Art for dinner. The flavours that inspired Dalí

Dalí used to say that cooking and painting were closely related art forms, as with both you must continue to add ingredients in order to achieve the desired result. L'Empordà's cuisine reflects the magnanimity of a land bathed in sea and sheltered by mountains. 

Day 1

Nibbling your way through Girona
The Patronat de Turisme will show you why Girona's cuisine is so highly regarded as you work your way through the divine tapas served by the local restaurants. Prefer to cook them yourself? Have a go at the local cuisine workshops run by Agar. From Girona, it's on to Ullastret and the Recuits Ca la Nuri shop, offering its goat's cheese products; the cottage cheese is a particular favourite.

A train journey through the rice fields
Head to the El Xiulet de Pals train and discover just how these crops in the Pals marshes have recovered and become some of the best in the country. With the Montgrí in the background, the train will pull up in the Molí de Pals - operative since the 15th century - and a tour guide will teach you how the rice is whitened.

The home of the anchovy
If there's a reason why the town of l'Escala is well known, that's because of its prized anchovies. Take a guided visit of Callol Serrats, the oldest company to have passed down the age-old tradition of anchovy salting, a process that's still done by hand. Taste it with some traditional tomatoes on bread and some DO Empordà wine.

Day 2

Be an olive-picker for the day
The oil also has PDO Oli de l'Empordà certification. If you want to see the process in action, you can do just that with Empordàlia. You go and pick the olives, then they'll show you how they're cleaned and pressed at the Pau mill. After a lunch of bread with tomatoes and cold cuts, you'll get to bottle up the oil and take it home with you.

Have breakfast amongst the vineyards
DO Empordà wines satisfy even the most demanding of palates. Try it all at the La Vinyeta wine cellar in Mollet de Peralada; you can take a guided tour that finishes with a tasting session, or try out their vineyard breakfast of cold cuts and traditional patés.

Dalí's culinary indulgence
If you've whetted your appetite, do a bit of shopping at El Graner in Vilafant. For two decades they've been wowing their customers with artisan cold cuts. Get lost in the huge range of dried and cooked products; the patés are definitely the highlight, there's even a cava-flavoured one. You can also try one of Dalí's own little favourites, the traditional Catalan sweet sausage, the butifarra.

Learn how to make 'ratafía'
Mas Martís will take you out to the Serinyà forest where you'll pick all the necessary ingredients. Afterwards, they'll give you a step-by-step class on how to make the popular herb liqueur with all its medicinal qualities.