Summary
Napa Cooking
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Prices From
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USD$ $3,450.00
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1st Departure
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01.01.0001
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Provider
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Vagabond Gourmet
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Destination
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California
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Duration
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7 Nights
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Challenge
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Beginner
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Avg Rating
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Not Rated
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Come along and explore the Napa Valley with us and discover the distinct personalities of this world famous food and wine region. Our itinerary is brimming with private vintner dinners, farmers markets and fantastic California cuisine, as well as private accomodations in a charming Bed & Breakfast. Grab your apron and let's get cooking---California Style!
Cedar Gables Inn
7 Nights Superior Ensuite Lodging
All Transfers
Exclusive Vintner Cellar Dinner
Tour of COPIA & Oxbow Market
Hands-on Cooking with Chef Laura
Elegant Gourmet Dinners with Stellar Wine Pairings
Celebrity Chef Night Lesson & Dinner
Castello di Amorosa Tour & Tasting
Lunch at Award Winning Regional Restaurant
Chauffeured Premier Wine Tours & Tastings
Daily Transport as per Itinerary
Tour & Lunch at Renowned Olive Oil Producer
7 Breakfasts, 4 Lunches & 6 Dinners
Itinerary
Day 1- Wednesday- Welcome to Napa
Transfer from Oakland (OAK) International Airport and check in at The Cedar Gables Inn. The Cedar Gables Inn has been reserved especially for Vagabond Gourmet guests. Centrally located in wine country and walking distance to Napa the Cedar Gables Inn is one the grandest and most treasured of all inns. Winding staircases lead to beautifully appointed rooms with antiques and fireplaces.
The large newly renovated professional kitchen has the finest equipment and plenty of space for chopping and rolling. In the beautiful terrace garden is an amazing new outdoor kitchen and grill area, perfect for alfresco meals and wine tasting.
Ken and Susie are the owners and your hosts for the weeks while you are here. They have a passion for making your stay relaxing and delightfully memorable in this historic Napa mansion. Prior to becoming innkeepers, Susie ran a culinary school too, so you are in good hands and your whisks will not go unused!
Enjoy a welcome wine and cheese reception in the Inn’s Tavern before dinner alfresco in the outdoor kitchen.
Welcome Dinner at Cedar Gables with Susie
Day 2- Thursday- California Dreaming Napa Style
Wake up to the amazing smell of gourmet coffee and home baked breakfast goodies prepared in the Cedar Gables Inn kitchen by chef/owner Susie Pope. Every morning be delighted by a three course breakfast which includes fresh seasonal California fruit, a hearty entre and the most amazing home baked pastries you’ll ever taste. Susie likes to call her cuisine “California Breakfast Comfort Food.”
Next, off to an al fresco lunch at Round Pond Olive Oil Estate. These artisan oils have been recognized as some of the very best extra virgin olive oils in North America by such prestigious publications as Gourmet, Food & Wine and Wine Spectator. Your afternoon will begin with an intimate and informative estate olive mill tour and guided tasting of artisan olive oils and red wine vinegars before you sit down to a gracious and relaxing family-style lunch prepared by Round Pond. Savor local artisan cheeses, meats, breads and other delectable accoutrement, as well as the season’s freshest fruits and vegetables. Topped off by a fragrant olive oil dessert cake, this may just be the ideal Napa Valley picnic.
Cooking with Laura
Join our own Vagabond Gourmet chef Laura in the kitchen of the house to create some of the golden state's best dishes and learn how to bring a little California back to your own table. At the end of your stay, you’ll take home a full recipe book with instructions on how to California-size your next dinner party!
Lunch Round Pound
Dinner Cedar Gables with Laura
Day 3- Friday- Napa's Hidden Gems
Another outstanding breakfast by Susie before our limo arrives for a magical day to the Spring Mountain region; home to several of Napa’s hidden gems including outstanding producers, Pride, Phelan and Reverie Winery.
