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Provence Cooking Classes with Patricia Wells
For  several weeks each year Patricia
Wells opens her 18th-century Provençal home
for personalized cooking classes to a small number of guests eager
to share in the food, wine, and culture of one of France’s
most blessed regions. Guests cook with herbs, salads and vegetables
from the garden, grapes from the vineyard, olives from the groves,
sip homemade aperitifs from the orchards, and prepare roast meat
and poultry in the wood oven fired with vine clippings from the vineyard.
The house wine is Clos Chanteduc, the fruity, fragrant red Côtes-du-Rhône
from the property. The five-day English language program includes
hands-on cooking sessions led by Patricia, as well as her guided
visits to markets, vineyards, shops, and local restaurants.
Each day’s program offers
something different; the prepared menus shared
around the farmhouse table, the insider’s
guide to the regional production of olives
and oil, and cheese, and tastings from the
rich selection of local wines, including the
famed Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the heady
and varied Vacqueyras and Gigondas, as well
as the huge variety of top  quality Côtes-du-Rhône.
All instruction is in English. Recipes are
geared to the home cook. Guests are supplied
with aprons as well as detailed recipe booklets
that are theirs to keep.
The class is limited to 10 guests.
The week begins with dinner on Sunday night
and ends after lunch on Friday. The fee is
$5,000 and includes market visits,
all tastings, transportation for local visits,
all lunches, and dinners Monday, Tuesday, and
Thursday. The fee does not include lodging.
(A list of recommended hotels is sent to enrolled
guests.)
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