An interview with Zingerman’s cofounder Ari Weinzweig about Zingerman’s Food Tours:

How long has Zingerman’s been doing food tours?

Since the late 1990s. The first one was to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. We had some good food and some very good beer!

Where are some of the places Zingerman’s Food Tours has gone in the past?

All sorts of good spots! Ireland, Tuscany, Spain, Sicily!

What do you like best about the tours?

I think it’s a chance for people who don’t work at Zingerman’s to see much more of what we see when we travel for work.  Because we’re working with traditional food, food is part of pretty much everything I do when I’m traveling.  Regardless of where one’s going, most everyone from Zingerman’s is mapping out which producers they’re going to visit and where they’re going to eat.  And the tours are like that—you get to meet some of the people who make the food we sell, eat in some really good restaurants, see some spots that likely mostly only locals know about, drink some good wine. And you get to do it with a bunch of other people who also love great food!

What do you think sets Zingerman’s Food Tours apart from other tours?

Since we buy from only really great producers, then the quality of the people that we’re visiting tends to be really high. And since we tend to work with really nice, engaged, upbeat and interesting people the tours tend to be much the same.  In many cases we get to have that “inside” scoop into a pasta factory, cheese maker, etc. that most folks wouldn’t find, or have access to, on their own.  And, did I say that the food was really good?

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Zingerman’s Food Tours are run by Jillian, Toni, Elph, and Tom, and we are part of the Zingerman’s Mail Order company, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. We love what we do! And we love to share wonderful experiences and fabulous food, people and places with our guests. At least two of us are on every tour, to be there for our guests at all times and make sure that each tour is fantastic!

In addition, we have created some great partnerships:

For our Morocco and Tuscany tours, we have teamed up with Peggy Markel, long-time fellow culinary adventurer and food guide extraordinaire. For the past 17 years Peggy has traversed the Mediterranean and North Africa, and she designs and directs her own brand of culinary tours in which enjoyment of the present place and moment plays a pivotal role.

For our Sicily, Puglia, and Piedmont tours, we have teamed up with Gioacchino Passalacqua, an Italian food and wine importer/exporter, gastronome, tour guide, adventurer, and native Sicilian who divides his time between Sicily, Italy and New York. As a native Mediterranean, Gioacchino has developed relationships with food producers, restauranteurs, olive oil companies, chocolatiers, vintners, and confectioners.

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