Our Travel Maestro September travel industry professional interview is with Marcy Forman, Vice President and co-owner of Valesa Cultural Services. Valesa is a Virtuoso Onsite operating in Spain and Portugal since 1990 and now Morocco, too. Marcy is a native Connecticutter and graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Adminstration. Originally in the hotel business, Marcy also worked in other segments of the travel industry as a meeting planner and with American Airlines. For the past 22 years she has lived in Spain, arranging culinary tours and other luxury services for American individuals and groups with Valesa founder and co-owner Barbara Fulford.

1) How did your career path bring you to become Vice President of Valesa Cultural Services? Was it a planned route or did it materialize as you went along? Barbara first hired me in 1982 when I was in studying in Madrid and decided to stay there longer. After that I returned to Cornell to finish my degree, and Barbara and I kept in touch during my frequent returns to Spain which I loved.  When I returned to Spain in 1990 – after quitting my job, selling my home and going there without a job – I got lucky and Barbara hired me again, this time to help her with the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and World Expo in Seville. Barbara and I are a match made in heaven, and this certainly proved to be the case when I left her to become the General Manager for American Airlines in Spain & Portugal. This change launched me in the local market and was a fabulous experience. Nevertheless, after a year at American, Barbara and I missed each other so we began discussing how we could reunite and work together for good. I left American after two years and achieving my goals there, and for the past 17 years Barbara and I have been equal partners at Valesa Cultural Services.

2) Spain is known for its wide variety of regional traditional cuisine as well as new avant garde cooking at the hands of some of the world’s top chefs. Are you personally a gourmet cook (or aspire to be), or do you prefer to leave it to the professionals and just enjoy their creations?  I spent my obligatory two years in the kitchens at Cornell (and waitressed all through school too) so as to learn that I didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen professionally. Nevertheless, I have always loved eating and my favorite inspections are always the private cooking classes, market visit and special tasting menus. In fact, when I think back to Barbara’s roots arranging exclusive tours for American art museum groups visiting Spain, we have always put special emphasis on our local and regional cuisines for all of our clients – even if the special interest is art or gardens -long before anyone ever knew to request these.  Now, of course, the panorama is different and we receive very specific requests from foodies and wine lovers.

3) What kinds of culinary focused trips does Valesa offer? Too numerous to mention every type of trip we have arranged since all of our trips are tailor made creations. Nevertheless, I would distinguish between the eaters and the cooks. Not every culinary group wants to learn to cook, hands on, but they all want to taste and visit local markets. Additionally, we are well known for our top, top guides and special experts who really make the experience! Whether they go to markets, to bars for tapas, to wineries for tastings or to our favorite local restaurants, our guides help you with the language, as English is not widely spoken here, menu selections, explanations about different dishes or ingredients and arranging whatever you want to visit or taste. In addition to the special elements that each client requests, we always include general culture and highlights in each city, since we feel these are a must for all.

4) Does a traveler need to plan their entire itinerary with Valesa, or can they add day excursions to an independent itinerary?  We are willing to arrange day excursions only – and we often do – but this is not the best way to arrange a high level or special interest trip.  When you book the whole package with Valesa, then you have experts in the booking process and on the ground throughout, making the best use of your limited time in the destination, understanding the most about what you see and taste, getting to try the best dishes at each place, handling your restaurant reservation, learning the most and probably enjoying the trip most since you can relax – from trip creation to execution to finances.  We hold your hand through it all, before during and after.  And when we handle the hotels for you, the entire trip goes the most smoothly since we are in charge of every detail and we have excellent relationships with all of the best hotels here.

5) Cooking classes are popular day excursions for our foodie friends. Take us through a typical day and what is included.  We offer these in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Granada and other places too. My favorite class is a cooking class with a professional chef in his home in Barcelona, though fyi, these are expensive when you only have 2 people. Here is the description of the class:

Learn about the variety and quality of Catalan food in a guided visit with Jaume, the chef who will be your teacher today, to the famous La Boquería market. You will buy some supplies then transfer from the market to the cooking lesson venue: Jaume´s charming private home in the north of the city with a wonderful terrace overlooking the Tibidabo mountain, where you can enjoy what you have cooked if the weather is right. You will be there about 3 or 4 hours preparing the recipes and then enjoying the prepared dishes with wine. The Chef, Jaume, food, wine and beverages, and recipes in English are included. Total time about 5 hours.

6) Which winery or vineyard is your favorite and what makes it special? This is a tough question since there are so many great ones. For wineries, I most love the small, family run specialties wineries near Barcelona; for example, Albet i Noya, which specializes in cava (Spanish version of champagne) and is known as Spain’s first ecological winery. And I also love a tiny, rudimentary and unprestigious winery in the small town of Laguardia (Rioja) called El Fabulista. A visit to Fabulista is a trip through the history of the village and wine production in Rioja, and then we taste their wine which is produced in the old traditional ways. It’s not gourmet, but all very interesting!

And my favorite vineyard visits are near Jerez and also Viña Real and Baigorri wineries in Rioja since they are the perfect venues for a meal among the vines. Baigorri has an unusual production line set up all on the basis of natural gravity and so there is no machinery noise during production! 

7) We tend to think of culinary tours as concentrating on luxury restaurants, wine tastings and such. What kind of culinary discoveries would you recommend for families traveling with children? Luxury restaurants are out for kids, especially since dinner starts at 9pm earliest usually.  When there are kids, we usually include more market visits, tapas bars, cooking classes with lunch and tastings at local specialty shops, bakeries etc. We also like to add general culture and some active options like bike or Segway tours.

8) Aside from gastronomy tours, what kinds of cultural exploration does Valesa offer? Our original bread and butter has always been art & architecture, and you can see on our web page that our client list reads like the Who’s Who of American Museums.  This specialty and our high level contacts are what inspired Virtuoso to ask us to join the network in 1989. Since then, we have become specialists in special interest travel and so our experience now includes the following specialties:  art, history, architecture, archaeology, gardens, shore excursions, food, wine, corporate incentives, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and more.

 

9) Valesa has the network and contacts to arrange special access to private homes and collections. Tell us about an exceptionally exclusive event that you arranged. We took over the Picasso Museum in Barcelona privately and hosted a lovely private catered dinner there after this VIP group of 100 people enjoyed their private visits of the museum. Please note that we have many contacts at private homes and venues, but many of these open only for groups. Nevertheless, there are definitely artist studios, cooking classes in private homes and occasional private collections that we can arrange for individuals.

One of my favorite special venues for small groups is a private home in Seville’s old quarter where good friends of ours from a noble family offer a glass of wine and tapas for 2-10 people visiting their home. Guests enjoy visiting with one of Seville’s top local decorators in a lovely apartment overlooking the Alcazar and our hostess is lovely!

10) Tell us about the Valesa magazine that you edit and where our readers can find it. España & Portugal Cultural began quarterly distribution in 1995, though has recently been reduced to an e-newletter that we send to you every other month. If you send me your email request, we are happy to add you to our mailing list. 

Marcy, thank you for sharing your insight on the culinary and cultural tour options Valesa provides in Spain and Portugal!

Due to Marcy’s extensive experience on both sides of the ocean, and her (and her team’s)  Americanness, Valesa is uniquely qualified to understand American client needs and preferences. They see these very foreign destinations through American eyes and know what will most impress their travelers. Valesa has been American owned and operated since its inception in 1968. To arrange a customized culinary and cultural itinerary with Valesa, please contact Covington Travel.

Photos courtesy of Valesa Cultural Services.