The Granada Cooking School is located in the upper Albaicin district of Granada, the historic Arab neighborhood across
the Dauro River from the Alhambra Palace.
The School focuses on the cookery of the Mediterranean basin, a style that has given shape to what is known as the Mediterranean
diet and has produced such wonderful variations as the cuisine of Genova, Provence, and Istanbul. Your instructors have over
decades travelled, lived, and cooked throughout the region, based in Granada, Spain since 2002. Their voyages have included
nearly all of Italy, Mediterranean France, Corsica, Istanbul, Morocco, and the Spanish coast. They are members of the Italian-based
Slow Food Movement and are among only a handful of North Americans inducted into the French Cheesemakers Guild.
The Cooking School features a spacious and well-appointed teaching kitchen with 2 5-burner Bosch cooking stations, a
unique cave-pantry that includes a pastry production area, and beautiful Goa Verde granite countertops. Outside the kitchen
door is delightful Andalusian courtyard, surrounded by mutliple terraces with views of the Alhambra, Sierra Nevada mountains,
and Generalife summer palace.
Your cooking vacation includes time for visiting the Alhambra and other historic sites in Granada, as well as raoming
the enchanting Albaycin. Day trips may include visits to wineries in the Malaga or Montilla (Cordoba) regions, to the olive
groves of Jaen province and its Museum of Olive Culture, and stops to experience the wonderful cooking of the Hotel School
at Baeza, which is itself a gem of a Renaissance city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Casa Azahar also boasts spacious apartments, where cooking school participants may choose to stay for multi-day
cooking vacations.
Chef-instructors Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary have lived in Granada since 2002 when not cooking and teaching at Trout
Point Lodge of Nova Scotia and the Inn at Coyote Mountain in Costa Rica.
Caves
A unique aspect of the Cooking School and Casa Azahar are the property's cave dwellings. Cave living has existed since
Roman and Arab times in Andalusia and specifically in Granada, where the entire neighborhood of Sacromonte consists of cave
houses. The house at Calle San Luis No. 12 was once the center of a large Morisco Carmen (extended house with gardens) that
was made up in large part of cave rooms.
Casa Azahar has a completely renovated 2-bedroom Casa Cueva (cave house) and a large cave kitchen as part of the Mediterranean
Cooking School. The caves maintain an even and pleasant temperature, block out unwanted noise, and are completely eco-friendly.
The walls are treated with a white limestone wash, which provides a bright and airy environment. These are hard clay caves,
hand-dug over centuries.
Part of your experience at the Mediterranean will be working (and perhaps living) in the caves, where we have work counters,
age cheese, cellar wine, hams, and embutidos.
To read an article on cave living written by the chef-instructors, click on the link below.
