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New Orleans Unlocked: A Five-Day Culinary Experience

New Orleans Unlocked: A Five-Day Culinary Experience - Image 1
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Trip Highlights

Five nights at the Hotel Monteleone — a French Quarter landmark since 1886 and an icon in its own right
A behind-the-scenes meet and greet with a celebrated New Orleans chef, over a meal at their own restaurant
An immersive evening bringing Netflix's Street Food: New Orleans to life — meeting personalities from the show and tasting their signature dishes across multiple neighborhoods
Dinner at Mosquito Supper Club — James Beard Award-winning Chef Melissa Martin's farm-to-table experience, with wine pairing and a signed cookbook to take home
A hands-on Creole cooking class at the Mardi Gras School of Cooking — the roux, the trinity, and the techniques Louisiana kitchens have been perfecting for centuries
Commander’s Palace meal — the quintessential fine dining experience
A final morning at Brennan's, the French Quarter institution that helped put brunch on the map
A bespoke craft cocktail tour through the French Quarter with your historian guide
A pre-trip planning call to handle every detail before you arrive
Comparable restaurants to those named here if you have already dined at them and wish to try new places

Description

New Orleans doesn’t just have a food culture. It has a food religion. Its iconic dishes have circled the globe, yet they never taste quite the same once they leave home. That’s because the secret ingredient isn’t found in a market or a recipe. It’s woven into the city itself: its history, its personality, and its timeless talent for turning every meal into a celebration. This five-day experience was built for the traveler who knows that the best way to understand a place is to eat your way through it. Not through the tourist trail, but through the kitchens, the family recipes, the neighborhood institutions, and the tables where locals have been arguing about gumbo for generations. You'll share a meal with personalities you may recognize from your television. You'll dine at restaurants that have been feeding New Orleans since before the Civil War. You'll learn to make the cocktail that was invented in this city, browse one of the best food streets in the American South, and finish with a dinner that reminds you why New Orleans belongs in the same conversation as any culinary capital on earth. Five days. One city. Endless reasons to loosen your belt.

Itinerary

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Your guide meets you at the airport with a bead welcome, because this is New Orleans, after all! From there, your private shuttle delivers you to the Hotel Monteleone, a French Quarter institution since 1886 and your home for the next five nights. This is not a chain hotel dressed up in local character. It is the real thing…a family-owned landmark that has hosted Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Ernest Hemingway, and earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Once you've settled in, the evening is yours to ease into the city at your own pace before your welcome dinner at one of the French Quarter's finest tables. This will be at the kind of restaurant that has been defining New Orleans cuisine for generations.
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Morning begins with beignets and a light stroll through the French Quarter, narrated by a local historian with a gift for storytelling. Consider it a gentle warm-up for what's ahead. Lunch is one of the top-rated food activities in the country, a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking. See skilled, entertaining chefs prepare a classic Cajun and Creole meal right before your eyes. Watch, learn, and eat. Recipe cards are included so you can recreate it all back home. The afternoon and evening belong to Netflix. Your group sets out on a full excursion designed to bring the Street Food: New Orleans episode to life. You will be visiting different neighborhoods throughout the city, meeting personalities featured on the show, and tasting the signature dishes that made them famous. It is a long, delicious, unhurried afternoon into evening, and it earns every minute. When this exclusive experience winds down, you are free to enjoy a live jazz show, or perhaps a quiet nightcap in the Hotel Monteleone lounge.
3
The morning is yours. Sleep in, explore, or simply sit with a coffee and watch the French Quarter wake up. Late morning, your group gathers for a meet-and-greet with a celebrated chef at their own restaurant. This is a rare behind-the-scenes conversation over an early lunch at one of the city's most talked-about tables. The afternoon is unscheduled by design. Shop, visit a museum, book a spa treatment, or simply wander. When happy hour arrives, your historian guide leads a bespoke cocktail experience through some of the French Quarter's finest craft cocktail bars for a leisurely, spirited tour through the city's drink culture. Join in or continue your afternoon on your own terms. Dinner is the evening's centerpiece. Mosquito Supper Club is the kind of place you only find if someone points you there — a James Beard Award-winning farm-to-table experience from Chef Melissa Martin that draws on the flavors and traditions of coastal Louisiana. Wine pairing is included, and you'll leave with a signed cookbook to remember the meal by. The night is yours from there. Maybe you will head to Frenchmen Street, where live music spills from club doorways while artists fill the open-air night market. Or perhaps wind down closer to the hotel at Mahogany Jazz Hall.
4
This day starts unscheduled, by design. Sleep in, wander the French Quarter, get lost in the Garden District, or finally sit down at that restaurant you've been walking past all week. By now your guide knows your interests — ask them for a shortlist and they'll point you exactly where you need to go. At 6pm, roll up your sleeves at the Mardi Gras School of Cooking. This hands-on Creole cooking class puts you at the stove alongside a master chef, learning the roux, the trinity, and the techniques that have been passed down through Louisiana kitchens for centuries. Leave with the skills to bring a little New Orleans back home with you.
5
It’s documented history that New Orleans invented brunch. It only makes sense that your final morning is spent at the table where the tradition was perfected! Brennan's has been drawing fine-dining aficionados from across the country for three-quarters of a century. A French Quarter institution, Brennan’s manages to feel both timeless and alive every single morning. The eggs are extraordinary. The Bananas Foster, invented right here at this table, is non-negotiable. And the unhurried pace of a long breakfast in a room this beautiful is the perfect way to let the week wash over you one last time. Five days. Beignets and bespoke cocktails, neighborhood institutions and James Beard kitchens, cooking lessons and celebrity chefs, and a city that treats every meal like it matters. Because here, it does.

