Culinary Tours


Spain Culinary Tour 2008
with Chef Kent Rathbun


DATES: June 21th to June 30th



      Join us for this top of the line trip to Spain. Spain is the hottest culinary destination in Europe at the moment, experiencing a major Gourmet Renaissance similar to France's Nouvelle Cuisine boom in the early nineties. Get away and enjoy the peacefulness of The Hotel Masfererr, which is next to Montseny Mountains. This culinary tour is filled with great food and a lot of it.

This trip is not to be missed!



Meet in Barcelona and head to the Costa Brava for The Hotel Masferrer, located 31 miles from Barcelona. The hotel is located at the foothills of the Montseny Mountains, next to the Natural Park of Montseny. The Rathbun group will have the hotel exclusively for the stay. Enjoy lunch and dinner prepared by the hotel chef. We will have three vans, if someone would like to explore the area.


Relax and sleep in late, breakfast and lunch at the hotel. Explore the National Forest, hang out at the pool or relax and get to know your tour buddies.

Dinner will be at La Fonda del Port. Their extensive menu, has a seafood style and is based on Mediterranean cooking. All prepared with high quality products: - Bellota Iberic cured Ham and Sausages - Fresh Fish from Cantabrico - Live Shellfish available from their own aquarium - Roasted Meat from their own farm accompanied by a wide selection of sauces


Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. We will then head to Barcelona for the day. Enjoy lunch at Los Caracoles in the centre of the Bari Gotic, just off La Rambla and near Placa Reial. This restaurant dates back to the 1800s and is a must do in the city.

Today is the Gothic Tour of Barcelona and the Picasso Museum. We will have a guide for the day. The Gothic Quarter is what used to be called the "Cathedral Quarter". The great Gothic buildings in the uppermost part of the old town mark the culmination of Barcelona's medieval development. This is also the site of ancient city walls and buildings, including a Roman temple dedicated to Augustus, which sits on a hill called Mons Taber. Close to these vestiges of classical antiquity stand as the Palace of the Count-Kings, the Cathedral, the Generalitat (seat of the Catalan government), and the City Hall (the latter two are from more recent times). After viewing some of the great monuments of the famed Gothic Quarter, it will be time to
move on to the Picasso Museum.

The Picasso Museum features the paintings, drawings, ceramics and graphic work of Picasso (1881-1973) that shed light on his artistic development. The materials were donated by the artist himself, by hissecretary Mr. Sabartés and by his widow Jacqueline. The museum occupies two noble buildings: the Gothic Berenguer Aguiler Palace and the Barón de Castellet Palace, which is part Gothic with a great neo-classical room.

Dinner at the Villa


Enjoy a local lunch or lunch at the hotel. Today will be a day of leisure. Activities, such as Balloon Rides, Horseback, ATV, or hiking will be available (pricing to be determined)

We will drive to Barcelona for dinner at Abac. This is the showcase of a personality chef, Xavier Pellicer, who creates a self-termed cuisine d'auteur, meaning a menu of completely original dishes. Inside the 1948 Park Hotel, his minimalist restaurant has even attracted members of the Spanish royal family, eager to see what Pellicer is cooking on any given night.


Another day spent in Barcelona! This time we will do the Modernist Tour featuring Gaudi.In June of 1926, a trolley car struck down a humble elderly man. He looked so wretched that the drivers did not take him to the hospital. Hours later, the man's identity became known. He was Antonio Gaudi, the world renowned architect of the Sagrada Familia Church. He was the man who left a heritage of originality and expression in a very personal architectural language, a distinctive style characterized by freedom of form, voluptuous color and texture, and organic unity. For this reason, it is not strange that in Barcelona, the city where many of his creations are found, his works have become landmarks. In fact, when Olympic urbanism wished to stress the image of this city for 1992, Gaudi's architecture is the first feature, which is mentioned. Gaudi went beyond strict academic rules to become the symbol of cosmopolitan Barcelona. His incredible imagination and exaggerated religious sentiments drew him to works as great as the Sagrada Familia Church. Here, the full majestic powers of Neo-Gothic style come together into a labyrinth of towers, stairways, and decorative elements, and is, as yet, unfinished.

We will enjoy tapas for lunch and dinner at Via Veneto.


We could not stay at Costa Brava without a day at the beach. We will head to Estartit Beaches. Choose your sport: sailing, diving, boating or relaxing at the beach. (prices to be determined). Dive off the Medes Islands marine reserve which attracts scuba divers from all over the world. Lunch at the Restaurante Bravo. Dinner will be group decision.


Our wine day! Transportation will arrive to wisk us away to Torres Winery. The Torres family surname has been linked with wine for more than three centuries, during which time they have worked vineyards in Penedès, a land with a millenarian tradition of wine. Private tour and lunch at the vineyard.

Local dinner.


Trip to Figueres and Dali Museum. The town of Figueres was Dalí's home town, the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, itself the world's biggest Surrealist object, contains a huge array of Dalí's work, with some of his finest pieces - not to be missed. They go from his first artistic creations through to his last works. A visit to the museum is a real experience, taking you into the unique, captivating world of Salvador Dali. Tour the museum with our guide.

Lunch at the popular Mas Pau. Xavi, Toni, Juli and Ferran took over the restaurant in 1994, and since then they have worked to culminate the ideal of creating a new Catalan cuisine, based on the products and seeking a modern, avant-garde style without altering the essence and the conception of the dish to be prepared.

Local dinner or at villa.


This is our Chef Kent culinary day! We will head to Barcelona to La Boqueria. Throughout the years La Boqueria has become the most emblematic market of the network. The structure, the situation, and the salesmen turn it into an obligated (must-see) to all the tourists who visit our city. This market has for the Barcelonians, the suggestion of a family memoir; it's entwined with the city history, of all our families, their popular traditions and celebrations. The present salesmen are mostly, of the third and fourth generation of salesmen of the market. They are the union of the past with the present. As Innovators, they are full of projects and renovation ideas of la Boqueria for the new Barcelona. The commercial supply varies; fresh fish and seafood, salty fish, tinned food, butchery and offal, birds, hunt and eggs, fruits and vegetables, herbes and dietetic, delicatessen, bread furnace, restaurants, frozen foods, specialities, charcuterie,
farmer stops, etc.

We will purchase our fresh markets items for the day and then head home to cook dinner with Chef Kent. You can do as little or as much as you would like in the kitchen. Or rest and join us for dinner and wine.


Head back to DFW!

The cost of the trip is as follows:
$5750 per person double occupancy
$6250 per person double occupancy for a suite
(2 available)
$6950 per person single occupancy
This trip includes all meals, transportation (excluding airfare) and lodging.

We are working with a travel agent or book your own flights.

Total is due at time of booking and is non-refundable unless the space can be rebooked. Don't miss out, this trip will sell out fast!

For reservation or questions call Donna Tanner
469-867-3681 or donnat@abacus-restaurant.com

 

 

 
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