Traverse City, Michigan has a wonderful Epicurean Festival every September. For a whole week they feature well-known chefs (usually those who have just written new cookbooks). You get to take classes from the chefs, do lots of sampling, etc. It's all offered at the Northwest Michigan Culinary Arts Institute. Because this is such a big wine area, there are lots of wine tastings also.

Here is a link that might be useful: Epicurean Classic

A personal chef friend of mine went to a cooking school held in a private home - actually a 16th century bed-and-breakfast - in Italy in September. There were a total of 10 students and two instructors came into the home each day to teach. The evening meal was prepared by the students. I saw her pictures and it looked wonderful. If you'd like, I'll ask her for more specifics. (She used to be an airline hostess and this was her last trip gratis on the airline for which she worked.) She thoroughly enjoyed herself.

You mention she will still be a minor at the time, but since she is graduating, she is probably legal age for drinking wine and beer in much of Europe. When we traveled with our sons in Europe they were teen-aged. One of the joys of the trip was to be able to share a bottle of wine in a restaurant. I recall a particularly nice stop at a wine tasting shop along the Rhine that served a carousel of about a dozen wines where we each had a few sips from each glass to compare the wines. One of our sons later went to France during spring break his senior year in high school and drinking wine and beer was allowed on that (non-school affiliated) trip as long as parents had signed the consent form. The logic was that wine is a significant part of the culture in France and would be drunk by the teen-age hosts in the houses where they had their homestay so they miss an aspect of the trip if they can't drink wine. Personally I think it was good for them to go out with us practice enjoying wine and beer responsibly before they went off to college. So if you and her parents are okay with her legally drinking wine in other countries, you don't have to rule those out.

Usually I prefer to avoid organized tours but for a trip to China where we were going to visit a lot of cities we decided to use a company that only does small groups and helps you explore the places you are visiting, Intrepid Travel. Maximum group size is 12 - our group had 7. We never felt constrained. Our trip leader was excellent. As we arrived at each city, he gave us an orientation. He helped set up any activities we wanted to do independently. There was a good mix of already set activites and time to explore on your own. The local guides he arranged were excellent.

Our trip was the "Comfort" style - this type of trip from them focuses a bit more on the food than their other styles.

The hotels were always located so that we could explore a lot on foot. For example, in Guilin province our hotel was in picturesque Yangshuo while many other tour companies stay in the fairly industrial city Guilin and take a day trip to Yangshuo. From our comfort as "residents" in Yangshuo we would see the tour bus crowds being herded through the main street by their guides while we had the freedom to wander.

With a smaller group size, you are able to eat in regular restraurants rather than the big tourist ones catering to the tour bus trade which have set fairly homogonized Chinese menus. I've talked to friends who went with a big group and ended up thinking food was tiresomely the same throughout China. The itinerary had our group dinner in Chengdu for the night we arrived with an early morning visit to the pandas the next day. We all decided we preferred to have something light or not at all that night (we had had snacks en-route) so we could go to bed earlier so our group leader switched the meal to the next night.

We always felt safe, well-informed and free of the over-programming that some other tour companies have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Intrepid Travel

Sorry I never noticed the culinary tours before but almost every place we visit outside the US has some kind of agriculture tour. We always take them and I just love it.

The best one we went on was in the Dominican Republic. It was an all day tour and we traveled from the seashore/citrus area to the mountains with apple orchards and rice patties. We must have visited 5-6 farms and a fish market and had a delicious lunch at one farm and dinner at another. Plus at each stop we were able to taste the different fruits and vegetables which were set up on very rustic tables with beautiful colorful pottery. It was fabulous.

Michelle

My mom and I went on a culinary trip to Amalfi, Italy. We went with a company called Cuisineinternational.com It was the trip of a lifetime. We stayed in an old monastary high above the med.sea. The views, the food, the people...incredible. We took a few fieldtrips to restaurants and to Vesuvius. The classes were fun and as hands on as you wanted them to be. It is one of my fondest memories with my mom.
You are an awesome aunt to think of this.

Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: the cooking school in Italy I went to.

thanks for the responses and the links, gives me somewhere to start. jo, what an incredible memory for you.

maryanne

I'm hoping more people jump in on this one, as it's something I'd like to do in the future.

My Maine friends went here Spannocchia Italy and had a marvelous time. It is sustainable agriculture and there were cooking classes and you could learn most anything about the raising of food plus the making that you would like. Maureen