We love to visit local farmer’s markets when we travel. It provides a wonderful opportunity to mingle with the locals, and always provides a wonderful bounty of fresh, organic foods to bring back to our hotel room. We’re soon heading off to the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market. Stay tuned!
Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway ~ Sedona, Arizona – Recently, we were invited to Sedona, Arizona to take part in a media tour of the Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway sponsored by the Sedona Bed & Breakfast Guild.
The Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway is a wonderful three-day itinerary that includes a chauffeured wine tour, cooking school with a local chef (including wine and dinner), and a chef’s table dining experience with one of Sedona’s notable chefs.
Lodging
The Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway begins with your individual selection from one of Sedona’s wonderful collection of Bed & Breakfast Inns. We have enjoyed a number of wonderful stays within this collection, and for this visit we chose to spend four nights at The Lodge at Sedona. Once you have selected your particular Bed & Breakfast Inn then the Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway itinerary is there to guide you on a most wonderful experience over the next three days.
Chauffeured Wine Tour
After a good night’s sleep, and a wonderful breakfast at your selected Bed & Breakfast, you will then be whisked away to enjoy a chauffeured day of wine tasting at four of the local wineries. Our four stops were at The Pillsbury Wine Company, The Page Spring Cellars, Javelina Leap Vineyards and Winery, and Oak Creek Vineyards and Winery. Included in our wine tour was an absolutely fabulous picnic lunch prepared by Dan Martin at Dan’s Bistro. I must admit, I was completely flabbergasted at the outstanding quality of Arizona wines. Some of the wines we sampled could easily go toe-to-toe with a few of our Napa Valley favorites. Who knew??
Chef’s Cooking School
After a day of self exploration in Sedona, your evening will be filled with fun, laughter, and even a few new cooking skills as you work with a local chef preparing your evening meal at chef’s cooking school. After the meal is prepared, you will then sit down and enjoy your gastronomical creation with new friends, and a glass of wine. Unfortunately, due to logistical reasons, we were unable to participate in the chef’s cooking school, but we have a certificate in hand for a future school. We can’t wait!
Chef’s Table Dining Experience
After another day of exploring Sedona on your own, your final experience will be a wonderful selected dining experience at a local Chef’s table. This means that not only will you experience the cuisine of one of the local chefs, but you will also enjoy the frequent company of the chef as he/she presents each dish and explains its preparation. This makes for a wonderful, informative, and fun dining experience. We enjoyed our chef’s table experience at the newly opened Dan’s Bistro.
Another cool feature of the Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway is that each of the offerings are available á la carte.
We consider ourselves foodies, and if you too are a lover of great food and wine, then the Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway Sedona is sure to please. We had a most wonderful experience, made new friends, and had another opportunity to explore the wonderful red rock town of Sedona, Arizona.
We highly recommend this experience.
Disclosure: our wonderful media tour experience was provided by the cool folks at Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway Sedona. Thanks! It was great fun!
The Roaming Boomers® have been invited back to Arizona Opera for their upcoming production of Puccini’s Turandot and we are geeked. This opera contains my very favorite aria of all time: Nessun Dorma. Performances are on January 21,22, & 23, 2011. Can’t wait to share our story with you. Better yet, grab some tickets and come join us.
For the 2nd year, we have press passes in hand and are excited to be attending the 40th Anniversary Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction. Last year’s Scottsdale auction brought over $68 million in sales and $4.5 million for charity, with a 1964 Shelby Cobra selling for just over $475,000! Can’t wait!
Dan’s Bistro ~ Sedona, Arizona – Part of the package of our Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway Sedona was a chef’s table dining experience. The chef in line for our particular experience was Chef Dan Martin and his newly opened Dan’s Bistro.
Chef Dan knew he wanted to be a chef when he was eight years old. He started pursuing his career while living in Tehran, Iran in the 1970’s. After living through the fall of the Shah in 1979 Chef Dan returned to the United States and jumped feet first into the food service industry. For the past five years Chef Dan has been the Executive Chef/Food & Beverage director of Seven Canyons Private Golf and Residence Club.
Dan’s Bistro bucks the trend of many new restaurants that fail in their first year by keeping things personal and intimate with only seven tables.
You should also know that Dan’s Bistro is also BYOB with a $4 corkage fee. Having just come in from a Verde Valley wine tour, we came in with a great bottle of wine from The Pillsbury Wine Company that we wanted to enjoy.
To be completely honest, I was a little apprehensive about our visit to the newly opened Dan’s Bistro because normally we don’t visit a restaurant unless it has been vetted through our selection process. We were going in blind, completely relying on the selection process by the fine folks at Perfect Pairings Gourmet Getaway Sedona.
Thankfully, our fears were washed away after our first bite, and we then settled back to enjoy a wonderful dining experience.
Our dining experience began with Corn, Green Chile and Zucchini Fritters (cilantro lime aioli). Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful!
As we were here to let Dan strut his gastronomical feathers, he also brought out Artichoke, Spinach and Green Chili Dip (fresh tostados). Now, mind me, this was some powerfully good artichoke dip, but while the others weren’t looking, I was sneaking more fritters. Shhhh. Don’t tell.
Now. I just loves me some fine Tortilla Soup, and gleefully that was next on our journey. Major YUM alert here folks. Absolutely delish!
Next up was Braised Red Chile Lamb Shank (chipotle cream potatoes, grilled vegetables). This incredible dish was three parts grandma’s best home cooking combined with two parts world class cuisine. Comfort food with a gourmet kicker. Stupendous, I tell you, stupendous! Here’s where we all stand to shout loud plaudits of praise to the chef.
Well, we didn’t actually scream loud plaudits, there were other guests to take into consideration. But we should have. It was that good!
Last, but certainly not least, was Apple Almond Tart (caramel sauce and chantilly cream). Hmmm. Break out the espresso!
Now, please understand, Dan’s Bistro is not one of the hoighty-toighty eateries that you will find in Scottsdale with valet dudes rushing around to park the next Bentley, Austin Martin, or Mercedes Benz. Furthermore, you will need to bring your own bottle of bubbly.
Nonetheless, we can heartily recommend Dan’s Bistro. We greatly enjoyed our meal, and I heard a lot of ooh’s and aah’s from others dining around us.
A spectacular meal in an intimate bistro setting.
Oh, make certain you call for reservations. There is definitely limited seating.
The Roaming Boomers