Latin American food tour trends

Jim Kane, the founding director of Culture Xplorers is also on the board of of directors of the World Food Travel Association (WFTA).

Here is what he sees as three developing trends in the future of food travel:

Food for Social Change

"This is a budding movement which is particularly strong in Latin America," he says. "One of my favorite regional projects is the Pachacútec Culinary Institute (ICP) just north of Lima. Peruvian super-chef Gastón Acurio partnered with the Fundación Pachacútec to create a top notch culinary school along the coastal desert in Pachacútec. It recruits students from some of Lima’s poorest communities and costs a tenth the tuition of a private institute, offering life-changing opportunities to its graduates. As part of Culture Xplorers’ unique partnership with the ICP, we bring travelers for a cooking lesson side-by-side with the students, who then share this meal with the visitors.”

Adventure Foraging

“Autumn is a great season for foraging in Cataluña, Spain, where you can easily travel from the Pyrenees to the coast in the same day," says Kane. "One of my favorite adventures here is to accompany a seasoned botanist — alongside plenty of local ‘boletaires’ (mushroom hunters) — on a quest for highly prized, seasonal wild mushrooms in the forested foothills of the Pyrenees. Then switch gears and kayak along the Catalan coast in search of edible seaweed and aromatic herbs.”

Trekking & Terroir is a way he also sees as a form of connecting with the land and local producers is already in full bloom in many places around the world. "One of my favorite recent experiences is shadowing a Basque shepherd on an engaging variation of his morning rounds, re recounts. "First we try our hand at milking one of the indigenous Latxa breed of sheep which produce the region’s famed Idiazabal cheese. We make and chill 'cuajada' (fresh cheese curd) and taste some of the farmhouse cheese washed down with a bottle of refreshing, txakoli (sparkling) wine. A 90-minute walk through rolling hills and pine-covered trails works back our appetite just in time for lunch! “

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