The Cooking Experience in Spain
. . . for an extraordinary food and wine holiday / vacation

Join us in Spain for a wonderful culinary vacation where you will learn how to cook delicious Catalan dishes with daily hands-on classes in our relaxed yet luxurious private hotel in the small village of El Masroig.

We will take you on a wine tour of some of the Priorat's best wineries where the wine tasting and the one-on-one wine presentations and winery visits will allow you to discover what makes the Priorat wines so fabulous and renowned.

Find out why the Priorat olive oils are so outstanding with the help of an official olive oil tasting session.

Let us show you the beauty of this unspoilt and yet to be discovered region of Spain.

The Region

The Priorat is one of the oldest and also one of the least densely populated districts of Catalonia, and although it is only one hundred miles from Barcelona, it is as remote from a bustling city as could be possible. Located southwest of Barcelona, not too far from Tarragona, this region sits in a natural amphitheatre of low mountains that surround it on all sides. The twenty three towns that form the Priorat are all relatively small and quite close to each other, the principal one being Falset.

The economy of the Priorat has always relied on agriculture and the production of wine and olive oil, making it an ideal location for wine tours, winery visits and culinary tours. Here they have been exporting wine since the fifteenth century, and wine production remains its most important activity along with the production of olive oil.

There are several ruins from pre-Iberian settlements as well as vestiges of the Romans’ presence. The most notable historic feature though, is the “Cartoixa”, or monastery of Escaladei. Soon after the Islamic domination which ended in 1153, a group of Cartusian monks were sent here from France in order to establish their presence in Catalonia. Thus was founded the first monastery of the Iberian peninsula, which you will of course have the chance to visit during your stay.

Accommodation

“Catacurian” is a fourth generation family house, built in stone by Alicia’s great grandfather, and it is located in the small town of El Masroig, located within the region of El Priorat.

Recently “Catacurian” has been completely restored and transformed into a private hotel fitted with all of the amenities necessary to make your culinary vacation stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. There are three double bedrooms, all with private bathroom. A sitting room provides a common area where guests can read, listen to music, converse, or just relax. There is also a computer here with high-speed internet access for use by all of the guests. The heart of the house is the large kitchen/dining area with its open fireplace, where your classes will take place. Under the house is the barrel filled wine cellar with adjoining wine tasting room. Here is where you will learn of the famous priorat wines. A separate bar area provides yet another space where aperitifs or after dinner drinks are served. The garden and outdoor fireplace is where you will be making “Carn a la brasa”, a typical catalan meal consisting of a variety of meats grilled over live coals. The whole house is climate controlled so that you may be cool in the summer, and warm in the winter.

El Masroig is a small agricultural town of merely five hundred inhabitants. It has its own cooperative for wine and olive oil production which are its principal activities along with the cultivation and harvesting of almonds. The surrounding mountain ranges are visible from all around, and when looking towards the south the view covers miles and miles of unbroken land. At night every star is visible in the sky and this is a great time to have a walk to the nearby Ermita de les Pinyeres.

Catalan Cuisine

Catalan cuisine is a form of cooking that still closely reflects its medieval origins. Occupied for nearly seven hundred years by the Romans, followed by several centuries of the Visigoths, and then four hundred years by the Moors, the influences were certainly varied.

The first ones brought the wine, the olives and the bread, and the Moors brought the exotic element such as saffron, oranges , dates, raisins, almonds and the combination of sweet and savoury. It is soon after the last of these occupiers left that the first known Catalan cooking manuscript, the Libre de Sent Sovi, emerged in the fourteenth century. This was to become quite an influence on Italian and French cooking of the time.

In the fifteenth century the first actual cookbook to be printed, the Libre del Coch, attributed to Roberto de Nola, was done so in Barcelona.

One must also remember that the discovery of the new continent by Columbus in 1492 brought many new fruits and vegetables to Spain and helped change the shape of Spanish cuisine before the rest of Europe had the benefit of these new tastes. Today, basic Catalan cooking has not changed all that much since the days of the Libre de Sent Sovi, but thanks to some innovative chefs many new dishes have emerged, and old ones have become more colourful and subtle. This is what makes this region so interesting for a culinary vacation in Spain.

One may divide Catalan Spanish cuisine into three broad categories determined by geographical location:

• An important coastal cuisine based on fresh seafood.
• An inland cuisine which often uses seafood as well.
• A mountain cuisine which generally has a smaller variety of recipes.

