THE RECIPE
On our “grand tour” road trip we stayed with friends who have a place near Toulouse, and they whipped up this fantastic berry sorbet: light, creamy, lofty—just what you want for dessert on a summer night. They used a Thermomix, which in France is something you have to buy from an authorized dealer—a Tupperware-type situation. Since this sounded complicated, expensive (around 1200 euros), and would take too long, we bought a Moulinex Volupta for about 150 euros, and it worked perfectly. Matt swears you could do this with a food processor.
Glace Express (Fast Sorbet—sounds better in French!)
300g frozen raspberries (or whatever fruit you want)
80g of white sugar
1 egg white
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
50g of water or oat/almond milk
Add raspberries, sugar, and lemon to whatever device you’re using, and blitz on high until it begins to get smooth. Then add water (or whatever liquid you’re using) followed by the egg white. Blitz one more time on high to achieve the lofty and creamy texture.
JUST BACK FROM
Our friends Stephen and Aly spent some time in Mystic recently, and had such a good time there they have convinced me to make a weekend trip there soon. Since I’m emailed all the time for getaways that are close to NYC, I asked Stephen to give me his favorites: “The Whaler Inn in Mystic is the kind of well-inn you always hope will be in a small town, but rarely is. It’s right on the water, steps from three great restaurants (the Oyster Club is my favorite), and walking distance to a bookstore. Nana’s Bakery and Pizza has great coffee, bread, and pizza—it’s like the real life version of Mystic Pizza unlike the actual one which is terrible. Grass & Bone is a takeout/butcher kind of place that has rotisserie chickens, sandwiches, and salads. S&P Oyster is a more trad New England “nice” restaurant with a great view and solid food. A very short drive is Ford’s Lobster in Noank, and Noank has an actual 100 year old general store/breakfast place called Carson’s that is a must visit. Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream is pretty charming. Rise is a good brunch place. And Mystic is in driving distance to all the great New Haven pizza places.”
THE NAVIGATOR
David Prior, Co-founder and CEO, PRIOR
Tell us about you and your company.
PRIOR was really born out of my editorial background. I wanted to make those stories and all that work finding, fossicking into something that lived beyond the pages and that had an impact on people's lives—both on the traveler and on people and places that they traveled to. It was really a natural evolution, not a grand plan. When you have a travel company, the joy and satisfaction of it all is palpable. We created a global membership-based community for an annual fee of $249 that includes access to custom travel planning, experiences and our own events around the world, guides that we create in places we love, and then a weekly editorial newsletter. We then also have a Bespoke service that is by application and referral and is $5000 per year, which is the whole shebang: access to our team of travel editors, designers, and event planners to plan your traveling life. That may sound like a lot, but to be honest it represents real value when you are working with a team that is really playing trusted friend, confidant, architect, stylist and sometime psychologist! I would say we are particularly strong in food, culture and design/craft across several regions, but our main value-add is imagination, introductions, edit and elevation. Not trying to be alliterative there, but I have a quite romantic take on the world and somewhat incongruously a very critical eye, so it is an exaggerated sense of the magical with a tight sense of what is special about a place and a very strong point of view, as does the whole team, which is pretty big and varied now. The rule is that we only go for celebrating the “only in” quality of a place. So a trip with us should have the great restaurant, the great hotel, but also a little fairy dust nuance that only comes with knowing a place really well. The other thing is that, frankly, if we don’t know a place backwards ourselves, we’ve learned (the hard way) to find the people in every discipline and direction who do.
What is the sweet spot of your expertise?
Personally, I would say food culture. Company-wise, I think our event-style productions, whether that be taking over a fort in India, a town for a weekend of grilling in Uruguay, an Alpine farmhouse for a natural wine trail in Slovenia, a felucca down the Nile, a riad in Morocco. I don’t think anyone else does anything like that.
A trip you’ve done/organized that you feel represents you and your philosophy the best…
For me it is always about the next trip, so I’ll just talk about the one I am currently on. In the fall we are taking over the chef Ana Roš’ farmhouse, Hiša Franko, in Slovenia for a few days. It culminates in a fine dining meal at her restaurant, which of course is spectacular, but really anyone can buy that. What is interesting for someone coming on this trip is the imagination and access you will experience around it. We are delving into this Slovenian-Italian valley that is producing some of the most extraordinary wines in the world at the moment and has been insanely influential, even if you don’t know it yet. Think of all the natural wine bars in every city virtually on the planet. Most of the somms pine for these wines and the little organic producers here are completely mythical. These aren’t the clumsy really funky wines, these are the super pure, best in class bottles. To visit these makers and also visit the farmers, then to have these super special dinners in a cantina or a coffee as you are harvesting and to eat with these characters and to understand this region before it blows up I think is just cool and has an edge. For me, it shows that we are forward thinking, we care about the mix of the high and low, we’ll say what we think is good and tell the traveler what they should know (after all, I think everyone wants to be in the know).
Favorite trip you’ve planned?
Sounds trite, but it's always the next one.
A “why it’s all worth it” moment…
I really enjoy when my team comes back from a trip and are just bursting with inspiration. It has been hard during Covid for them not to travel and to keep up morale, but editorial does that to some extent. I don’t mean to sound old, but when they get that same excitement that I had when I first experienced a place, then that’s an incredibly powerful thing and when that is transmitted to a traveler, then it is electric.
What is something you wished we all knew or were better at? How do we become better travelers, clients, citizens of the world?
Listening.
What is a place we should consider traveling to, that could really use our dollars, and what is a place we should put on pause because, even though we love it, it sees too many tourists?
I am biased, but when it reopens we should go to Australia, not least because it has one of the best food scenes in the world and we have to remind ourselves that it experienced perhaps the worst environmental catastrophe in history [in its wildfires]. India must not be stigmatized; they simply must not take the fall for us all for Covid. It is one of the most magical places in the world. A pause? I don’t think I can single out a destination now because so many people in the industry are hurting and it would not be right, but I would say that we should think carefully about who we should put our money with. Perhaps say no to cruise ships? Predictable I would say that, I guess.