We travel to see new places, experience new cultures, meet interesting people and, of course…eat. Since food is what we do best here, we started Zingerman’s Food Tours back in 1997 to share the places we love—near and far—and culinary adventures that even well practiced tourists have never even heard of.

Since then, we’ve really gone places! We’ve fished on the Mediterranean, met Cava makers in Spain, hand rolled couscous in Morocco, and made goulash in Hungary, just to name a few things. Close to home, we’ve devoured the food traditions of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula and Detroit.

There’s always a long afterglow after we return from these trips. We’ll admit that it’s always a bit hard to get back to reality. With dreamy memories of recent tours to Croatia and Tuscany still fresh in our minds, here’s some of what you can expect when you travel with us.

You’ll taste the intricacies of the food regions you visit
Food traditions transcend borders. On our tour to Croatia, we explored culinary intersections, spanning from Austro-Hungarian dishes to those with Italian influences on the coast. “You also have a mix of the two and all this mixing of ingredients, and then you have all this fresh seafood from the Adriatic,” says Amy Emberling, who led the tour. “One of the locals said, ‘This place is full of border stories because the place is very much about borders shifting.'” Our trips are designed to highlight the major differences and the subtle intricacies of food regions.

You’ll see how some of your favorite foods are sourced and made
In Tuscany, we witnessed our favorite Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese being made. The couple who produce the cheese wake up at 3:00 am to produce 10 wheels of parm every day. Our group didn’t get there quite that early, but we did get to witness a large part of the process. A tasting with cheese and yogurt followed. Love truffles? In Croatia, the group visited Buzet, the country’s truffle capital and even participated in a hunt with an expert and her truffle-sniffing dogs. That was followed by a truffle breakfast that even included truffle and olive oil ice cream.

You’ll cook with some amazing chefs and learn from world-class artisans and experts
Cooking is a big part of Zingerman’s Food Tours. We take private lessons at cooking schools, and we visit private kitchens to learn how to prepare local delicacies from baked goods to pasta making and more. We also visit wineries, distilleries, and little butcher shops, like that of the famous Dario Cecchini in Tuscany’s Arno Valley. We’ve enjoyed private wine tastings in Chianti and toured coffeehouses in Trieste, too. With these experts and artisans come fascinating histories and personal stories that you won’t find in a travel magazine or tour book.

You’ll visit “the middle of nowhere”
“The goal of tours is to find places and take people to places that they wouldn’t normally go if you were a tourist—especially if it’s your first time,” says Amy. This means traveling far and wide to the smallest farms or the most remote villages. Building these relationships is something that Food Tours works on for years and years. And sometimes it takes many conversations and some serious convincing because many of the farmers and producers are not used to hosting groups. The Croatia trip included a day at a family-owned goat farm in Krnica that only a handful of visitors have every had the chance to see.

You’ll make strong connections and, maybe, life-long friends
Because we travel in small groups (never more than 15 people when we go international) and because our tours are focused on breaking bread, we connect quickly. “When you spend several hours a day around a table, or in a kitchen, with a group of people, it becomes very intimate and you create bonds pretty quickly,” says Kristie Bralbec, a leader on the Tuscany tour who added that members of the group have been in communication, sharing memories and photos of the Italian food they’ve been making a home in the weeks since returning from Tuscany. Kristie says that she feels like she’s made friends for life.

Intrigued? Visit our Zingerman’s Food Tours website to see our next few trips. Next year’s trip to Morocco has already sold out (it’s a good one!), but we have spots for Hungary, Spain, and Tuscany. Bon voyage! 

Cornman Farms Presents a Very Special Dinner

You won’t want to miss this event. Our friend, Gioacchino Passalaqua, an Italian artisanal food exporter and native Sicilian who co-leads the Sicily Food Tour with Zingerman’s Food Tours is coming to town Friday, January 8th, 7pm, and he’s bringing one of Sicily’s top chefs with him. Claudio Ruta is a Michelin star recipient for his restaurant La Fenice in the Villa Carlotta Hotel in Ragusa, Sicily. The area is renowned for its bounty of amazing foods, and Claudio is bringing many of those signature flavors along with him for a very special dinner at Cornman Farms in Dexter. With the assistance of Gioacchino—an accomplished cook and sommelier in his own right—Claudio will be preparing a menu with wine pairings that showcases the amazing foods of Sicily.

Reserve your seat here

Please join us! 

Travel with us to Michigan’s Beautiful Leelanau Peninsula

Zingerman’s Food Tours invites you to explore amazing artisanal food right here in Zingerman’s own backyard: the foodie paradise that is the Traverse City/Leelanau Peninsula area. We have created a very special 3-day tour, packed full of tasting, eating, drinking, and learning about great food and beverages directly from the artisans who make them. These producers will open their workshops to us and share their passion for what they do.

The local food scene up there is thriving – from farmers and cheesemakers to chefs and winemakers, everyone we talk to in that area is really excited about what’s happening there, and how vibrant, and delicious, their local food web has become. And they are proud to share their knowledge, and the delicious fruits of their labors, with us. This trip is designed for travelers with a passion for great food made the way it was hundreds of years ago.

May 30 – June 1, 2014.

These tours sell out fast, so reserve your spot today!

To reserve your seat, call 888-316-2736, email us, or visit us online.

We’re going to Spain and Tuscany in 2014!