Each of these categories are in turn different according to whether they are prepared by the middle-class, the peasants or fishermen, or whether it is popular cuisine for festivities. Catalan cooking is based on the use of fresh elements, whether they be vegetables, meat or fish usually purchased from the local market on the same day that they will be used. It is also a healthy cuisine as vegetables, fish, lean meats and fruit are its main ingredients, and cooking fat is almost exclusively olive oil.

These are the produce most typically used in Catalan cuisine:

• Vegetables:
  onions, garlic, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms.
• Fish:
  salt cod, monkfish, tuna, sardines, anchovies, herring, trout, squid, octopus, shrimp, prawns, mussels.
• Meat:
  rabbit, chicken, quail, veal, lamb, pork, duck, cured pork meats and sausages, snails, tripe, liver.
• Grains and legumes:
  rice, fava beans, lentils, chickpeas, white beans, black-eyed peas.
• Other:
  eggs, potatoes, olives.

The most common Catalan cooking techniques either use a cassola (a thick, low sided, earthenware pot), or a paella pan ( a low-sided metal pan with two handles located on opposite sides). Also very common is to cook al caliu (on hot coals), or a la Plancha (on the griddle).

Many dishes start with a sofregit, a base of mainly onion but which can also use garlic, tomatoes, peppers,- that is slowly cooked in olive oil until it is caramelised and consistent. This then forms the base upon which the remainder of the dish is built upon. Also typical of many a dish is the use of the picada. This is a mixture of garlic, olive oil, almonds and /or other nuts, fried bread, herbs and spices crushed together in a mortar and used to thicken and add flavour to the dish near the end of the cooking. The most used accompanying sauces are the famous allioli, olive oil and garlic mixed together until creamy in consistency, mayonnaise (most Catalans still make this fresh and by hand), romesco a mayonnaise consistency sauce made with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, bread, tomato, parsley, nyores (a dried pepper), and samfaina, a mix of onions, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers cooked in olive oil.

Your Hosts

Alicia Juanpere gives the Catalan cuisine classes, drives the guests to all of the winery visits and excursions, picks them up and drops them off in Barcelona and caters to their every need. She started cooking Catalan food at the age of five with her mother and after a career in ballet, she finally decided to study cooking professionally, and thus attended both the Terra d'Escudella and Bell-Art chef schools in Barcelona and worked in the kitchens of the Restaurante Julian Tomas, before creating Catacurian with her partner Jonathan Perret.

Alicia	Jonathan
Eline	Neus

Summary

Catacurian offers three to six day holidays / vactions of hands-on Catalan cooking, visits to some of the best wineries with wine tastings, a professional olive oil tasting session and the discovery of this beautiful and unspoilt region so reminiscent of Tuscany. To keep their quality high, they only cater to a maximum of six guests. Their private boutique hotel cooking school has three luxurious double bedrooms with private bathrooms, high speed internet, temperature controlled wine cellar, wine tasting room, guest room, al fresco dining garden, two fire places and is fully climate controlled year round. Their prices (ranging from €1350 to €2850) include absolutely everything except the airfare.

Catacurian’s large dining / kitchen area has been purposely built to teach hands-on cooking to up to six guests and is professionally outfitted. The wine cellar is temperature controlled, and all five hundred of their wine and drink glasses are from Spiegelaus. The 3 double bedrooms have imported Belgian Latoflex beds for great comfort, and all of the adjoining bathrooms have double sinks, warm towel racks, hair dryers and iroko floors.The whole house is temperature controlled year round.
Their minibus used for pick-up, drop-off and excursions is extremely comfortable and fully climate controlled for all passengers.

Other Activities

Winery visits include any of the following wineries:

• Clos de l'Obac, in Gratallops
• Conreria de Scala Dei in Scala Dei
• Joan d’Anguera in Darmos
• Mas d’En Gil in Bellmunt
• Cellers del Masroig in El Masroig
• Cooperativa de Capçanes in Capçanes
• Viñedos de Ithaca in Gratallops

Cultural trips include any of the following visits:

• Scala Dei Monastery from the Twelfth century, the first one on the Iberian peninsula.
• The lead mines of Bellmunt.
• The modernist Gaudi route in Reus.
• Ceramics store and artisans in Miravet.

The olive oil tasting session is given by a technician from the Associacio d’Oleocultors del Priorat and is given in our wine tasting room using the same techniques as used by the professional international olive oil tasters.

A presentation on the making of cured meats (hams, sausages, pâtés, etc) is given by a local Master Artisan from Falset.

To find out more visit the Catacurian web site <click here>