(FORTUNE Magazine) – Time was, vacations were an escape from the kitchen stove. But a growing travel trend -- so-called culinary getaways -- finds more people trotting the globe in search of special cooking programs offered by celebrity chefs, hotels, and cooking schools. ''Nowadays people are looking to travel for enrichment,'' says David Roth, editor of Palate and Spirit, a San Francisco magazine that caters to these gallivanting gourmets. ''They're tired of leisure travel.'' As a bellwether, 1994's The Guide to Cooking Schools, published by Shaw-Guides, carries 193 travel-and-cook listings, more than double the number in 1988. ! New England Culinary Institute offers theme weekends. In November, 88 people paid $350 each, or $500 a couple, for an ''Experience the Magic of Baking'' course at the school's Inn at Essex campus near Burlington, Vermont. Or you can go to Tuscany and study under Lorenza de' Medici, teacher, cookbook author, and, yes, a real live descendant of the famous Renaissance family. In addition to learning how to make pasta and polenta, you get to stay for five days and six nights at the converted 11th-century monastery that De' Medici calls home. Price: $4,500 a person, or $7,800 a couple. Airfare not included. -- J.M.