Los Angeles

Sweet and Savory!  The ACCESS Los Angeles team has been busy adding a culinary chapter to their well-rounded "tasteful" recipe book of exciting activities to offer your guests in and around the Los Angeles area. We have included some of our favorite tour ingredients below.

On our Los Angeles Culinary excursion, guests will take an exotic tour around the world - by foot - without ever leaving Los Angeles! Sample incredibly delicious world foods and enjoy the local flavor of the community through storytelling and interaction with locals and shopkeepers alike. This mid-city epicurean stroll takes guests to several locations including the Farmers Market, restaurants, cafes, gourmet grocers, one of the very few bookstores in the country dedicated solely to cookbooks, and even a fabulously sensual perfume laboratory for a tasting like no other! Tastings, both savory and sweet are sure to satisfy and they include signature dishes from ethnic eateries, a New York style deli/bakery, a handmade candies shop, a tea shop and more. If the foot travels leave your guests hungry, we have several options for the perfect appetite-sating ending to an exciting day.

Craving chocolates right about now? We have a rich variety of taste bud-tempting options for you. Enjoy an all-encompassing Chocolate Tour, where we will visit four different locations, each with their own area of specialization, and enjoy chocolate facts, a short tour and a tasting of 2-3 chocolates at each.

In Beverly Hills we will visit a chocolatier whose factory served as an inspiration for perhaps the best-remembered "I Love Lucy" episode ever. Another venerable Brentwood establishment claims "Desperate Housewives", Teri Hatcher as a customer along with Nicole Kidman, Jay Leno, Bruce Springsteen and other notable celebrities.

If your chocolaholic tendencies lean toward French chocolate and you missed your trip to Paris this year, we have the solution. We will visit a shop where, according to the Los Angeles Times, "a single truffle is such a knockout sensory experience" and all truffles are created from the finest chocolate shipped from Paris and developed in the traditional French manner. With 80 different types of truffles, it isn't surprising that we would encounter out-of-the-ordinary flavors such as kalamata olive and bacon; don't worry - there are plenty of exquisite traditional flavors as well at this award-winning location - a favorite of both the Duchess of York and Martha Stewart. Next on our agenda is a stop at a toffee confectioner, whose crunchy, buttery, chocolate-covered toffee squares are made by hand and will melt in your mouth. Flavors include almond, orange, mint, hazelnut and others too numerous to mention.

If your program itinerary doesn't offer the opportunity for a full-day excursion, we can fine-tune your tour to include a more in-depth talk, demonstration and tasting at a single chocolaholic's paradise of your choice. Allow us to create the perfect program to match your budget, preferences and timeframe.

If you are looking for an option featuring tantalizing temptations on-property, Cupcake Class is just one program option we can design for your guests. Traditional home-baked desserts have undergone a makeover - cupcake bakeries catering to the adult "Starbuck's" generation are popping up on street corners from coast to coast. At this part-demo, part-hands-on class, taught by a professional chef, guests will come away with more than cupcake-making, filling and frosting pointers - each guest will receive a take-home recipe for this all-time favorite comfort food.

Prepare your palate and let the ACCESS Los Angeles team, your destination management experts, serve up some tantalizing temptations for your guests during your next meeting, conference or incentive travel program in Los Angeles.

Contact the team at ACCESS Los Angeles today!

Palm Springs

Indian Wells: State-of-the-Art IW Club Opens with Desert Modern Theme!   The IW Club, a 53,000 square-foot Clubhouse at the Indian Wells Golf Resort recently opened to much fanfare. The completion of this multi-purpose facility marks the end of an ambitious golf facility construction project that now boasts world-class golf and desert lifestyle amenities.

IW Club amenities encompass the casual IW Cafe, IW Club Restaurant & Bar with its panoramic dining terraces and multiple flat screen television in the bar area, a temperature-controlled wine room, the Celebrity Ballroom plus multipurpose indoor/outdoor event space, a spacious Golf Shop offering the finest in golf equipment, a wide variety of apparel, Wi-Fi, and Callaway Golf Performance Center - one of only nine in the nation, offering an effective, high-tech approach to golf lessons and club fitting. A nine-hole, natural-grass, lighted putting course lies just outside the golf shop.

The architecture of the Desert Modern IW Club features sandstone walls, large expanses of glass, limestone and granite accents and stainless steel detailing. A stunning water feature, cascading from the upper level to a collection pool below, adorns the front Porte Cochere. The interior features warm wood detailing, Travertine floors, leather accents, sculpted carpets and other luxurious appointments.

The opening of the two new golf courses at Indian Wells Golf Resort has attracted the attention of the golf world outside the Coachella Valley as well. Both courses, Celebrity and Players, made Golfweek Magazine's list of California's top 20 public-access golf courses - the only 36-hole facility to have both golf courses on the list.

The ACCESS Palm Springs team is very excited about the opening of IW Club. Contact our team to design your next special event at this new desert lifestyle facility and for your complete destination management needs during your next program targeted for Palm Springs and the Desert Resort Communities.

Contact the team at ACCESS  Destination services for your destination management needs in the Palm Springs area.

Spice it up with ACCESS

Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies!
Here's a trick just in time for Halloween. You are sure to love these tasty pumpkin treats.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cranberries
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into mixture until well blended. Cut the cranberries in half and stir into mixture along with the orange zest and walnuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy!