New Gastronomy Tours in Marana
Marana Gastronomy Tours are an exciting offshoot stemming from Tucson’s designation as an official UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015. The tours are a 5-hour adventure offered twice a month through April 2018, and are limited to 13 people. The cost is $109 per person, which includes tastings of gourmet wild foods as well as Catalina Brewing Company’s craft beer, made with local materials such as mesquite agave and prickly pear fruit. The tours conclude with a multi-course small plate tasting of Sonoran haute cuisine perfected by classically French-trained chefs at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.
Upcoming tour dates are:
- Friday, December 15, 12:30 pm – 6:00 pm
- Friday, January 12, 12:30 pm – 6:00 pm
- Friday, January 19, 12:30 pm – 6:00 pm
More dates are being adding through April 2018.
Find out more about the Marana Gastronomy Tours. For questions about reservations, please contact Gray Line Tours at 520-622-8811 / 800-276-1528 or info@graylinearizona.com.
As Tucson’s largest provider of farm-to-table produce, heritage grain, wild desert foods, and honey, Marana is included in this designation by virtue of its 4,000 years of tradition and practice. Did you know that Marana has the oldest agricultural irrigation canal system found in North America, which the Hohokam Indians used to irrigate their fields of corn, beans and squash? Once the historic bread basket, cattle ranching, and orchard area for Tucson, Marana is now a center for farm-to-table, farm-to-bottle, and gourmet desert-foraged food sources.
In this same culinary spirit, the chefs at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain partner with local artisans, farmers, and sustainable purveyors – such as Black Mesa Ranch, farmer Richard Starkey, and Maggie’s Farm Aquaponics – to deliver authentic, sustainable, and innovative cuisine using Marana grown and harvested foods. Menu items at Cayton’s, CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar, and Ignite include Whiskey Del Bac, a local favorite using malt that is dried over a mesquite fire, as well as local craft beer made with heritage grain White Sonoran Wheat grown by BKW Farms. CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar also has its own 42-tree citrus orchard, from which guests can seasonally pick their own fruit for morning libations. Explore the Ritz-Carlton dining options.