Culinary Tours
Meet chefs, farmers, winemakers, food producers, and local culinary experts with commentary and guidance from Chef Green who shares her unparalleled culinary knowledge with guests. A certified tour director who leads exciting small-group tours of culinary exploration, 2020 itineraries include Morocco, Israel, Catalonia, Sicily, Bordeaux, Bayonne & Basque Country, and Three Greek Islands: Crete, Santorini & Naxos.
Moroccan Delights: Travel to marvelous Morocco, explore Fes (medieval cultural center), legendary Marrakech, Essaouira (famed for fish & silver), Atlas Mountains, and more. Cooking classes, market tours, guided tastings, winery visit, memorable meals and top hotels.
Israeli Cuisine & Culture Tour with Chef Aliza Green. Explore Israel's diverse culinary scene at restaurants, markets, in cooking workshops and demos. Meet Israeli culinary experts and chefs. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Galilee, Akko, Negev, Tzfat, dinner in the desert, Tunisian, Yemenite, Greek, Ethiopian, Moroccan, Ashkenazi, Arab food and more!
Catalan Art, Architecture & Cuisine Tour: Gaudi Day in Barcelona including Casa Batllo, Parque Guell and la Sagrada Familia, La Boqueria Market Tour and Hands-on Cooking Class, Art Day at Picasso Museum and Miro Foundation. Tour the famed Vic Saturday market; Dine at one-Michelin star Restaurant l’O. Professional guided tour of Girona focusing on Jewish Heritage.
Sicilian Treasures Tour: Capo Market Palermo, tour of Palermo, Monreale Cathedral and Cloister, Sicilian pastry class, Marsala salt pans & Marsala tasting, Valley of the Temples, chocolate at Modica, Syracuse and Ortigia, Taormina, pizza class, craters of Mt. Etna, beekeeping tour, Catania fish market, stay at an agriturismo (farm-inn), visit an herb farm.
Bordeaux, Basque Country & Bilbao Culinary/Cultural Tour with Chef Aliza Green. Explore Bordeaux's wineries, Bayonne's chocolate traditions, learn about foie gras, go behind the scenes at the Airbus factory in Toulouse then learn to make cassoulet, enjoy seafood on the Atlantic coast at Arcachon, visit markets and farms, spend a day in Bilbao and explore the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, learn about Basque cooking & espelette peppers, dine in carefully chosen restaurants.
Explore three delightful Greek islands (Crete, Santorini & Naxos), learn about the famed healthful Cretan diet in cooking classes, visit ancient Minoan sites in Crete, wine tasting, stay at a farm-inn in Crete with its extensive gardens, hike in the hills of Crete with lunch prepared by the shepherd and his wife, join the fun at local tavernas, visit Thirassia Island and tour its volcano with your local guide, travel by ferry between the islands and then tour the highlights of Athens including the Acropolis and the new Acropolis Museum.
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For questions, reservations, and a complete itinerary, visit my contact page or send an email to spice@alizagreen.com
- Culinary Tour Blog Posts -
Glossy black olives in hand-woven raffia basket, Fes medina
Olives, anyone? How many can we eat? And where do we put the pits?
What’s your memory of this glorious trip: is it the comfy bus in which only 5 people stayed in the same seats throughout; is it the power, wifi, nuts and water or is it the wonderful Mohammed who drove us for (how many?) kilometers, even during the
Multicolored olives for sale in the Fes medina
rain and sleet in the High Atlas mountains where some of us were terrified. But I bet it’s the extraordinary tour guide, Chacha, who spoke (at least) 5 languages, knew all about the history and geography, the architecture and the food, the people and the politics of this gorgeous country and kept us moving, interested and learning.
