Food Tours in Barcelona

I took a cooking class that was offered by http://www.cookandtaste.net back in 2010. I took the Boqueria market tour from them before the start of the class. The class was a lot of fun and I got a great meal. We made paella, a couple different tapas, and crema catalana.

As per cooking classes, a few more options:

http://www.aulagastronomica.com/
http://www.bcnkitchen.com/en/
http://www.barcelonaculinaria.es/
http://www.tallerdecocinasabores.es/

Still (1) all of these are just "classes to have fun", don't expect any serious cooking, (2) when booking, do mention you want a course on Catalan cuisine -the local cuisine!-, because courses are also taught for other world cuisines. Courses are normally taught in Catalan, Spanish or English depending on the course. Some of them even take you, as part of the course, to the different food markets to get to know where and how many Catalans purchase our fresh food.

Regarding "tapas tours"... as a local and a food lover I'm extremely skeptical...in all countries where "tapas" (put the local equivalent here) tours are offered, it ends up being a disappointment, more a touristy trap (regardless of the quality) than a true "honest" tour that a local would himself do or that a local friend would take you too. Not saying "all" are like this, but be wary.

Hi Larry,

Have you looked at this Barcelona Turisme website I took an evening tour (I don't see it listed on the site anymore) that was definitely pricey, but good for me as a solo. It was a small tour, about 10 people, that included a tour of the Barri Gotic. We started about 5.30 at their location (near La Rambla) with wine, cheese and jamon, then toured the Boqueria before going through the back ways. The tour was very good, we stopped in 3 places for wine and tapas, plus a sweets shop tasting in the middle somewhere. At the last stop, I added a couple tapas and was sated. We got to our last stop around 9, didn't leave before 10.

full dinner, and ends at 11:30 pm, hmmm Get used to it, dinner in Spain typically begins after 9 p.m.

Larry,
Last March, we thoroughly enjoyed the Food Lover's Tapas Tour. Matthew will respond to your inquiry quickly, and he and his food guides are wonderful.

Small groups (I think we had maybe 6 others on our tour) stop at three local spots, enjoying LOTS and LOTS of tapas of all variety, along with many choices of adult beverages to try. Then, the last stop is at a local restaurant, where you will enjoy a HUGE feast of a full dinner.

You can check them out on www.tripadvisor.com to see photos of the type people who tend to sign up for their tours.

Our group had very well-traveled individuals, a mom/daughter, and then 4 individuals who were either single or were married and happened to be in Barcelona by themselves. All were fun, interested (and interesting) people.

You will not go away hungry, and it is fun to learn about the food and the traditions. Money well spent!! And, the local places where we were taken were not places we would have found on our own, and they appeared to be populated by locals, so the experience was rich in culture. We walked from place to place, maybe a few blocks at the most, but the conversation along the way was fun, too.

The challenge will be to enjoy just a little of all the choices you will be offered, otherwise you will come away with double the typical after-Thanksgiving feeling. But, if one is going to overeat a bit, Barcelona is the place to do it!!

... didn't want to step on anyone's toes... I simply meant to say "be wary" when (if) you decide to choose a "tapas tour".

Thanks for the ideas so far, I would welcome more. Actually, I am thinking of a food tour, not a cooking class. I will be traveling solo for a week in Barcelona, and have found that constantly eating alone leads me too often to eat quickly, cheaply, not excellently, and somewhat lonely. So, a food tour fills many bills for me, absorbing some local culture, and sampling good typical food with a nice and enthusiastic group of people. I would not even be averse to taking two different food tours during the week, although the expense of tours can start to mount up during a week. The two that I have focused on so far are Devour Barcelona, in the Gracia neighborhood I might not otherwise visit, which I understand has maintained its small town feel even in the middle of Barcelona. It goes from about 10 am to 2 pm, and includes visits to a local non-touristy market, food shops, bakeries and tapa bars. The other is the Food Lovers Tour mentioned by Margaret, which involves two tapa stops plus a full dinner, and goes from 7:30 to 11:30 pm. I also found the tour that you mentioned, Chani, but I figure I will explore the Barri Gotic and La Boqueria market at other times on my own. More ideas or personal experiences would be very helpful still!

I've been on one of the Devour Madrid tours and it was great. I bet you'll get the same great quality/knowledge/friendly atmosphere on the Devour Barcelona tour. Enjoy. :-)

So many food tours, so many very positive reviews by travelers, so few days, so few euros! The most recent tour I have discovered and gotten excited about is Taste Barcelona Walking Tours, which offers a "history and tapas" walking tour, which takes 5 hours from 5 to 10 pm, and walks through four different neighborhoods for a history/cultural tour with a stop at a different type of traditional tapas bar in each neighborhood, those being Barri Gotic, El Born, El Raval and Eixample. Would seem to explore many interesting things within one evening. Has anyone experienced this particular tour? For all the food tours, I have generally found the price to be about 18 to 21 euros per hour, the longer tours thus somewhat more pricey than the shorter ones. They ALL seem to have rave reviews on TA from their participants, which at least seems to indicate that people find food tours to be great experiences.