Explore the history and culture of India’s myriad cuisines with the guidance of talented chefs. Learn the complex skill of combining and cooking spices and discover exotic ingredients in bustling colourful markets. Experience fabulous food festivals and tantalise the taste buds with delicious authentic food, and glean a few family secrets along the way.

For a typical taste of India’s famous South Indian cuisine start in the glittering palace town of Mysore to sample the classic
local breakfast, masala dosa, a wafer thin chick pea flour crepe filled spiced potato and served with a zingy coconut chutney, and feast on it’s famous banana leaf thali topped with rice, peppery rasam, spiced vegetable sambar and chutney. From here head west to the lush hills of Coorg, where towering rosewood trees shelter coffee plantations and wild boar and elephants roam. Here you will be introduced to the robust cuisine of the warrior Kodava people with favourites such as chicken flavoured with kokum, cardamon and pepper and spicy dishes of foraged mushrooms, bamboo shoots and wild mango. Continue on to coastal Kerala to watch the fisherman’s catch transformed into fragrant Mangalorean coconut curries and help harvest farm fresh vegetables to make healthy thoran side dishes cooked with fresh grated coconut.

North India offers a tantalising glimpse into the royal cuisine of the Maharajas. Dine on the rich elaborate curries of the Rajputs whilst staying in the luxurious opulence of a former palace and learn the culinary secrets of the royal court. We will then travel on to rural Rajasthan to explore the inventive dessert cooking of the villages, where cereals, pulses and dairy produce are paramount. Puffed wheat flour pooris and flaky paratha accompany chilli infused daal and chick pea flour fashioned into dumplings and cooked in a spicy gravy. We will visit village bazaars to sample tasty savoury snacks served pipping hot from the cooking pot whilst shopping for spices to take home. The tour will continue to the extraordinary sandcastle like citadel of Jaisalmer from where we will take a camel safari out into the dunes of the Thar Desert and enjoy lunch cooked in the traditional way on an open fire.

“Taking a group of fourteen very varied clients on a culinary tour of South India could have been a logistical nightmare, however working with Discovery transformed our tour into something rather special, along with their brilliant organisational skills and helpful advice we were also treated to daily gastronomic surprises by our wonderful guide - fantastic attention to detail! “
Chris and Carolyn Caldicott, Journalist and author Bombay Lunch Box.