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Tournant Open fire cooking retreat in Istria, Croatia

November 7, 2019 By travellingoven 2 Comments

I met Mona and Jaret, American Chefs behind the brand Tournant, two years ago at the Food photography & styling workshop by Eva Kosmas Flores, a renowned American food photographer, cookbook author, a blogger at Adventures in Cooking and now a dear friend of mine. You can check out my blog posts about those workshops here (for year 2017) and here (for year 2018).

There are those people that instantly change something within you, when you meet them there is an immediate connection and you feel like you’ve known them forever. People that inspire you, bring something incredibly positive and powerful into your life, you feel like you want to absorb as much as possible everything they share with you, their wisdom, friendship, creativity, kindness and love. Mona and Jaret are those people. I feel very grateful to have met them and connected with them both privately as friends and professionally at their first International cooking retreat held this Autumn in beautiful Croatian region of Istria, famous for its lush green hills, truffles, wine and olive oil, picturesque little hilltop towns and much more…

It was such a pleasure to work with them on this exciting project, helping in organization, capturing all those special moments with my camera and being kind of a local travel guide as well. Hope my photos can take you on this little journey where there will be delicious food prepared over open fire, cobbled streets of charming little towns, pretty details of Autumn in Istria, cute truffle hunting dogs and some very happy people that gathered to share this experience and create something beautiful together…

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

culinary workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

We were staying in a beautiful stone villa called Luigi & Luisa that is situated on a hill above tiny little village called Livade in an area rich with lush forest, green meadows, little hills where olive trees grow. Magical place and perfect for a creative retreat like this. The nature and the mood of the region is just so inspiring, specially in Autumn and let me tell you, often I had to force myself to stop taking photos as there were other things to do as well lol! 😀

Our days would start with all of us gathering for breakfast (ok, I had something to do with preparing that breakfast too haha) around long rustic wooden table and feeling of excitement for what the day will bring. Every day we went on a little trip after breakfast, like to charming little hilltop towns Motovun and Groznjan or colourful  and pretty seaside town Novigrad or to the forest to do some truffle hunting but more on that a bit later…

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

After walking, exploring and photographing around this part of Istria, we would have lunch somewhere with  a breathtaking view and after lunch slowly made our way back to our little hill and our gorgeous home for those 5 days. Afternoons were when the magic would start happening! Mona and Jaret would start a fire and the cooking could begin…

Watching them work and learning from them was such a special experience, you can tell from the first moment you participate in their cooking process just how much they love their job, how passionate they are about using fresh seasonal ingredients in their cooking being inspired by all the beautiful produce that is in season at the moment. So, we learned, cooked, had fun, took hundreds of photos, had delicious snacks and some wine too along the way…

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

culinary retreat in Istria, Croatia

One of my favourite little trips was going truffle hunting with Karlic tartufi and their adorable dogs Lela and Candy and spending the morning in the forest walking, having fun and watching these cute truffle hunters do their job. So much fun! We also had incredibly delicious brunch there, I’m talking delicious frittata with a mountain of truffles and Parmesan cheese, little bites with different truffle spreads, amazing cheeses with honey and jam and probably my favourite, warm fritters filled with dark and white chocolate spread with truffles, so good!

I’ve been lucky to go truffle hunting with them for the last 3 years every Autumn as we did that as well at Eva’s Food photography workshops where I worked previous two years. I must admit Lela is my favourite, she is 16 years old truffle hunter and very much loved by her family. I find her so elegant, proud and incredibly beautiful, hope this portrait shows her personality well..

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

truffle hunting, Croatia

Time flies when you are having fun (and when you love your job!) so the last day arrived and Mona and Jaret prepared a feast with so many delicious veggies, they know how to let even the simple cabbage or cauliflower shines and manage to convert some people who never eat vegetables haha! Everybody loved the food and gathering around our magical little table on the meadow near the forest to share stories, food and wine. Later we gathered around the open fire and talked and laughed till late in the evening… There may have been some gin & tonic involved but let’s leave it at that! 😀

So here are some more photos from that last evening of the retreat. I hope you enjoyed the story and the photos and maybe it inspired you to participate in one of these future workshops or attend something similar, whatever can fill you up with some creativity, positive energy and offer you a different and special life experience creating beautiful memories...

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

open fire cooking workshop in Istria, Croatia

*Thank you so much for being here, that makes me so happy! You can also follow my Travelling oven on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as sign up to receive new blog posts via email and subscribe to my newsletter. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: travel, Workshops Tagged With: Chefs, cooking, cooking retreat, croatia, culinary workshop, food photography, food photography workshop, istria, retreat, tournant, travel, workshop

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Comments

  1. Marisa Franca Stewart says

    November 8, 2019 at 9:06 pm

    Beautiful photos – I can see eva’s influence. your photos brought tears to my eyes. i was born in isola d’istria when it was under italian rule. I believe our town may be under slovenian rule rather than croatia. we left when i was a child and i haven’t been back. i’d love to see it and try to find the places my mamma and papà talked about. I enjoyed the post.

    Reply
    • travellingoven says

      November 9, 2019 at 8:06 am

      Thank you very much dear Marisa! I’m so glad these photos brought back some childhood memories and I hope you get the chance to visit this beautiful part of the world again soon…

      Reply

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Have you ever tried Rapska torta (Rab cake)? I lov Have you ever tried Rapska torta (Rab cake)? I love its sweet and rich taste and aroma, almonds, lemon and orange zest, Maraschino liqueur...🧡
It is believed that this dessert was served for the first time in 1177 to the Pope Alexander III on the occasion of the blessing of the Rab Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary. One hundred years ago this unique Rab dessert was made by nuns in the monastery of St. Anthony of Padua, while some time later also in the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew. The original and at the same time secret recipe was only known to a few of the Rab women. Even today it is known to only a few and it's made on especially festive occasions...

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Simple pleasures.. corn bread, butter and milk. 💛
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Images shot for @aldentezagreb, a perfect place for pasta & pizza fans. 😋
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This is one of my favourites from all the winter s This is one of my favourites from all the winter scenes I captured this year. This little tree, delicate and gentle, carrying its burden but still standing tall… 🤍
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No donut photo from me today but pistachio baklava No donut photo from me today but pistachio baklava instead! 😄 Baklava is a dessert I don't eat often (because well, hello sugar!) but when I do, my choice is pistachio one. This one was really good! 😉
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The most delicious pumpkin dish I’ve ever had is The most delicious pumpkin dish I’ve ever had is this roasted pumpkin stuffed with vegetables, cheese, herbs and garlic infused cream! Swipe to see how it looks inside…😍 Prepared by @tournantpdx ❤️
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Sorry, no chocolate hearts from me. But you get a Sorry, no chocolate hearts from me. But you get a garlic photo instead! 😄
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