School Food Technology Trips To Barcelona

Set in the former Sant Agustí monastery, a visit here provides a journey through the origins of chocolate from its arrival in Europe and its spread as an element between myth and reality and also a look into its medicinal properties and nutritional value. The museum has teaching materials that can be accessed before, during and after the visit.

Mercabarna is a precinct encompassing the Central Fruit and Vegetable Market, Central Fish Market, Central Flower Market, the Mercabarna Slaughterhouse, and numerous other buildings. Over 300 companies operate in the markets and over 800 in the complex as a whole. Fact>: Mercabana supplies fresh produce to over 10,000,000 consumers.

Dating back to the middle ages, the Boqueria is one of Barcelona’s leading attractions. Located on Las Ramblas, this covered market has a dizzying array of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, confectionery and more. There’s also a ‘culinary classroom’, where you can learn to cook, and where a variety of other gastronomic events take place.

A lesson in how to make Spain’s famous rice-based dish provides a great new skill, plus some historical background. Paella originated in the fields of Valencia in eastern Spain. Today it is made in every region of Spain, using just about any ingredient that goes well with rice.

The lesson takes place in a professional kitchen. The group will divide into teams with each team preparing parts of a traditional Spanish/Catalan meal to share with the rest of the group. Dishes include gazpacho, Spanish tortilla, Catalan sausage (or vegetarian alternative) with aioli and tomato bread, pinchos, Catalan veggie pizza, fresh fruit skewers with warm chocolate sauce and alcohol free Sangria.

Gaudi’s masterpiece, this large, sand-coloured Catholic church has fluid forms, towering spires and surfaces overflowing with sculptures. It is still under construction even though it was started in 1882. Gaudi spent the last 40 years of his life working on this project and it isn’t scheduled for completion until 2026.

Stroll down Barcelona’s most famous street, separating the barrios of La Ribera and the Gothic Quarter. Locals and tourists bustle around the stalls selling trinkets, flowers and pets, the smart shops and Boqueria market, or just enjoy a café con leche while watching street performers. Photo © Alberto Cabello Mayero.

The Barca Immersive Tour is an interactive museum at Camp Nou allowing visitors to travel through the past, present and future of the iconic club. The tour of the exhibition ends in an immersive audio-visual 360-degree experience of what it feels like to be a player in the centre of the stadium. NB.: The inside of the Nou Camp Stadium is undergoing renovation and cannot be seen as part of this exhibition at present.

Pupils can enjoy the colourful spectacle of this traditional Andalucian art form on stage. The passion, strength and confidence of Flamenco performers make for an unforgettable show. See how they artfully convey their full range of emotions – from humour, happiness and love to envy, anger and bitterness – within a strict framework of rhythmic patterns.

Gaudi has let his most whimsical ideas take flight in this enchanting landscaped park, high on a hill in the Gracia district. It contains amazing stone structures, mosaics and fascinating buildings festooned with dragons and natural shapes, plus the spired house where the artist lived for most of his last 20 years.

Set at the foot of Montjuïc, Pueblo Espanyol is an open-air architectural museum with streets and squares reproduced to scale. It was built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition. The aim was to produce an ‘ideal, model’ Spanish village where the architecture, style, and culture of various locations around the country were preserved in one place. Photo © Olga Palma.

This research centre is dedicated to technological innovation in cooking, and focuses on using traditional local produce that encourages healthy eating. Groups can enjoy a hands-on ‘What’s the World Cooking’ workshop which explores culinary diversity around the world. Students also get to eat the dishes they have made. Image by FFundació Alícia – CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Cava production plays an important role in Catalan culture, and Codorniu has been one of its leading exponents. Its imposing winery buildings in Sant Sadurni D’Anoia were constructed between 1895 and 1915, specifically for the making of cava. After an informative tour of the site, students are invited to taste the cava or mosto (grape juice) if under 18.

Freixenet offers a guided tour of the cellars and production process, specially designed for schools. Starting with an audio-visual presentation explaining how Cava is created from the viticulture to the final product, groups then visit the cellars, barrel room and the underground man-made caves where the bottles are stored. A small train then takes the group to the tasting hall where children receive grape juice.

At a tour of Torres Vineyards, students can learn about traditional winemaking and sophisticated technology. The tour begins at the large visitors centre with a video on the firm’s history. The group visits the vast underground storage cellars and walks among barrels, smelling the wine as its ages, then finishes off with a tasting session.