Learn how to create the perfect taco, enchilada and guacamole and how to cope with Mexico’s fiery salsas on a culinary experience in Oaxaca, home of traditional Mexican cuisine. You’ll stay at Casa Sagrada, a 12-room country house in the village of Teotitlán del Valle, buy your ingredients at the morning markets, and pick others in the Casa’s herb garden. The trip costs from £1,395 for flights, private transfers, three nights’ B&B in Oaxaca to see the ruins of Monte Albán, three nights’ half board and the course at Casa Sagrada, and two nights’ B&B in Mexico City.

Last Frontiers (01296 653000, www.lastfrontiers.com).

Turn up the heat

Probably not for dilettantes, cookery holidays with Tasting Places — in France, Italy and Thailand — are intensive, with up to eight sessions a week.

Matthew Harris, head chef at Bibendum in London, will supervise demonstrations and hands-on classes each morning at Château de Pallanne in Gascony (September 30- October 7). By the end of the week you should be able to turn out treats such as cep tart, roast pigeon with armagnac, and vanilla bavarois.

The afternoons are for wine and foie gras tastings, visits to armagnac distilleries, checking out the local cheeses, or just lying around the pool. The elegant, 18th-century château, near Pau, also has its own chapel, billiards room and citrus garden. The price is £2,100, including everything except flights.

Tasting Places (020-8964 5333, www.tastingplaces.com).

Come to dada

The dada — traditionally a housekeeper for wealthy Moroccan families — will share her ancient family recipes with you at La Maison Arabe, an exquisite Thousand and One Nights-style riad in the heart of Marrakesh’s medina. Among the dishes passed down for centuries from mother to daughter: lamb tagine with dates and almonds, chicken couscous, and sweet pastries. A three-night B&B break with flights, private transfers and the half-day cookery workshop costs from £555.

Best of Morocco (01380 828533, www.realmorocco.com).

Catch them young

Children from 7 to 16 can attend La Petite Ecole at the Raymond Blanc Cookery School at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, near Oxford. They will spend much of the day in the gardens learning about vegetables, free-range and organic foods, sustainable farming, health and nutrition. As a bonus, the cookery school director, Stephen Bulmer, promises that “they’ll be completely exhausted”.

The cost for the non- residential kids’ course is £195; for families wishing to stay overnight, the half-board price starts at £900 for two adults and a child sharing a room (including the cookery course for junior). Le Manoir claims to be the only cookery school in the world in the kitchens of a two Michelin star restaurant.

Le Manoir (01844 278881, www.manoir.com).

MORE HOLIDAYS FOR FOOD-LOVERS
by Jill Hartley

Audley Travel
(01869 276222, www.audleytravel. com), best known for exotic long-haul destinations, is adding foodie helpings to itineraries, with trips to Vietnam, Japan and New Zealand.

Exodus
(0870 2405550, www.exodus.co.uk) includes cooking classes on its trips to Rajasthan, Vietnam and Thailand.

Kudu Travel
(01722 716167, www.kudutravel.com) offers gourmet walkers fine dining and wine tasting in South Africa and Italy.

Gourmet on Tour
(020-7871 0848, www.gourmetontour.com) has an oriental food-lovers tour to China in September and a one-day course at the Alain Ducasse school in Paris.

On the Menu
(0870 8998844, www.holidayonthemenu.com) has foodie and cookery holidays worldwide, from coconut-rich curries in Goa to Middle Eastern mezze and salsa in Mexico.

Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours
(01730 893344, www.winetours.co.uk) has organised trips for vinophiles for 20 years, with Champagne breaks and tours in California, South America, South Africa, Australia and a new itinerary to New Zealand for 2007.

Winetrails
(01306 712111, www.winetrails.co.uk) offers group and independent walking and cycling holidays with vineyard visits and tastings from four days in Champagne to 13 days in Chile.