Vermont spa beckons, but first, to the kitchen

Eating, after all, was the whole idea.

It was the food that had lured my partner, Joe, and me to The Essex, New England’s first (and so far only) full-service culinary resort. What else would people come for? Quite a bit, as we would discover at the reception desk: golf, hiking, fly-fishing, tennis, a workout room, hot air balloon rides, rock climbing, rope courses, zip-lining, swimming, and bicycling. Or guests could zone out on a massage table. It seemed like any other resort, but Jim Glanville, the manager, disagreed.

“If you were taking a guided fly-fishing trip at our resort, you might have that same on-water experience anywhere in the country,’’ he said. “However, for us, this will be accompanied by a gourmet riverside lunch. . . . Or you might take a hot air balloon ride with a resort in Arizona, but for us it might be a sunrise hot air balloon experience with your own private chef in the basket preparing an omelet.’’

The Essex does all this - for a price. Even the cooking classes can be by special order. If we wanted to learn how to make a crepe, say, they would organize a customized crepe-making workshop.

Our class didn’t begin until 4 p.m., so we decided to explore. The Essex is a neo-Colonial complex horseshoed around a flower garden and pond. Built in 1989, when it was called The Inn at Essex, it became a wedding venue, but was better known as a learning lab for the New England Culinary Institute, whose students staffed its two restaurants, the formal (and top-rated) Butler’s, and the Tavern, a casual gathering spot. Though only 10 miles from Burlington, the resort has an out-of-the-way location, with a shopping mall the only nearby attraction.

To solve the isolation problem, the owners added a $6 million indoor pool and spa complex, making the resort its own attraction. The kitchen still buzzes with NECI instructors, but they cook instead of teach, and the student swarm is gone.