What's your job? Annie Sibonney, gastronomic adventurer

There's a scene in an episode from the television show From Spain with Love where host Annie Sibonney knocks on the door of an exclusive, all-male gastronomic society in the Basque Country of northern Spain. Peio Garcia Amiano, a friend and Basque food writer, lets her in. As he opens the door, she looks into the camera, smiles and says in a coy manner: "You gotta know someone."

But it wasn't always so easy. Toronto-based Sibonney tirelessly knocked on doors across Spain and Italy to forge relationships with locals and three-star Michelin chefs to launch her business, Relish Culinary Tours, which designs bespoke, behind-closed-door food adventures for lovers of food, wine and people. A trip can cost up to $2,000 per day, not including airfare.

Toronto chef David Lee once wrote about his 250-dish, eight-day excursion with multilingual Sibonney--including "seven Michelin-starred temples of gastronomy" -- in the Globe and Mail newspaper, describing the journey as unforgettable, monumental and formative.

Sibonney, who completed a degree in Hispanics Studies at York University and is trained as a Spanish-English translator, started a small catering company in mid-2000s, cooking food that reflected earlier years of travel in Ecuador and Cuba. That led to Relish, which ultimately laid the groundwork for a busy television career. But Sibonney carves out time twice a year to take clients on a food odyssey that includes Basque-style tapas crawls and intimate encounters with world-renowned chefs.

How did you get into this?
I don't have any formal education when it comes to cooking or culinary arts. Food has always been a really important part of my life, of my upbringing. I grew up cooking with my mom and learned from an early age that food has this tremendous capacity to bring people together.

How did Relish come about?
I realized that cooking was keeping me in the kitchen and away from travel; travel was keeping me out of the kitchen and away from cooking. For me, it really was what would make me most happiest. It was to combine the two.

Why is Spain such a big focus for you?
We were scouting locations and Spain was kind of where it clicked for me. I felt such a deep connection with the country and the people. I just knew it was going to be a big part of my life in the years to come.

How did you get your first clients?
In 2008, I was introduced to an optometrist named Josh Josephson from Toronto.  At that time, elBulli in Roses was the number 1 restaurant in the world. On my first lunch meeting with Josh, he said, "I can get a group of people together if you can get us a reservation at elBulli." I said: "Of course I can. I can do that."

So what happened?
I think at the time there were 2 million reservation requests, but I sent a letter to elBulli, requesting the reservation for my group, a year ahead of the dates. The experience was unforgettable.

Who are some of the first chefs you reached out to?
Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena Arzak. Both of them run the kitchen at Arzak in San Sebastian. It's a 3-star Michelin restaurant. Juan Mari Arzak is often called the godfather of the nouvelle Basque cuisine movement. I didn't even knock on their front door. I knocked on their kitchen door.

You knocked on the kitchen door?
I had traveled all the way from Toronto to get in front of these people to make sure that anyone I showed up with through Relish was treated like family. They were the first door that opened for me. Juan Mari Arzak is like an uncle to me. It is the home where I stay when I go to San Sebastian. They've become much more than colleagues. They've become family.

How do you design your trips, and is it simply logistics?
It's logistics first (Helen Thompson Travel handles this part) and then all of the dreamy details later. I only do two styles: very rustic, traditional places or the Michelin star gastronomic temples. I don't tend to do anything in the middle because for me I find the two extremes  are the most impactful and the most memorable.

Can you provide an example of what kind of experience clients would have with a chef?
We'll take the chef and do something really cool. In the case of Mugaritz, Andoni (Luis Aduriz) took us up to their laboratory space and we had cocktails up there. He took us through a series of experiments while we sipped champagne and ate beautiful, plump Cantabrian anchovies on toast.

Sounds heady. But is there a downside to your job?
I miss out on a lot of quality time with family and friends. Being away on my birthday is especially hard because I have a twin sister and we always try to spend that day together.

What's the market like for this kind of work?
There are many culinary tour companies out there. I've always operated in a little bit of a bubble. It's a very personal perspective on the different places. Practically all of my clients all come from word of mouth.

Can you give me a sense of pay?
It really is unpredictable. I would say you can be compensated very well once you have loyal and repeat clientele. Also, I eat and drink a lot of my income.

How did this snowball into other jobs?
It certainly led to my television career with the series From Spain with Love. That show was a grand love letter to Spain and to the people that have supported me, and to the people who have offered me such gracious hospitality.

You're working on another show, One Night Stand. What's that all about?
The show is basically about one night in a city. Not 24 hours, but just one night. There's a food focus, but it's not a food show. For us, it's a really fresh perspective. Night time is when you get the most authentic feel of a city, the most authentic rhythm. The locals are out of their workplace and offices, the museums and shops are closed to tourists.

What's the weirdest food you've eaten?
One of the best things I've ever eaten was a pig's face in Rioja wine country with winemaker Alvaro Palacios. He grilled the faces outdoors over fire using vine cuttings from his own vineyards. We drank wine out of wine skins and ate endless pieces of smoky, crispy, fatty pig's face with our hands. It was the best day ever.

*This interview has been edited and condensed