Tour the Castello de Amorosa, a winery that is a replica of a 12th century castle featuring Italian style wines. This amazing structure took 14 years to build and it is definitely a tour with the “wow” factor! It is a full working winery but also has dungeons, torture chambers, and a huge dining hall with amazing frescos on the walls. It is everything a castle should be! Travel back home to Cedar Gables Inn and relax in the Tavern before another dinner in the Cedar Gables dining room.
Lunch at Winery
Dinner at Cedar Gables Inn with Laura
Day 4- Saturday- Gourmet All Day
California Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "fusion"- integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients- and is freshly prepared using local ingredients. The food is typically prepared with particularly strong attention to presentation. Northern California is the Mecca of haute cuisine and fine dining.
Catch the Napa Downtown Trolley (trolley stop located at the Cedar Gables Inn) to COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. Saturday morning is the Farmer’s Market and after we can continue to fill our baskets across the street at the Oxbow Public Market, a venue featuring specialty merchants of artisanal food and wine products, as well as an array of stands featuring fresh farm produce of seasonal, sustainable and organic products.
Return to Cedar Gables to don your apron and work side by side with local Celebrity Guest Chef, Chef Mike C (in the Cedar Gables Inn showcase kitchen) to prepare an authentic Wine Country dinner. Chef Mike C. owns his own Culinary School located in nearby Berkeley called Kitchen on Fire Dinner will be served in the elegant dining room, complete with crisp linens, fine china and Reidel glassware
Lunch on your own Napa
Dinner at Cedar Gables with Celebrity Chef
Day 5- Sunday- More Tasting & Cooking
Enjoy another of Susie’s fantastic breakfast before we begin another day of fine wine and extraordinary food. The name Napa Valley is synonymous the world over with quality California wine. But did you know there is more viticulture diversity within the Napa Valley appellation than there is in the Medoc or Cote d'Or regions of France. One of our favorite producers you won’t meet elsewhere have invited us for a visit, Paloma
Lunch is at one of Napa’s leaders in California cuisine, Cindy’s Back Street Kitchen owned by Cindy Pawlcyn , James Beard award winning cookbook author, and enjoy her amazing northern Californian cuisine
More Napa Cooking Lessons with Laura
Your stay in Napa with us is devoted to the overall dining experience thus we will not just teach you how to cook but also share secrets for plate presentation, knockout buffet designs and how to be the perfect host or hostess. It’s the ‘art of the party’ and your own chic, wine country “soirees” will have guests asking “who’s the new caterer” in town?! Won’t you be proud to say, “Me?”
Lunch at Cindy Back Street Kitchen
Dinner at Cedar Gables with Laura with Special Wine Experts
Day 6- Monday- Artisan Producers & Chef Secrets
Long Meadow Ranch is nestled high atop the Mayacamas Mountains above the Napa Valley is the Long Meadow Ranch who sets the standard for California’s dedication to food, wine and organic farming. We love the magnificent valley views from the secluded mountain location high above Rutherford with gourmet picnic and a safari style trek though the vineyards and olive grove in an all terrain vehicle.
On the return to Cedar Gables Inn there are several more quaint shops and food boutiques to visit before happy hour in the Tavern.
After relaxing, dinner is on your own in one of Napa’s fine award winning restaurants. Best yet many are in walking distance.
Lunch Long Meadow Ranch
Dinner on your own in one of Napa’s Restaurants
Day 7- Tuesday- The Napa Experience & Vintner Dinner
After breakfast enjoy the Napa Stroll through historic downtown Napa, exploring its quaint shops, boutique wine tasting rooms, art galleries and the new Napa Riverfront project Downtown Napa has the biggest and most centralized collection of wine tasting shops anywhere on the planet.
Vintner Dinner
In the afternoon, our coach arrives for the Del Dotto wine “experience” in the estate’s opulent wine gallery. Dinner this evening is private vintner dinner in the estate’s enchanting caves. A dazzling special event is being created just for us and one you won’t soon forget.
Lunch on your own in Napa
Exclusive Vintner Dinner
Day 8- Wednesday- Departure
Vagabond Gourmet wishes you a fond farewell as you depart for home with many good memories of your week in Napa. We welcome you to join Vagabond Gourmet again on one of its many adventures around the world.
Gear List
Travel Information