How about the great hotels we stayed in, including some with fewer amenities than we’re used to (e.g., hot water). Everywhere we managed thanks to our great leader, Aliza (AKA Aziza), who in her calm and professional tour-creator persona was able to deal with it all, including a melt-down, a foot injury, and unusual sleeping arrangements. Where else have you seen the tree-climbing goats, baby camels? When did you experience a longer-than-expected night-time camel ride followed by a cooking fire in the desert and sleeping in a “luxurious” tent?
There’s more: solar panels, modern architecture, ancient souks and medinas, hijabs everywhere but only 5 covered faces. ancient synagogues and cemeteries. Roman ruins, amazing on-the-water mosque, cooking lessons, spices, body scrubs and massage.
Please consider joining me, culinary explorer and chef/author Aliza Green, on this exclusive tour of Israel: land of contrasts, land of plenty, land of history.
Experience the best of Israel, where creative and exciting culinary fermentation combines Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrachi Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Maronite traditions, ingredients, and techniques. Tour Israel from the Galilee and Safad to the Negev, from the Mediterranean Coast to Jerusalem.
Visit markets fragrant with spices like Carmel in Tel Aviv and Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem. Experience the creations of Israeli chefs and bakers at top restaurants and small, local favorites and taste fine Israeli wines. Learn how farmers make the desert bloom in places like Shirat Hamidbar Farm. Enjoy lunch at the famed eponymous fish restaurant in ancient Akko, Uri Buri. 
Taste everything from Moroccan couscous to Yemenite jachnun bread, Ashkenazi kugel to Middle Eastern mezze and Tunisian shakshouka, now a national dish in Israel.
Savor an array of fresh and aged goat cheeses at Kornmehl Farm, where tradition and innovation work together in a fine balance.
And, of course, visit the must-see sites like the Kotel (the Western Wall of the ancient Jewish Temple), the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Dead Sea, and Masada. Free time in Jerusalem to visit sites such as Yad Vashem. 
This twelve-day tour from February 10 to 21, 2019 is limited to 15 guests, traveling by private van, with accommodations in 4 and 5 star hotels.
Please send a message to ChefAlizaGreen@gmaiil.com for more information on this exciting tour and I will send back the detailed itinerary with pricing and deposit information.
Morocco has been on my culinary radar ever since I first ate couscous in the Paris Jewish neighborhood of the Marais at age 12–it was a revelation. In years since, I had the opportunity to work with several Moroccan and Tunisian chefs, who inspired me to finally plan a trip there. Researching my two books on spices (Field Guide to Herbs & Spices and The Magic of Spice Blends), I became convinced that I needed to make that trip. And, I am very happy to say that my culinary/cultural tour with 13 guests was a delight for all, though not without its challenges–road to the Sahara closed due to snow (!), very slow-going to cross the Tichka Pass over the snow covered peaks of the High Atlas Mountains to Fez, and sleeping bundled up in every piece of clothing I owned including hat and gloves in a tent in the bitter cold of the Sahara night, which was nonetheless a high point of the trip for all.
Steaming chickpeas slow-cooked with gelatin-rich calves feet–one of the most delicious dishes of the entire trip at Dar Naji Restaurant in Rabat.
Vegetable tajine with preserved lemons and violet olives
Assorted almond cookies at Cafe Maure, Rabat
Fresh pink garlic Fes medina
Fresh cardoons, stalks of a plant closely related to the artichoke, were in season as were small, tender fresh green fava beans in the smell plastic bags on the side of the photo.
Donkeys work hard in the Fes medina
Fragrant herbs for royal tea, Fes medina
Chicken B’Stilla, a complex dish fit for celebrations, at Palais Amani, Fes medina,
Selection of spices for Ras el Hanout, rooftop of La Sagesse, Marrakech
Traditional stone mill for crushing argan nuts
Basket laden with spices, herbs, dyes, and other specialties at La Sagesse, Marrakech
Lamb and vegetable tajine t’faya at Le Jardin, Marrakech
Newly picked breakfast radishes and craquelines at Domaine Val d’Argan organic winery
Learning to make Moroccan breads at Chez Pierre in the Dades Gorge