If like us you are missing travelling to Europe; taking a passeggiata in Italia or enjoying tapas in Seville, we have a treat for you!

One of our favourite businesses, Devour Tours are being proactive during this difficult time and bringing their wonderful tours to you virtually through a huge 173-page cookbook!

The book is filled to the brim with delicious delicacies you can make at home from all of the places you wish you could be right now!

They have covered 8 destinations; Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, San Sebastian, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, and London! The Roman recipes are from an Italian Mamma who was kind enough to share them with Abigail Stark, Devour’s Rome Operations Manager.

I had a chat with Abbie about Devour Tours and where you can buy the book to support them or WIN a copy below!

• How did Devour Tours begin? 

  • Lauren Aloise, the co-founder of Devour Tours, started leading tours herself in Madrid in 2012 as a way to introduce curious travellers to the city she loved. Along with co-founder James Blick’s help, the company later grew to include other Spanish cities and in the past year has expanded to Paris, Lisbon, London and Rome. As the Rome operations manager, I worked with the Devour team to create three food tours in the city and show our guests the local side of Rome in some of its most iconic neighbourhoods. 

• What's been the hardest part of dealing with the current crisis?

  • Like many in the hospitality and tourism industry, we find ourselves in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. For the first time in eight years, we're unable to connect people over food on our tours. The effects of what’s unfolding are devastating for tour operators like us, as well as for our team of guides, staff, and tour partners. Coming up with creative ways to keep delivering on our mission of, “connecting curious travellers to local food and people in a way that helps culture thrive” has been our top priority during the past month. 

• Tell us what makes your tours so incredible?

  • In my opinion, one of the best parts of a Devour Tour is how it’s a truly immersive experience, into the local culture, cuisine, and life of the city. Whether it’s learning the dos and don’ts of tapas in Madrid, or exploring traditional Roman cuisine through an open-air market, our goal is always to teach our guests about the local culture in a way that also supports the community. I think it’s incredibly important to support small, family-run businesses today and we achieve that by working with amazing vendors to truly connect our guests to the soul of a destination, and not a watered-down version of it.

• How did you get inspired to create your wonderful cookbook? 

  • After making the decision to suspend our tours, for the time being, we wanted to get creative about how to bring the same love of food and local culture to people without a physical tour. While we have some ideas for virtual experiences in the works, we knew that starting with an in-depth, personal cookbook with recipes from our team of staff, guides and vendors was the right choice. We want to continue to unite the world around food, through cooking our team's favourites from each of our tour cities. 

• How much love and care has gone into the making of Devour’s digital cookbook?  

  • This digital book is an act of love created by the entire Devour Tours team across eight cities. These are the recipes we’ve chosen to represent us, to bring our cities and our tours into your kitchen and onto your table for a couple of hours. They’re dishes that will help you travel without having to leave your kitchen, and you’ll be supporting a small business during the coronavirus crisis with your purchase! The recipes included are the iconic essentials that you know and love, as well as the foods that locals really eat every day in these cities. 

• What types of recipes can we find in the book and how did you find each dish? 

  • With 52 recipes from our eight tour destinations: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, San Sebastian, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, and London, we pulled together beloved dishes from our favourite restaurants and family secrets that are being shared for the first time. From Rome, I included 8 recipes for classic Roman dishes that run the gamut from pizza and pasta, to aperitivo drinks and dolci. Four of them I translated directly from my talented mother-in-law’s verbal instructions. She’s taught me everything I know about Roman food, so it seemed only fitting that I share her wealth of knowledge with Devourers around the world! 

• How can we all get a copy of this wonderful book and support you?

  • The cookbook is available as a PDF (available on any device) with links to different videos the recipe creators made to give context on certain dishes. It's selling for €19, with the possibility to choose a "pay more" option for donations.

    You can find out more, and purchase your copy, at this link.

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Devour Tours are also offering the chance for one lucky Mammaprada reader to WIN a copy of the book!

To enter the giveaway please use one of the methods in the window below.

Giveaway T&Cs

• There will be one lucky winner who will receive a Devour Tours digital cookbook.

• The winner will be selected at random using the Gleam widget above.

• The giveaway opens on Thursday 23 April 2020.

• It ends on Thursday 7th May 2020.

• Open to entries Worldwide.

• Entrants must be 18+ years old.