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Spanish Cooking Holidays in AndaluciaDiscover the true taste of Spain – authentic cuisine and culture in the mountains of Andalucia With our Spanish Cooking Holidays we offer you a new way to discover Spain. If you love to cook, or would like to learn about cooking, if you enjoy feasting on the fresh tastes of Mediterranean cuisine and relaxing in the Southern Spanish sun: then come and join us on our culinary adventures in Andalucia. Home for the Spanish Cooking Holidays is Casa Ana, a 400-year old private house perched on the side of the stunningly beautiful Trevelez river gorge in Las Alpujarras. The location is perfect: an easy walk to village kitchen gardens, to olive and almond groves, and to the mediaeval mountain paths for gathering wild herbs. From here we can also visit the area’s wineries, moorish mountain villages with their famous dried hams, and the fabulous historic city of Granada. “A truly enriching experience…something I will always savour and remember with a smile” ” Contents of this page
About our Spanish cooking and culture holidaysThese vacations offer a full programme of cultural and culinary excursions as well as cooking classes: we sample Andalucia’s gastronomic specialities at the village bodegas and in Granada; we visit local vineyards and discuss wines with the winemakers; we take picnics to the river and visit the famous white villages of the Alpujarras; and we spend a day in Granada at the Alhambra palace followed by a relaxing soak in the Arabic baths and shopping opportunities in the Moroccan quarter of the city. Our chefs will teach you to cook dishes from all over Spain, from gourmet specialities to the simplest of recipes. Famous dishes are included, such as gazpachos and paellas which we prepare outdoors over an open fire. We also include many regional specialities, from the rich and hearty broths of Galicia to the delicate Ajo Blanco garlic soup from Malaga; from the robust cazuelas of beans and pork, or lamb slow-roasted for seven hours, to the most delicate of flavours such as marinated oranges in rosemary honey. Our ingredients come glowingly fresh from the markets of Malaga, Granada and the mountain villages. In the spring and summer we forage for wild herbs in the mountains and in the autumn we go to the woods to gather sweet chestnuts and wild mushrooms for our kitchen. We hope you will have a rich and unforgettable new experience of Spain, its culture and its gastronomic treasures. 
Your hostsOur team came together to run these Spanish cooking holidays because we share a passion for Spanish cuisine and culture and a love of the Spanish countryside: Kim Schiffer, a chef with a passion for local, seasonal and organic foods who has cooked in Italy, Morocco and California, and has now realised her dream of running cooking vacations in Spain; Francisco Lillo, chef, gourmet and raconteur from Cordoba who now runs Granada’s most famous delicatessen, La Oliva; Julio Donat who has devoted his life to the study of the local flora and the their culinary and medicinal uses; Anne Hunt, a former festival director in London who in 2002 made the leap to go and live in Spain. There she stumbled on a derelict, 400-year old house in the Alpujarras and transformed it into a beautiful centre for mountain retreats; The programme of cooking holidaysAutumn Cookery and Culture course 2008This is the time for gathering chestnuts and wild mushrooms in the autumn sunshine and cooking hearty paellas over an open fire. Learn to prepare sumptuous dishes from all over Spain and beyond, visit local vineyards and sample cheeses and hams in the village bodegas. Plus a day in Granada with a visit to the unforgettable Alhambra palace. Dates: Saturday 1st — Saturday 8th November 2008 Course leader: Kim Schiffer Accommodation: Casa Ana in Las Alpujarras, Andalucia Price: EUR 1,625 per person (maximum 12 people) Programme: See details of this cooking holiday Secrets from El Limonero Kitchen 2008Wes Somerville, owner/chef of the celebrated El Limonero restaurant in Orgiva, Andalucia, will share some of the secrets from his kitchen. Create a world of sumptuous flavours: aromatic herb breads, perfect pan-fried fish, wild boar baked in clay, lavender crème brulée and much more. Dates: Thursday 13th — Sunday 16th November 2008 Course leader: Wes Somerville Accommodation: Casa Ana in Las Alpujarras, Andalucia Price: EUR 690 per person (maximum 12 people) Programme: See details of this cooking holiday Spring Cookery and Culture course 2009Learn to prepare a feast of Mediterranean