Alumni Story: Elena's Seventh Program

You could say that Elena Portoles wins the prize for PMCA's 'Most Frequent Traveler.'  Since 1997, Elena has been on almost every single one of Peggy's programs, tasting and exploring her way across Italy, Spain, Morocco, and just this last month—India. 

Here, we interview Elena in the midst of her seventh program with Peggy, India: Tasting Royal Rajasthan. Moments later, Peggy surprised her with the ultimate thank you gift for being such a loyal guest: an invitation to be her guest on the upcoming 20th Anniversary Program in June! Elena was stunned and replied, "Terrific! Elba is the only trip I haven't been on."

During this anniversary year, we invite all of you to send in your stories, impressions, photos, and memories from the road. Photos, videos, emails—we want it all! Your stories keep us inspired to develop new programs, and to bring new groups to these destinations each year. 

PMCA: This is your seventh trip with PMCA. What keeps drawing you back to traveling with Peggy? And can you tell us where and when you started?

Elena: I'm fortunate to be able to travel. Back at home, I love to cook and to entertain, and traveling gives me inspiration for new recipes to make for friends. The best part of the trip is coming home and re-creating the many dishes. My neighbors wait in anticipation for my dinners.

I started with La Cucina al Focolare: Cooking by the Fireside, Peggy's first program in Tuscany, in 1997. I was in Europe on business and decided to add a week's vacation. The ad in my favorite cooking magazine caught my eye—cooking in Tuscany. I was in! Liguria was my second trip with Peggy, and Sicily was my third. Morocco was fourth and Thailand was fifth. Spain was sixth, and now India is seventh! I always go on the first ones, the maiden voyage as it were. 

PMCA: What do you like about the PMCA approach? 

Elena: I like that we visit local towns and villages, where we are people to people. Non-traditional traveling interests me. I love to visit the markets, meet the cheese makers, the bakers, and see how things are made, which makes it a real culinary experience. 

PMCA: You've told us that you have no problem traveling alone, so why do you choose to travel with PMCA?

Elena: With PMCA, I always meet nice people with common interests, in a comfortable environment. It's relaxing and interesting at the same time. I also make my own time during the programs. I set my alarm, get up early and get out. I don't want to miss a thing.


PMCA: Do you have a favorite trip? 

Elena: No! I love them all. I belong to a gourmet club and I cook everything I learn on the trips when I get back home. When my friends ask me for a recipe I tell them, "That's a $6000 recipe!" [Laughs.]

PMCA: Peggy has a particular style of leading a program. What do you like about it?

Elena: Peggy is so caring, knowledgeable and interactive. There's a million tour companies out there, but I don't need to be hopping around. I know Peggy and her style by now. Her trips aren't sightseeing tours, per se. We focus on the food while taking in the culture at the same time. That works for me.

PMCA: What about this seventh trip? Are you enjoying it? During your trip in Morocco, someone asked you if you were going to join Peggy in India and you shook your head, "Oh no. I've been to India and don't ever need to go back." What changed your mind?

Elena: Oh, I'm loving it! I was here for work the last time and it was less than pretty. When I read the itinerary and looked up the hotels, I thought this trip looked wonderful and it has been. Lovely group and we have been so well taken care of. It's beautiful. It has been worth every penny!

PMCA: Anything else you would like to add?

Elena: Can't wait for number eight!

Alumni Story: Natalie's "Rule of Yes"

When describing our culinary adventures, we always tell potential guests to "Expect surprises!" but it can be hard to explain the exact quality of unexpected moments that pop up throughout a trip.

When Natalie Beck, a friend of a friend from Boulder, pulled Peggy's phone number out of her pocket and joined the 2010 Amalfi sailing program last June, the course of her European vacation was changed and she jumped head-first into an experience that she describes as "something out of the movies."

"I was living by the rule of 'Yes'," Natalie explains, "No matter what it was, I decided to say Yes." Saying yes became infinitely easier as she traveled with Peggy among new Italian friends. "I was treated like family by everyone I met, the whole time, because I was with Peggy."

Watch Natalie retell a few of her favorite moments from the trip in this short video clip, filmed at Cafe Aion in Boulder:





During this 20th Anniversary year, we invite you, our alumni, to share your own stories with us! Send us written memories, photos, and video clips of the stories that followed you back home. 

Alumni Story: The Ravioli Crisis

When all is said and done, what we do here at PMCA is all about people. Those we meet and those we travel with. The ingredients that become familiar and the recipes we learn bloom into larger stories, even after we have returned home.

During this 20th Anniversary year, we are making it a priority to collect and share stories from our alumni, about the moments that stand out and the ways that a trip with PMCA has impacted your lives upon returning home.

We invite you! to send them as emails, to record them as videos or audio, to include photos and/or to post them on our facebook page.

Here, we would like to share a story from Kate Fortney, who has attended our Tuscany and Morocco programs with her husband, Heschel - and will soon join us in Spain!

 

Kate and Heschel in the kitchen on our Fall 2010 program in Morocco.

In 2000, we took our first trip with Peggy. It was Heschel's 50th year and for his birthday celebration we decided a cooking school in Florence would be a great way to commemorate the milestone. It was a perfect trip: accomodations were comfortable, our classmates all seem to be kindred spirits, the excursions were a perfect accompaniment for the classes - informative, but more importantly a wonderful way to meet Tuscans and experience the culture. And of course the food was fantastic. And although even 11 years later we have detailed memories of each day, our story really happened after we came home.

 

I guess Piero's class just made all the cooking seem so easy. Once we arrived home, swelled with confidence, we invited several friends over for an Italian dinner using the recipes we'd learned. Heschel was making a chicken dish that required the chicken to be deboned. After pretty much shredding his first attempt, he opted to use boneless chicken breasts from the store. I took on making the ravolli. While the ragu and stuffing came out well, for some reason it took three attempts to get the pasta dough right and then I struggled to get it rolled thin enough. Luckily we had some frozen ravolli that we mixed in.  

 

While I was having my ravolli crisis, Hesch was whipping up tiramisu. Since I had my back to him, I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. All I know, is that all of sudden I heard him cry out, "Oh no, they are floating!" When I turned around, his ladyfinger cakes were popping up to the surface. He went back to the store for ready-made.

 

By the time our guests arrived, we had regained our sense of humor and were able to greet them at the door with, "Welcome to our Italian dinner, where every course has a story." And ultimately that's what Peggy's wonderful culinary trip in Florence gave us-besides some new cooking skills, an appreciation that it isn't about the perfection of the food, it is about sharing that food with friends and creating memories.