Nothing unites the Mediterranean countries more than their love of food and there are, of course, fifteen such countries to choose from.  A quick tour could cover Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, and the whole of North Africa.  From this comes an exceptional cuisine, based on the freshest of ingredients, cooked in an honest, simple and respectful manner.

Well-Being Breaks offers full board holidays based on this fabulous cooking.  Each break has a slight bias towards the local cuisine of the area we are staying in, but we consider our food to be, first and foremost, general Mediterranean.  So any given week, in any location, we might be cooking food from any of these countries.

Mediterranean food can often be described as “peasant food” – simple, tasty and healthy.  Many of the most famous dishes are staples of the Mediterranean diet - something that sounds luxurious is actually a perfectly normal and easy meal to cook.  This is in sharp contrast to the reliance on heavily-processed, convenience food that so often characterises eating in the U.K.  Indeed, many of the recipes we use actually take less time to prepare than convenience food.

We want you to enjoy our food to the full.  But at the same time, we would try to convince you that this is food that it’s perfectly possible for you to eat at home.  Nothing too elaborate, just very healthy with a great taste

We also adhere to the “Slow food” philosophy, which holds that food is not just fuel to be consumed as quickly and efficiently as possible.  The enjoyment of food is something we should truly relish in our lives, but for many of us, this enjoyment has fallen victim to the frenetic pace of our daily lives.  But this can be reversed and good food can be prepared and enjoyed by anyone.

Our breaks are full board and are based around brunch in the morning and a sumptuous dinner each evening. We also make a wide selection of food and drink available at other times throughout the day.

Brunch is served around 10:00am after the morning yoga class. It will typically consist of a range of cereals with fruit and yoghurts, together with local produce such as pastries, bread and preserves, cheese and ham, etc. This is served with a selection of fruit juices, and, of course, tea and coffee.

Dinner is our main meal of the day and we always try to round off each day with something special. Starting at around 8:00pm with drinks, we will dine at a leisurely pace, enjoying three or four courses over the evening. Dinner is usually served outside.

Our food has a “low-fat vegetarian” bias but at least one fish or meat option is usually served with each dinner. We are able to cater for a limited range of other dietary requirements but please let us know about these in advance. Most of our food is bought from local markets and you are welcome to accompany Jonathan and Linda on their shopping trips (which usually occur in the early afternoon).

On some breaks we are also able to have a meal out during the week at a local restaurant and on others we will be joined by a local chef who will prepare a local meal for us. The cost of these is included in the holiday price.

And you are also welcome to join Jonathan and Linda in the fun of preparing the evening meal. Even if you think you are the worst cook in the world, we will show you how you can make something great for a large group (an excellent example of NLP in practice if ever there was one)

Please click on the links below to view a typical weekly menu for each country we visit

 

Each Sunday evening we hold a little wine tasting where you will have the chance to sample various wines from the local area. We would be the last people to say that we were wine experts, but we are keen on drinking wine and that is a good starting point. Each tasting will come with a guide to the main wines produced in the local area and guidance on arranging further trips, etc. Don’t worry if you know nothing about wine -

Many of our breaks take place in some of the world’s greatest wine producing areas. For instance, our first French break is only 70km from Bordeaux; our second French break is close to the Rhone valley and areas such as Chateauneuf du Papes; and one of our Italian breaks is in the heart of Chianti. Many local vineyards are open to the public for tastings, so anyone keen on wine would be spoilt for choice on things to do.

And, of course, every evening meal comes with local wine included.

For a light hearted look at some of our ideas on wine tasting click here.

For those of you who get inspired by the food on our breaks, you might like to know that we will be publishing a “Well Being Breaks Cookbook”.  This will be available as a PDF e-book in 2008 and will contain a wide selection of the recipes we prepare on our holidays.  When you fancy cooking something, you just print off that page and off you go.  The cost is expected to be £6.50.

E-mail us if you are interested in obtaining this.