Food Tours, Cooking Classes & Recipes
Food often marks the start of a story, whether it’s in a market in Marrakesh, a hot bowl of soup on a rainy afternoon, or a street vendor’s cart tucked in an alleyway between buildings you can’t quite place anymore.
For me, food has always been a way to understand the places I visit and a way to bring those places home. I embrace my travels with my eyes, my ears tactically, and with my taste buds.
That’s the idea behind Food and Cook, a project that lives alongside 501 Places and Tours. While 501 Places and Tours has always focused on travel experiences and cultural connections, Food & Cook takes those same values and explores them through the lens of flavor.
It’s a place for recipes, food tours, and cooking classes that carry a story, a place where meals are more than instructions on a page.
These stories come from different places, generational cookbooks that have been handed down to be relived and rewritten on the site. From travels in Europe, Asia, and all over the world, bringing back experiences, tours, and lessons learned in cooking classes to share on the site.
Why Food and Cook Exists
Food & Cook isn’t just about recipes. It’s about capturing the travel moments that stay with you, the street food you couldn’t stop thinking about, the local dish that turned dinner into a memory, the feeling of discovery that only a new flavor can bring. It’s about making those moments accessible and incorporating them into everyday life.
Whether you’re trying something from scratch or returning to a dish you loved abroad, Food & Cook exists to connect you with culture through food. There’s no pressure to be a master chef. The point is to explore, taste, and maybe surprise yourself along the way.
Food and Cook Recipes and Tours
Some of the most popular pieces on Food & Cook reflect that exact mission — blending classic recipes with global inspiration and personal storytelling. Whether it’s a nostalgic dessert, a quick weeknight meal, or a dish tied to a faraway place, each one is rooted in flavor and memory.
These are just a few of the growing collection of Food and Cook recipes and tours, all written in a way that’s personal, practical, and approachable. We’re not chasing trends or trying to impress with technique; we’re trying to make meals feel meaningful and help readers connect with the stories behind them.
Looking Ahead
Over the coming months, we’ll be expanding into city-based food guides, cultural tour spotlights, and behind-the-scenes features with local cooks and travel hosts. Whether you’re interested in taking a food tour in Lisbon or mastering a sauce from scratch, the journey through Food & Cook is just getting started.
We’re also working on collaborations with guides and culinary instructors, and developing ways to feature local insights as recipes, so readers can experience this real-life cooking culture instantly transferred to the site from all over the world.
So whether it’s age-old generational recipes passed down within families or the current methods used in Bangkok, you will not only know what they’re cooking, but why it matters.
How to Get Started
If you’re not sure where to begin, first up, we’ve been deciphering age-old recipes from American families, bringing kitchen testing to them, and bringing them back to life. I recommend starting with one of our most accessible and rewarding recipes:
- Chocolate Guinness Cake – a rich dessert with a surprising lightness and a deep Irish twist
- Lemon Chicken – bright, fast, and one of those weeknight staples you’ll probably make more than once
- Classic Cheesecake – smooth, dense, and built from a family recipe meant for sharing
You can also explore our categories, such as cooking classes and food travel articles, to find stories and practical ideas that resonate with your kind of journey, whether in the kitchen or on the road.
Final Thoughts
Take a look at Food & Cook when you have a quiet moment. Whether you’re looking to expand your kitchen, reminisce about a favorite trip, or create something new for dinner, I hope it gives you something genuine, a good story, a cherished memory, or a dish worth sharing.
FAQs About Food & Cook
What is Food & Cook?
It’s a site built around recipes, food tours, and cultural cooking experiences — a place where food and travel come together. Think of it as part recipe hub, part flavor-focused journey.
Is Food & Cook just a recipe blog?
Not really. The recipes are a big part of it, but there’s more. Food & Cook also shares behind-the-scenes stories, cooking class guides, and curated food tours for people who want to explore through food.
Who is Food & Cook for?
It’s for home cooks, curious travelers, and anyone who remembers a place by what they ate there. You don’t need fancy gear or training — just a bit of curiosity and maybe a wooden spoon.
Are the recipes beginner-friendly?
Yes — most of them are meant to be practical, doable, and comforting. Some are weeknight simple, others take their time, but all are written for real kitchens.
Does Food & Cook include real travel advice too?
It does. You’ll find recommendations for cooking classes, local food markets, and even full culinary tours in cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, and New Orleans.
Is the content written by a real person?
Yes, everything is curated and written in a personal voice. Machines do not churn it out. These are dishes tied to stories, places, and people.
To fully understand many of the original recipes, the generational recipes have been transcribed into computers because the original authors were not well-skilled and lacked proper grammar, or some of the recipes were so old that the English language was in a more primitive form.
Many of these recipes have been run through AI formatting to bring them in line with current American English and then thoroughly checked and edited as necessary by humans afterwards.
Additionally, some of the recipes obtained through worldwide travels were in different languages; these were translated to English using AI and then tested in a live kitchen, with adjustments made as necessary.
How do I get started with Food & Cook?
Start with a recipe that catches your eye, or browse by experience — from cooking classes and food tours to destination guides. You’ll know quickly if it’s your kind of kitchen.
