A taste of the sun: Some foreign cookery holidays can be prohibitively costly, but the week-long trips organised by Con McLoughlin and Karen Austin of Lettercollum Kitchen Project, in Co Cork, come in at under €1,000, including tuition, accommodation, airport transfers and all meals and wine.
Non-cooking partners can stay, and will enjoy the fruits of the group's labours at lunch and dinner each day, for €550. A French vegetarian-cooking trip (September 3rd-9th, €895) will be based in the village of Moux, near Carcassonne, in the Languedoc. A Spanish trip the following month (October 1st-7th, €950) will explore Andalusian food from a base in a country house between Malaga and the mountain city of Ronda. Both holidays include market visits, excursions and tasting sessions. www.lettercollum.ie, 023-46251. Marie-Claire Digby
I should cocoa
Come up with a chocolate recipe and you could earn a week at a chocolate festival in Óbidos, a medieval town in Portugal. The creators of the top 10 original recipes will be invited to cook their dishes in front of a jury and an audience. No pressure, then. For details, contact the Portuguese Trade and Tourism Board: info@icep.ie or 01-6709133. Marie-Claire Digby