Cooking classes, markets, vineyards, and the kind of stories you can taste.

Are you the kind of traveler who learns a culture through markets, meals, and what locals are sipping at the next table. Then this episode is for you. Karen Cleveland sits down with Susan Reinke, Founder and Director of Global Palate Adventures, to talk about travel that revolves around food, wine, and the people behind it all.

Susan shares stories from intimate cooking experiences, from a home kitchen up five flights of stairs in Parma, to a high intensity professional kitchen in San Sebastián, and even a Barcelona cooking day that turned into a citywide adventure during a strike. Along the way, you’ll hear how her “no one dines alone” approach creates real community, why one cooking class per trip is often the perfect amount, and what’s coming up next, including Charleston, Japan, Portugal, and South Africa with wine country and safari.

Guest Bio

Susan Reinke is the Founder and Director of Global Palate Adventures, a small group travel company for food and wine lovers who want to understand culture through what people grow, cook, and share at the table. She launched Global Palate Adventures in 2015 as a natural extension of her career in foodservice and agriculture marketing through her company, Food Marketing Resources, where she works with agriculture organizations to increase their foodservice business.

Over the years, Susan has traveled extensively across the U.S. and abroad, taking cooking classes in kitchens from Spain to Thailand, wandering local markets, meeting producers, and collecting the kinds of stories that only show up when you slow down and listen. Her trips attract curious travelers, chefs, marketers, and passionate food people, plus plenty of solo travelers who quickly become part of the group. Her motto says it all. No one dines alone.

Host Bio

Karen Cleveland is the creator and host of Travel That Touches Your Soul. She is a safari host, spiritual teacher, and animal communicator devoted to helping people reconnect with what matters most through meaningful travel. Her work centers on connection with animals, land, culture, and inner truth, and the quiet inner knowing that says, this is the kind of life I came here to live.

Episode Topics and Timestamps

• A question for every obsessed foodie. Markets, meals, and culture (00:00)

• Susan’s origin story. From food marketing to Global Palate Adventures (00:13)

• Kitchen adventures around the world. Parma apartments and pro kitchens (01:22)

• The market to kitchen flow. Ingredients first, then cooking together (02:20)

• Barcelona pivot story. A strike, a long walk, and bonding over fish prep (03:13)

• How the Bordeaux class worked with language barriers and translation (04:28)

• How much moving around is ideal. Fewer hotels, more depth (05:17)

• Who comes on these trips. Chefs, food people, curious travelers, and solos (06:12)

• Why South Africa. Wine country plus safari, plus penguins (07:00)

• Repeat destinations and demand. Sicily, Portugal, and why people return (08:25)

• Portugal food stories. Seafood, tinned fish, and legendary custard pastries (09:14)

• Shock foods. Crickets in Oaxaca and durian in Thailand (10:58)

• Why farmers matter. Muddy boots, real stories, and respecting the work (17:05)

• What Susan wants guests to take home. Culture, memory, and new friends (18:49)

• Upcoming trips. Charleston, Japan, Portugal waitlist, South Africa (20:54)

• Japan preview. Markets, street food, and seeing it made right in front of you (22:02)

• Where to find Susan and how to vote on future destinations (24:28)

Global Palate Adventures website

https://globalpalateadventures.com/about/

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