Culinary Guides

[Holly Moore]

Last year, before heading to Hong Kong, I emailed the concierge at the Peninsula Hotel explaining that I only had a few days and would like to hire a local food authority to take me on an eating tour of the back alleys and out-of-the-way places that seldom if ever make the guidebooks or tv shows.

The concierge wrote back she was sorry. There were no guided tours available that focused on foods. Perhaps I would be interested in a bus tour of the city? This from the concierge for one of the best hotels in the world. It has happened elsewhere in my travels. Concierges just ain't what they used to be.

I wrote the tourist association and did better. Got an invite to a New Years Banquet in the town hall of a small village outside of the city. One of the highlights of my stay in Hong Kong. Even better than seeing a gang of Philadelphia Mummers leading off the parade through Hong Kong the first day of New Years.

Now eGullet is a wonderful resource. I could and maybe should have sought out a local to show me around. I've done the same for a few eGulleters visiting Philadelphia and enjoyed the experience. Perhaps it was my inbred waspishness. Perhaps my uncertainty about connecting with a good source. I didn't ask.

Another option would have been to research like crazy and strike out on my own. I kind of did that, but really wanted to understand what I was eating. At places where the menu was only Chinese, and no one cooking, serving or eating spoke English, I was lost. Sure it tasted good, but what the hell was it and what else could I have ordered? Was it representative?

It seems like there is a demand for such a service - especially in what I consider foreign cultures. Hong Kong, Bangkok, anywhere else in Asia. Even New York or Paris. Cities packed with culinary opportunity but hard to figure out in three or four days. What am I missing that I should eat?

Given the hoards of foodies foraging foreign lands, it strikes me as a profitable opportunity for locals with a sound knowledge of both the city's cuisine and a foreign language or two. Are there folks out their offering such services, professionally?

[barolo]

Yes, in Vancouver we have: Edible British Columbia:

Edible British Columbia provides the food-minded traveler, corporate business person, event planner or local Vancouverite with unique and personalized culinary experiences. Services can be as simple as an exclusive reservation in any one of British Columbia's top restaurants or as elaborate as a complete multi-day culinary-focused holiday.

[caroline]

If you go to Mexico City, try contacting Ruth Alegria who posts on eGullet sometimes. She will do you a great personalized tour. http://www.mexicosoulandessence.com/

Rachel

[SuzySushi]

At least one food guide does this on Oahu, Matthew Gray, a former food writer & restaurant reviewer for The Honolulu Advertiser and a former personal chef, operates Hawaii Food Tours, which offers three different restaurant tours.

eGullet Society member PakePorkChop used to guide once-a-month culinary walking tours of Chinatown (sponsored by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Hawaii), but that page on their website is down and I don't know if he's still doing them.

[Chufi]

Given the hoards of foodies foraging foreign lands, it strikes me as a profitable opportunity for locals with a sound knowledge of both the city's cuisine and a foreign language or two.  Are there folks out their offering such services, professionally?

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I do this in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Edited February 20, 2008 by Chufi (log)

[Fat Guy]

There was just a mention in Food Arts of a woman who does something related to this in France. Her name is Wendy Whitehurst, and she runs basically a private food-oriented concierge service.

In New York City there are quite a few options in this regard.

[Peter Green]

If anyone needs it, I have the contact for our guide, Java, in Chengdu. She hadn't started out doing food, but once she realized that people wanted to find our more of what Sichuan cuisine had to offer, she warmed to the task immensely.

[DCP]

I do this in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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How fortunate! I was just looking at this thread with interest, thinking about how to explore local eats on our trip to Europe this summer. May I inquire what you charge for this service? (Feel free to PM if preferred.)

I am also on the hunt for similar services near Paris/Versailles, Brussels, Milan/Rome, and perhaps others. So much of what I've found to date seems to be packaged tours from the US - not the personal guide for a day or two that we seek.

[Kent Wang]

What is the usual cost for these services? I think I would do it for free if all my meals were paid for.

[Chris Hennes]

What is the usual cost for these services? I think I would do it for free if all my meals were paid for.

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Same here. Strangely enough, no one seems to want a culinary tour of State College, PA.

[Holly Moore]

The best jobs to be paid for are the ones you would do for free. Especially when it has value to someone else and takes up most of your day.

One element, in cities at least, is the necessity of a car and driver. Too much eating and learning time wasted otherwise.

My ideal guide would know the food and be known by the food preparers. Get me behind the scenes. Let me experience the growers and processors as well as the restaurant/stands. Frame the experience within the culture and the cuisine.

I still think this could become a great profession or even a business for those with the knowledge, the contacts and the language --- and who have the luck to live in an interesting culinary center. Would be easy to promote through concierges and visitor's bureaus. In many cities such a skilled guide would soon have a waiting list for his/her services.

[Chufi]

I do this in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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How fortunate! I was just looking at this thread with interest, thinking about how to explore local eats on our trip to Europe this summer. May I inquire what you charge for this service? (Feel free to PM if preferred.)

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Hi,

You can contact me through my website (link in my signature)!

Edited February 22, 2008 by Chufi (log)

[Fengyi]

I'm officially a wine consultant - but would always be available for food consultancy should anyone come to Beijing!

As I often do work with the Chinese version of Food and Wine, I usually get to hear about the good places!

[BekkiM]

I got something similar in Hanoi a few years ago when, due to scheduling complications, I arrived a day earlier than my husband and son. Said husband arranged for a private guide who took me shopping (in one "official" market where various vendors had permanent stands and at one "unofficial" farmers' market where people just showed up in an alley), then took me to her home for a private cooking lesson. It was an amazing experience and one I'd love to repeat if the opportunity ever presented itself. In fact, I still carry her card around in my wallet "just in case" This was through the Indochina Travel Company (www.indochinatravel.com) and the guide's name as Diep Le To.

[divina]

I also have made my life around food, cooking classes and food tours.

Of course living in Italy.... food is the backbone of Life.

Through food, I have made some of my best friends, I have taugth classes for the local study abroad schools for Americans, in Culture Through Cooking, lectured, guided tours of markets for Oldways and SlowFood, as well as create culinary weeklong programs for chefs bringing their groupies to Italy.

In the past it has been a sideline to cooking classes, but after 20 years of teaching, I am going to concentrate on this side of life.

will be interesting to see if I can make a living doing it!

I am going to call it being a culinary concierge... and am almost ready with my online maps to go with the service.

I know a friend does this in France, Rosa Jackson.