto! Carmen

Our past trip. Our next trip.

April 24, 2019

Finally having “Instagrammed” our past Mexico City- Puebla-Tlaxcala trip, I am ready to begin ravings on our upcoming September trip. A “few” photos of this past trip here, too:

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This is an unusual business: one has a need to savour, relish and reflect on the most recent travel to Mexico.  The very interesting, complex people– both participants and regional presenters– the breadth and scope of flavors, ingredients, knowledge and history behind each food shared with us make for deep brooding, and heartwarming reminiscing.

But ….onward to the next culinary adventure!

September 21–29, 2019

Mexico City-Querétaro-San Miguel de Allende

This trip is for food aficionados, starting and ending in Mexico City, where we will explore cultural and culinary delights, and onward to discover parts of colonial Mexico and local foods via Querétaro and mainly, San Miguel de Allende!

In San Miguel, a UNESCO Cultural heritage Site since 2008, we will discover Guanajuato and Querétaro’s little known delicious cuisines through our demos and classes in a private home, with chefs, and cooks. Beneath and beyond the foreign retirees and visiting nationals, a thriving local world of course, exists… And the setting is beautiful– colonial architecture, along with galleries, fine handicraft shops, traditional bakeries, and all sorts of bars, cafés and restaurants.

Plan to arrive at least a day early to join our group from the very first gathering in Mexico City on Saturday, September 21, 2019 at 6pm.

The fee for this Culinary Adventure is $3750 double occupancy, $4000 single occupancy. As is custom these past 30+ years, our fee includes daily classes or demos, 8 nights hotel, at least two meals a day and all fees associated with the trip, excluding airfare. All classes include well-served tastings or meals– you do not go hungry on our trips!

A $400 deposit is required to reserve a spot on our trip, with the balance due June 12th, 2019.

[Please read our policies here https://culinaryadventuresinc.com/policies/]

Email Carmen now for questions and to sign up:

office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

¡Hasta pronto!

SAN MIGUEL de ALLENDE, 2019

February 11, 2019

Dates for our San Miguel de Allende Trip are September 21st – 29th, 2019!

Sign up now as we are already filling our roster…

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Join us on an adventure to the high, fertile el Bajío (lowlands) region or heartland of Mexico, where vestiges of the colonial past stand as reminders of their Spanish domination both in San Miguel as in Querétaro.

From chef classes to in-home meals,  regional cooks to demos of local foods both pre-Colombian and post, along with our customary local cultural experiences, we will soak up the warmth of this region, with some time to roam and ramble throughout the charm of San Miguel… and of course, we include a taste of Mexico City. Contrasts- as always- on our culinary adventures!

¡Nos veremos en septiembre!

Email Carmen to sign up plus more information at: office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

 

Snapshots of Puebla and Tlaxcala, ¡vamos! March 2019

November 29, 2018

Tiles, cazuelas, Colonial, Baroque, tradition, the origin of corn, ‘ancient grains’, moles, mills, tamales, fresh ingredients, markets, contemporary takes on very traditional cuisines… Just a few key subjects on our upcoming trip to the high plateau of central Mexico– Mexico City-Puebla-Tlaxcala, March 10-18, 2019.

Sign up now! Call or email Carmen: (760) 577-2810  office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

 

 

Next Stop: Yucatán

October 22, 2018

Yucatán State–  January 13-21, 2019                          

From the serene, colonial state capital of Mérida, to majestic Uxmal on the Puuc loop of archeological sites, we will soak up Yucatán via regional food –of course– music, and history.

Join us and visit Mexico through our unusual perspective! Email for information at: office@culinaryadventuresinc.com

    –Since 1988– Pioneers in Mexico Culinary Travel   

 

Puebla/Tlaxcala Late Winter

Why Not Start With Dessert? Snap Shot of Micro Xalapa ’18 Trip

October 4, 2018

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August 10th to 15th, we went to Xalapa, Veracruz to learn from Anthropologist and Cook Raquel Torres Cerdán. Raquel generously connected us with her students and peers.

These dessert photos reflect the new and traditional- from young Chef Alejandra Ramírez of Coatepec, infusing her creations with memories of childhood amidst coffee forests, Chef Luis Palmeros experimenting with his well learned local ingredients in Xalapa (check Instagram: ___whiteroom El Cuarto Blanco) to Pujol-trained Chef Erik Guerrero, revolutionizing fishing near his hometown of Veracruz and cooking up sophisticated delights with, again, local ingredients! Of course we have classic Xalapa with Raquel Torres and her superb flavors.

Chef Alejandra Ramírez
Chef Luis Palmeros
Chef Erik Guerrero
Raquel Torres Cerdán
Raquel Torres Cerdán

Below is a slide show of our trip which included Jim Maser of Picante in Berkeley, CA, Omar Rodriguez of Oyamel in D.C. , and Churchill Orchards of Ojai, CA.

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Looking Back on our Chef’s Trip to Mexico City…

February 15, 2018

“No es de donde es el ingrediente originario, sino lo que el ingrediente representa para una cultura” .      “It’s not the origin of an ingredient that’s important, but what that ingredient represents for a culture.”                 –Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita

These words by Ricardo caught my attention before leaving to our Mexico City Chef’s Trip in January.   They got me even more excited for the trip; the reunion with both Ricardo Muñoz and Ana Elena Martínez, our shared sense of purpose, the smells, sounds, colors of people, of foods, structures, skies–everything that makes your land of birth sing to you, always calling you home. These words especially got me looking forward to seeing our guests fall for Mexico and, “getting” the importance of what an ingredient can, indeed, represent for a culture.

