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Another Day in Paradise
by Paul Grimes
Gourmet magazine, May 2008

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO I picked up the old-fashioned (and extremely beautiful) bellows and crouched down on the pavement to encourage the hot coals in my brazier. I was taking a tagine workshop, of all things, and one that just happened to be in paradise.

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A Marrakech Cooking School Adventure
by Lisa Abend
bon appetit magazine, May 2008

Like so many places in Marrakech, the kitchen at Jnane Tamsna threatens to overload the senses. I am here to learn to cook fish B'Stilla and lamb Tagine from Bahija, the villa's infectiously enthusiastic chef, but from between the scents rising from the braziers where our stews simmer...

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The Spice of Life
by Martha McPhee
MORE magazine, Februrary 2008

From Marrakech to the Sahara, follow along on novelist Martha McPhee's culinary adventure in Morocco as she embraces the beauty of food prepared close to its source . . .

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Moroccan Mystique
by Jennie Lay
Yoga Journal magazine, October 2007

At dusk on the edge of bustling Marrakech, my Tree Pose wavers among towering date palms and minarets . . .

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Tuscan Cooking School Pioneers
by Jen Murphy
Food & Wine magazine, September 2007

Peggy Markel was one of the first Americans to open a cooking school in Tuscany...

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Out of Doors
by Peggy Markel
elephant magazine column, Summer 2007
www.iamelephant.com

Right now, I am eating an apple overlooking the straits of Messina on the west coast of Sicily...

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PROFILE: Raging at the Sky
by Natasha Gardener
Women's Magazine, May 2007

For the past 15 years, Peggy Markel has done it all by combining her greatest passions into a dream job...

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Slowing Down
by Jessica Centers
Denver Westword, March 2007

Peggy Markel was one of the first people to bring the slow-food movement to the United States. It started in Italy, where the Boulder resident designs and directs culinary tours...

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An Apetite for Travel
by Jennifer Merritt
Travel Agent magazine, March 5, 2007

Delighting in the culinary treats of other countries is one of the main reasons people travel abroad...

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What's New?
by Laurel Miller
The Sustainable Kitchen website

I recently returned from an incredible trip to Morocco with my Boulder-based friend, Peggy Markel, who owns Peggy Markel's Culinary Adventures...

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Romancing Morocco
by Gisela Williams
More Magazine, October 2006

If you're hungry for authentic Moroccan cuisine, sign up for a weeklong culiinary trip with PEGGY MARKEL: the tour includes a night at Kasbah du Toubkal.

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You'll 'never grow old' sampling Sicily's delights
by Anita Draycott
Special to the Star

Toronto Star
March 30, 2006

"A tavola, non si invecchia mai — se si mangia tanto." ("At the table you never grow old — if you eat a lot.")

With a clink of glasses we began the first of many feasts.

Many nations tried to conquer sunny Sicily, from the early Greeks to the Romans, Arabs, Normans, French and Spanish. Thankfully, these invaders left their mark on the culture, cuisine and architecture. The result is a delicious mélange.

Markel's escorted trip, called Sicily: A Different Italy, offered more than a chance to knead dough and eat well. It was an opportunity to tour the island and meet Sicilians who are passionate about their culinary roots. What better way to really sink your teeth into a place?

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The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Schools
by Shane Mitchell
Travel and Leisure Magazine, May 2004

Come with gastronome Peggy Markel to the casbah. During the Feast for the Senses tour in Marrakesh, ethnobotanist Gary Martin shares the history of North Africa's herb and spice trades. Chef Baija, of the 10-room Jnane Tamsna guesthouse in Marrakesh's La Palmeraie oasis, will hold daily lessons on couscous, tagine, kefta (meatballs), hand-ground ras al hanout spice mix, and bread baking in a Berber clay oven. (After hours, lounge by the villa's torchlit pool.) Students also go for wild-caper hunts in the Ouirgane Valley and hikes among walnut groves in the Atlas Mountains. And don't miss the chance to sip mint tea while browsing for mosaic tableware at Meryanne Loum-Martin's Ryad Tamsna gallery.