Zingerman’s Food Tours is about connecting with people and places through the food. We take a small group, settle in, and explore a cuisine and culture at a reasonable, balanced pace. We cook, we eat, we talk with locals, and we learn directly from the artisanal food producers about what they do. The relationships with people in the areas we visit, and within each group as we spend time together, are so rewarding and are a key part of what makes each tour special.

Spain
September 8-18 and September 20-30, 2014.
We’ve been longing to create another Zingerman’s Food Tour to Spain, and are excited to be offering this new tour! The area southwest of Madrid, sometimes called the pantry of Spain, has amazing artisanal food and wine, and we will savor it to the fullest. We’ll learn directly from the producers about their fantastic olive oils, cheeses, wines, chocolates, pimenton, and more. And of course, we’ll do full honors to the king of cured pork – jamón Ibérico de bellota, created only in this region from the famed black-footed pigs who dine on the acorns (bellota) that fall from the plentiful Spanish oak trees. We’ll enjoy the beauty of the region and taste our way through some of the best food Spain has to offer.
More info about the Spain tour, or contact us.

Tuscany
October 4-13, 2014 (We’ve added an additional day to the 2014 tour!)
Come visit Tuscany and Emilia Romagna the Zingerman’s way. We’ll go behind the scenes and visit traditional small producers of some of the region’s finest foods – from the massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, to the beautiful, small bottles of real balsamic vinegar, from Chianti Classico wines and artisanal olive oil to the melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto crudo. And we’ll roll up our sleeves and enjoy Tuscan cooking lessons in a 15th century villa in the rolling hills outside of Florence. Together with Peggy Markel, long-time fellow culinary adventurer and food guide, we will experience the wonderful food, culture, and landscape of Tuscany.
More information about the Tuscany tour, or contact us.

See you on tour!

Our most popular balsamics come from Vecchia Dispensa’s Roberta Pelloni and her husband Marino Tintori. Working just off the historic square in the center of the old town of Castelvetro, southwest of Modena, Italy, they make a range of great vinegars.

Although Americans tend to gravitate toward sweet, caramel-flavored balsamics, Marino is quick to emphasize, “the key to great Balsamico is balance.” Exaggerating sweetness is an easy way to enhance appeal and reduce the need for proper blending and aging. You might not notice it at first, but after many uses overly sweet balsamics get kind of dull. Not so with those from the Tintoris. We’ve been selling them for over a decade, and they have a legion of followers who return to them again and again.

We’re holding our annual sale on these great vinegars. These prices will not last, but the vinegar will remain as great as ever. Stock up, give a friend a gift, but whatever you do don’t miss out on these amazing deals!

– 6 year: $14.99 (reg. $18.99)
– 8 year: $19.99 (reg $24.99)
– 10 year: $24.99 (reg $34.99)
– 16 year: $29.99 (reg $44.99)
– 30th anniversary: $29.99 (reg $39.99)
– Balsamic sampler: $19.99 (reg $29.99)

Deli ONLY Specials
– 20 year: $49.99 (reg 59.99)
– Organic balsamic: $19.99 (reg $24.99)
– Aged Organic Balsamic: $34.99 (reg $39.99)

This sale is also happening at Zingerman’s Mail Order through March 31.

Don’t miss your chance to meet the Vecchia vinegar makers on Zingerman’s upcoming Food Tour of Tuscany in October 2013. For more details on Zingerman’s Food Tours, please visit www.zingermansfoodtours.com.

Zingerman’s Food Tours is about connecting with people and places through the food. We take a small group, settle in, and explore a cuisine and culture. We eat, we talk with the locals, and we learn directly from the artisanal food and wine producers about what they do. On our tours, you’ll go behind the scenes and learn from the locals about what makes the food so special. Come find out for yourself!

2013 Tours

Traverse­ City/­ Leelanau­ Peninsula,­ MI
*Our ­first ­domestic ­tour!­
May 17-19
A very special 3-day tour, packed full of tasting, eating, drinking, and learning about great food and beverages directly from the artisans who make them! These producers will open their workshops to us and share their passion for what they do. The local food scene up there is thriving – from farmers and cheesemakers to chefs and winemakers, everyone we talk to in that area is really excited about what’s happening and how vibrant, and delicious, their local food web has become.

Piedmont,­Italy­­
September 25-October 3
We’ll dine on regional specialties, and we’ll
go behind the scenes and learn about some of the wonderful products of the region, such as risotto, chocolate and nougat, cheese, polenta, grass-fed beef, the elusive white truffle, grappa, and of course the wide variety of wines, from the big reds such as Barolo, to the sparkling whites. And we’ll put on our aprons and get
a hands-on cooking class directly from a Piedmontese chef!

Tuscany­
October 6-14
We’ll visit traditional small producers of some of the region’s finest foods – from the massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, to the beautiful, small bottles of real balsamic vinegar, from Chianti Classico wines and artisanal olive oil to the melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto crudo. And we’ll roll up our sleeves and enjoy Tuscan cooking lessons in a 15th century villa in the rolling hills outside of Florence.

Hungary
October 15-25
We’ve been blown away by the amazing artisanal food of Hungary and by the warm welcome of its people, and we want to share them with you! Hungary has an incredibly rich and varied food tradition reaching back at
 least 1500 years, including an Eastern
European Jewish influence. From the regional cheeses, wines, cured meats, and bountiful produce, to the incredible breads, pastries,
and elegant multi-layered tortas, Hungary has 
it all.

Visit our website for more information about our tours. Or find us on Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!

Zingerman’s Food Tours
phone: 888-316-2736­
email: foodtours AT zingermans dot com