And fall they did. Some- once again, others- for the first time, others still- through our viewpoint. A marvelous combination of food people, from different backgrounds and cultures and culinary experiences. They soaked up the subtle difference of a cooked- as opposed to an uncooked- tomatillo in a “raw” salsa, our delicious mestizo food world and it’s class differences- visible in our cuisines, a joyful miscegenation of ingredients and techniques; the depths that corn reaches back into our culture, the soul food of Tlaxcala, a warm northerner’s rock and roll edgy cooking, the happily “surreal” idiosyncrasies of our country and their influence on a chef and perception of  color, a  chef’s conscientious quest to go back- and bring forward- old styles a la slow foods….Chefs Ricardo Muñoz, Josefina Santacruz, Irad Santacruz, Cooks Nicolas Hernández and Dalia Rodríguez, Chefs Antonio de Livier, Martha Ortíz and Gerardo Vázquez Lugo outdid themselves and REALLY showcased those ingredients and what they represent to our multi cultures of Mexico. I can’t thank them enough.

We will be posting photos of the trip now and then between sending out a cry for Oaxaca, which we shall visit in September at the end of the abundant harvests of rainy season. More to come on that fabulous trip!

I had Ricardo’s words in my mind on the way to Mexico City.  But they came back to me while reflecting on Marilyn Tausend’s departure and what she means to me, her unplanned influence on so many people over 30 years, her stubbornness for Mexico, for cooking, writing, learning and, connecting people.  Her lost soul as a child, found again perhaps in Mexico, makes me  realize that it is not her origin that is important, but what she means and represents to the Mexican culture and the world she created.

Mil gracias, Marilyn, q.e.p.d.

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Photos from Veracruz 2017, musings by Carmen Barnard

August 16, 2017

Putting together a photo sampling of the Veracruz Trip,  January 2017, causes me to muse on how sad we were with the thought of Marilyn closing down Culinary Adventures, while in the midst of this wondrous trip.

Creating a link, years ago, for others to experience the cultures of Mexico through our foods and people is a truly impressive attainment.  Culinary Adventures is a pioneer in this.  Ricardo, Ana Elena and I are so proud and happy to continue forward, and it is a tribute to Marilyn’s character to have found a way to continue this legacy through us, her original right arms!

I began to write up a timeline of our people from start to present but, the list is way too long and I refuse to leave out any of our respected cooks, chefs, restauranteurs, market stall owners, taco stand vendors, tamal  makers… you get the idea, ¿no?

Suffice it to say that I  find these to be prescient times to continue with cross cultural exchanges. Mutual appreciation and understanding create a positive world.  And what better way than through food?

We look forward to seeing our highly appreciated ‘old’ friends and meeting news ones as we share our vision of Mexico with you.

¡Hasta pronto!

Carmen

 

Our Veracruz group in La Finca coffee plantation
Final day in Veracruz
Street of Tlacotalpan
Tlacotalpan
Young girl in Tlacotalpan
Chef Ricardo Muñoz
Ricardo and young Chefs, Taller Acuyo, Xalapa
Ricardo Muñoz Class Xalapa
Raquel, Rick, Ana Elena, Carmen
Rick Bayless Class, Xalapa
Raquel Torres
Raquel torres @TallerAcuyo
Rick Bayless caught picking coffee, Coatepec, Ver.
Fish Market
Fish Market
Fish Market, Port of Veracruz
Tlacotlapan

 

“Chefs’ Trip January, 2018–Celebrating Culinary Adventures Return!” by Carmen Barnard

August 1, 2017

We are starting off with a brand new Chefs’ Trip to Mexico City and all its splendor this coming January 22 to 28, 2018.

This trip is for food professionals ready to take on as much information as possible during a week filled with classes, demonstrations, and discussions with Ricardo Muñoz and a wide gamma of chefs with stupendous talent like Martha Ortiz, Juan Cabrera, Josefina Santacruz, Israel Gutiérrez, Pilar Alonso, Gerardo Vázquez Lugo, Diego Niño, Jorge Vallejo, and Jair Téllez.

Chef Ricardo Munoz
Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita

Ricardo Muñoz Zurita is chef/owner of the Azul restaurants in Mexico City. As pioneer chef of Mexican cuisine and ardent researcher of Mexican foods and ingredients, he has written many Mexican cookbooks; Los Chiles Rellenos en México, (UNAM 1996), Verde en la Cocina Mexicana [Green in Mexican Cuisine], (HERDEZ 1999), Los Chiles Nativos de México [Native Chiles of Mexico](DGE/EQUILIBRISTA 2015), to name a few. His Diccionario Enciclopédico de Gastronomía Mexicana [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy] (Larousse, 2012), is awaiting final editing from the University of Texas Press for its English version. Along with the national respect garnered, I now note the younger generation of Mexican chefs and cooks reverence of Ricardo, and in August, 2016, the “Chevalier de l’Ordre Mondial de L’Académie Culinaire de France” was awarded to him.

Our lodging will be in La Condesa area, a ‘happening’ neighborhood right near our cooking classes, and close to one of Marilyn’s favorite markets, the Mercado Medellín. We will also try traditional spots of all sorts in the city and environs.

We have limited space on our Chefs’ culinary trips, so if interested in participating, let us know as soon as possible. As a thank you to our chefs who have been with us all these years and to welcome new chefs joining us, your trip costs $3750 and includes 7 classes, hotel, two meals a day and all fees associated with the trip, excluding airfare.

¡Hasta pronto!

Carmen Barnard