dishes, gather fresh herbs in the mountains, picnic by mountain streams, go to the village bodegas to sample local wines and cheeses and explore Granada with a visit to the Alhambra palace and the Arab baths. Dates: Monday 20th — Wednesday 29th April 2009 Course leader: Kim Schiffer Accommodation: Casa Ana in Las Alpujarras, Andalucia Price: EUR 1,995 per person (maximum 12 people) Programme: See details of this cooking holiday What our guests say about the cooking holidays“I loved the food, the exposure to Spanish culture and the international nature of the Alpujarras. At Casa Ana we were well fed and pampered. The retreat center is set in incredibly beautiful countryside – a feast for the eyes, the stomach and the soul. ” “The great food, the congenial service from all who helped at the house, the beautiful setting were all wonderful. A ‘group tour’ that felt more like a week with old friends…” “I liked the cooking classes very much. So much to see, smell, taste and eat but so little time. The songbirds, the river and the breeze all play the symphony ‘Annual Pilgrimage’” “Wonderful atmosphere and experience. I had the opportunity to both relax and have a fun experience.” “Absolutely delightful.” “The Cookery & Culture course at Casa Ana was a truly enriching experience. Meeting wonderful people and sharing in cultural, culinary learning and excursions in a beautiful setting in Spain was delightful and something I will always savour and remember with a smile.” “A cooking adventure in a unique setting, surrounded by exquisite scenery, hiking trails, with access to locals knowledgeable about botany, wine making and restauranting.” The accommodation at Casa Ana
We stay at Casa Ana, a 400-year old private house in the Alpujarra mountains of Andalucia. There you will find stylish and comfortable accommodation, a fabulous country-style kitchen for our cooking classes, and terraces with stunning mountain scenery — the perfect setting for preparing paella, grilled fish and other culinary delights. More information on the house and its facilities is available on this site. In between cookery classes and excursions, there will be time to enjoy being at Casa Ana, with its secluded cottage garden and superb views of the Trevelez river gorge. You can wander out to the spring to collect pure mountain water, or have a look round the tiny, unspoilt village of Ferreirola, or write your postcards on the terrace, or do nothing at all but listen to the distant sound of goatbells and the river.  
About Las AlpujarrasThe Alpujarras is a stunningly beautiful mountain area on the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada range in Andalucia. It is situated about 90 minutes drive south from the historic city of Granada, and the same distance north of the Mediterranean sea. To explore the Alpujarras is to step back in time. For many centuries the area was populated by the Moors who left their mark on the landscape: everywhere you look there are terraced fields, mediaeval mule paths and an incredibly sophisticated, hand-constructed irrigation system with hundreds of kilometres of water channels (acequias) and tiny reservoirs (alberquas). For a thousand years these have provided water from the high sierras to every village and every meadow, almond grove and vegetable garden in the area. This system is still in use today. The Alpujarras is famous for its white villages, clinging precariously to the mountainsides. This too shows the legacy of the Moors: the jumbles of flat-roofed, rammed earth dwellings are not seen anywhere else in Spain but closely resemble the building style of the Atlas mountains of Morocco. For anyone who enjoys walking, horseback riding or mountain biking, the Alpujarras is a paradise of winding paths and stunning views. It is also renowned for the abundant variety of its flora and fauna - the Sierra Nevada is home to more than 2,100 plant species, over 80 of them unique, and many rare species of butterflies, insects, and birds. At certain times of the year you can see 65 - 70 different species of butterfly in a week. See elsewhere on this site for more information about the area, about its local amenities and on how to get to Casa Ana in Las Alpujarras. How to contact us and how to book
To book a place on any of our cooking holidays or for more information contact Anne at Casa Ana, tel: 0034 958 766 270 or email: info@casa-ana.com |
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In order that we can give maximum personal attention to each participant, there are only 12 places available on each cooking course.