I'm just back from a few weeks of teaching and touring around Australia, one of my favorite places on earth. If I didn't live in San Francisco, no doubt, I'd live in Sydney! And that's exactly where this trip started. I taught a few classes at Accoutrement in Sydney and then down to Melbourne for a couple more. It felt so good to be back there again after a few years' hiatus.

Then I traveled to Adelaide and met up with 12 students for an incredible week touring around two of the greatest wine regions in the world, McLaren Vale and the Barossa. You can read my Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts from the trip.

After Australia, I unpacked my bags and repacked them for a much shorter trip up to Portland, Oregon to speak at the annual IACP or International Association of Culinary Professionals conference. My session was called “The Experts are In” and I spoke about culinary travel. In preparation, I made a list of my “ingredients” for the perfect trip gathered from 15 years of experience taking groups on week-long culinary tours around the world.

Coming up with the “recipe” for a dream trip wasn't too difficult. Here's the basic recipe:

Recipe For a Culinary Tour

• 1 fantastic location
• 1 incredible itinerary
• 2 great assistants
• 1 energetic cooking teacher/culinary tour leader

Of course there is much more that goes into my trips than the basics. I take you to places you won't find in guide books. Over the years, I've looked at over 40 locations in Tuscany alone to find the perfect villa we use today in the heart of the Chianti wine region. The last time I taught in Provence, we took a hayride through a friend's olive grove and had a picnic lunch surrounded by 100 year-old olive trees. We search for the best bakeries, wineries, cheese makers, olive mills and restaurants that typify the region. And our villa always has a fabulous kitchen for our hands-on cooking classes, with al fresco dining by the pool, in the middle of the vineyards or olive grove. No two locations or groups are alike – and that's what makes each week so special and memorable! I guess that's why students return again and again saying, “That was the trip of a lifetime.”

I’m looking forward to teaching in both Tuscany and Provence this year – I didn’t teach in either location in 2009 so I’m working on some fabulous new recipes, places to taste and visit this fall.

Join me for an unforgettable week!

Can't make it to Europe this year?
Come to San Francisco!

Another lovely day in australia