Tour Info

Duration
5 days
Group Size
2 to 24 people
Languages
English

Why take this tour?

Every city has restaurants. New Orleans has a relationship with food that goes back three centuries; one that shaped American cuisine, invented dishes that spread across the world, and built a culture where a meal is never just a meal. It is history, community, and identity on a plate.

The difference between eating well in New Orleans and truly understanding it comes down to access. The right tables, the right guides, the right conversations. This five-day experience was built around that access and includes a James Beard Award-winning chef's dining room, a Netflix-documented food culture brought to life neighborhood by neighborhood, hands-on time in a cooking class kitchen, and a final breakfast at the institution that helped convince the world that mornings deserved great food too.

This is not a food tour. It is a full immersion into one of the greatest culinary cities on earth, guided by people who know where the real meals are.

 

Your Home Away from Home: Hotel Monteleone

Hotel Montelone

When you step into the Hotel Monteleone, you're stepping into history. A New Orleans landmark since 1886, it is a Four-Star, Four-Diamond luxury hotel whose iconic lobby features soaring ceilings, elegant chandeliers, intricate moldings, and timeless marble floors that pay tribute to the grandeur of a bygone era. Every detail reflects the rich history and charm of the French Quarter, making your stay not just accommodation, but a journey through time in its own right. Before you turn in each evening, a visit to the award-winning Carousel Bar is a pleasure you simply owe yourself.

Your Pre-Trip Planning Call

Before your first meal begins, we sit down with you. This 30-minute Zoom call covers your itinerary in detail: dietary restrictions, special requests, and suggestions for making the most of your free time. It's how we make sure nothing is left to chance and nothing catches you off guard. Show up ready. We'll handle the rest.

Included

  • Five nights at the Hotel Monteleone, French Quarter
  • Pre-trip planning Zoom call to handle every detail before you arrive
  • Welcome dinner at a landmark New Orleans restaurant
  • Beignets and a narrated French Quarter morning stroll with a local historian
  • Cooking demonstration and lunch at the New Orleans School of Cooking — recipe cards included
  • A full afternoon and evening excursion bringing Netflix's Street Food: New Orleans to life — multiple neighborhoods, multiple personalities, multiple signature dishes
  • Celebrity chef meet and greet and early lunch at their restaurant
  • Bespoke craft cocktail tour through the French Quarter with your historian guide
  • Dinner at Mosquito Supper Club with wine pairing and signed cookbook
  • Hands-on Creole cooking class at the Mardi Gras School of Cooking
  • Breakfast at Brennan's
  • Private guides and gratuities throughout

Excluded

  • Flights to/from New Orleans
  • Airport bead welcome and airport transfers (~$200 per vehicle)
  • Meals not listed in inclusions
  • Drinks during free time and self-guided evenings
  • Souvenirs and personal purchases
  • Activities and entrance fees during free time
  • Anything not listed in the inclusions above

Things to know

Optional Upgrade

Suite accommodations are available. Please call for current pricing.

Cancellations

* 60 days or more prior to event = Refund all monies paid less the $500 per person non-refundable deposit. * 59 days or less prior to event = No refunds.

Deposits

A $500 non-refundable deposit per person is required to secure a reservation, payable by credit card, electronic transfer, ACH, or check. Upon submitting your reservation, you will receive a confirmation of your paid deposit. A booking is not confirmed until a deposit has been received and a receipt has been issued. * At time of booking, $500 non-refundable deposit is due * 60 days prior to start of tour, 100% of total is due

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