Click here to read online (Morocco program: 7th entry down)

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A New Way to Cook
by Sally Schneider
United Press Syndicate Food Column, March 2004

I cook recipes from past travels, or that I find in cookbooks, or get from itinerant chefs I know. Some of the best come from Peggy Markel, a role model of sorts to me, a woman who went to seek her fortune in Italy not knowing what she'd find, and ended up founding several extraordinary culinary programs – "adventures" as she calls them – in Tuscany, Sicily and Morocco . . .   Click here to read article online

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Spicing Up Your Winter Travel
by Alice Feiring

Time Magazine:
"Generations" Bonus Section, December 2004

Learn Local Cooking Traditions in Morocco

If you crave a walk on the exotic side and want to learn some ancient cooking techniques as well, "A Feast for the Senses" in Morocco might be the trip for you. It's run by food enthusiast and entrepreneur Peggy Markel, who started Culinary Adventures in 1992. Her small outfit specializes in unique journeys that promise to immerse participants in local cooking traditions. So don't expect slickly trained chefs. Instead Markel prefers local cooks who can impart techniques that have been passed through generations.Click here to download PDF

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Sugar and Spice
by Lori Zimring de Mori
London Independent, 16 November 2002

Peggy Markel fell in love with North African cuisine on a visit to Morocco two years ago. Today her Marrakesh cookery courses explore the country's spices and ingredients. Lori Zimring de Mori joined her to sample everything from sweet mint tea to saffron-scented seafood tagine. Click here to read online    or download PDF

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New Moroccan Style: The Art of Sensual Living
By Susan Sully; Photographs by Jean Cazals; Contributing Editor Meryanne Loum-Martin

Book review.   Download PDF

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Tuscan Lessons:
A cooking teacher in Italy showed our columnist new tricks for dishes she thought she already knew.

by Sally Schneider
Food & Wine, October 2000

Peggy Markel is a role model to me. She is an American cook who loved Italy so much that she went to seek her fortune there in 1991, not knowing what she'd find. She ended up starting several extraordinary weeklong culinary programs – "adventures," as she calls them – in Tuscany, Liguria and Sicily. ...
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Timesaving Recipes:
Too Busy to Cook?
Peggy Markel – Regello: Braised Kale Crostini

Bon Appetit, May 2000, p. 196
Special Collector's Edition:
"The Soul of Tuscany"

On my second trip to Tuscany, I struck up a conversation with the owner of a tile shop in Florence. When I told him that I was interested in learning about Tuscan food, he arranged classes at a restaurant in Fattoria Degli Usignoli, a fifteenth-century villa. While working with the chefs, I learned things about authentic dishes that I never could have found in a cookbook. I was so excited with my progress that at the end of my stay, I asked the villa owners about putting together a cooking school for other Americans.

Now I take small groups to my Tuscan cooking school three times a year. I work alongside chef Piero Ferrini to teach about regional specialties and the countryside. Introducing others to the Tuscany I love is very satisfying, and with each trip I learn a little more myself.
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Recipe: Herb-Scented Tuscan Pork Roast
The Splendid Table: Recipe Box

Adapted from A New Way to Cook by Sally Schneider
(based on a recipe from La Cucina al Focolare)
Click here to read recipe online

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Practical Traveler:
Vacation Recipe: Study Cooking
by Florence Fabricant
New York Times,
Sunday, August 30, 1998

It's one thing to seek good food on vacation. Increasingly, though, cookbooks are replacing guidebooks as travelers take to the stove.

Instead of merely spending a few nights at a farmhouse inn in Tuscany, or ensconced in a charming village in Provence and dining in the local cafes, travelers are signing up for cooking classes in places like these.

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What could be more enjoyable
than going to cooking school
at a Tuscan wine estate?
By Linda Dannenberg
Wine Spectator, September 30, 1997

You would have to have a heart of stone and a soul on ice not to fall in love with Tuscany. Starting just north of Florence and swinging south past Siena to the hills of Montepulciano, the countryside is splashed with sunflowers and wild orange lilies, the bright spots of color the eye first sees before settling on the softer greens of the olive groves, the apricot orchards and the vineyards producing the great Sangiovese grape. Here, wild fennel sprouts from the Etruscan stone walls or borders old stone paths, and rosemary bushes grow as tall as cedars.   Click to Read Online

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Giulani? Politics? Forget It.
Give Me a Week of Cooking
in Tuscany!
by Todd S. Purdum
New York Times,
January 5, 1994
Special to the New York Times