Five must-do luxury culinary experiences for European summer charters - Edmiston (2024)

With mesmerising coastlines and vibrant cultures of Europe right at your doorstep, the possibilities for extraordinary culinary experiences onboard a luxury charter are endless. Sample world-renowned delicacies and ingredients that have been cultivated for millennia, learn cooking techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation or simply appreciate some of the finest wines produced throughout the Mediterranean.

In our must-do European guide, we’ve put together five of our favourite culinary experiences that our charter team have personally explored, ensuring your charter experience is taken to a new levels this summer.

Set atop of the hills of Manarola within the beating heart of this quaint fishing village, Nessun Dorma looks out to pastel-coloured buildings of the Italian Riviera with holiday goers jumping from rocks into the deep blue harbour below, bringing those picture-postcard visions to life.

This pesto making course is unlike any other, with an electric atmosphere and immersive experience that is difficult to do justice with words. Led by their charismatic hosts you will learn about the ingredients and the story of the famous Ligurian sauce, pick basil fresh from their gardens and turn the ingredients into pesto with an old Carrara marble mortar, sample their wine they produce and enjoy a sumptuous platter to go with your freshly made pesto. This is a truly unique culinary experience, full of life and laughter that you will never want to end.

Connecting Slovenia to the Adriatic and Mediterranean Sea, Istra is known all over the world for producing some of the greatest quality truffles thanks to their lush forests, rivers, and gentle climate which make for ideal fertile grounds for these aromatic treasures.

Truffle Hunting Tours offers the chance for a guided exploration of Istra with an expert truffle hunter and his faithful four-legged friend. Here, they will teach you about the history of this delicacy that has been loved since ancient times and search for black truffles in the summer seasons (or white in autumn). Following the expedition, you will indulge in a fresh truffle lunch complemented with local wines. For the ultimate gastronomy experience, Truffle Hunting Tours offers a complete menu of inventive dishes that infuses their intense and rich flavours into each course.

Corfu sits off the north-western coastline of Greece, nestled in the Ionian sea. The island is home to over 4 million olive trees with some of the world’s oldest and tallest olive groves and remains as the most important agricultural occupation for Corfiot’s. It is deeply embedded in the culture and way of life here and therefore no trip to Corfu is complete without an olive oil tour.

The Corfu Experience takes you through the rich history and flavours that this coveted product offers. During the tour you will be guided to a historic village where locals will walk you through cobbled stone alleyways, retelling their island’s history and folk tales, giving you a greater understanding and context to the olive oil production. Here you will sample Greek coffee, mooch through stunning olive groves in the countryside, collect fresh produce from the farm garden, see first-hand the traditional stone pressing techniques and sample some of the best oil available in the world. The tour is completely private and enables you to connect with the guide on a personal level, creating an unforgettable experience.

Italy is widely regarded as the home of the best food in the world with their dishes reaching every corner of the globe. And so, an Italian cooking class should be on everyone’s to-do list and there is no better place for an authentic slice of Italy than Mamma Agata’son the Amalfi Coast.

Her cooking class takes place in her private home in the small town of Ravello, sitting high on a cliff top overlooking the Amalfi Coast. Her glorious garden is bursting with colour, from leafy green plants and endemic flowers to the vibrant pops of colour from lemon and fruit trees, all of which bring this beautiful oasis to life.

Throughout the cooking class you will learn the secrets of traditional Italian cuisine in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Agata, along with Chiara and Gennaro will teach you how to create wonderful pasta dishes, incorporating their own special recipes with veal, fish, chicken and seasonal vegetables – most of which is sourced or produced by Agata herself. At the end of every cooking class, you will be able to taste all the recipes, while washing down the flavours with the very best local wines, looking over the Mediterranean sea. Simply beautiful.

And of course, every charter holiday should feature at least one wine tasting experience, and there is no better place than the BIBICh Winery in Plastovo, Croatia — which comes highly recommended by Anthony Bourdain. Set within an idyllic Dalmatian-style courtyard and shaded by century old vine, BIBICh delivers something far more sophisticated and modern than simply tasting wine, it becomes an exploration of the senses, bringing flavour and discovery together.

Chef Vesna Bibić creates inventive cuisine using local ingredients in an avant-garde way – all performed in their experience room. Here you will hear and taste their family story through art of both fine wine and food. Depending on the size of your group and preferences, they offer a range of regularly changing menus for both lunch and dinner, from 5-13 course meals that infuse local ingredients and methods of cooking, wine and tapas pairings, high tea or their famed winemakers dinner with barrel tastings on offer.