Traveling Spoon — Private food experiences in people's homes

I'm the founder and co-CEO of Traveling Spoon!

I was traveling in the gorgeous Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico in the spring of 2011 (and food is my biggest priority when I travel). The restaurants I ate at that came highly recommended were Bohemian chic and beautiful but were touristy and catered to a Western palette. I knew Mexico had incredible cuisine but I really struggled to find authentic Mexican food as a traveler. I remember walking down a street in Playa Del Carmen one day when I passed by a local home. I looked through the window, saw a woman cooking and still remember that moment of longing where I wished I could eat with her in her kitchen and hear her stories. That was the genesis of Traveling Spoon for me. A few months later, I met my cofounder Steph in business school - she wished she could cook with locals in their homes. We started Traveling Spoon to provide these sorts of experiences that make travel meaningful.

👉 Read our founders' story at www.travelingspoon.com/founders

I believe the power of travel lies in connecting with someone from a completely different part of the world and realizing over a meal that we are all humans and share similar values despite our cultural and/or political differences. Breaking bread breaks down barriers and gets people to open up. Through Traveling Spoon, we give travelers a chance to see how locals live, eat what they eat and share stories about each other. We now have experiences in 200+ destinations around the world - everything from grinding curries with a mother-daughter duo in Chiang Mai to learning to make fresh pasta with a Florentine grandmother in her home.

85% of our hosts are women and range in age from 22 to 80 years!

They love food and cooking and have a chance to become micro entrepreneurs, making money doing what they love. For many of our hosts in Asia, Traveling Spoon provides a source of income that now enables them to send their kids to school. Some of our hosts in Mexico tell me their kids have moved away and are not interested in learning to make traditional Mexican mole for 2 hours but are thrilled when someone from another country does. It's a way of preserving their food traditions.

As we expand into the US and strive to give travelers an authentic food experience, whether that is a tailgating food opportunity in a college town, a Native American salmon experience or a Creole cooking class in New Orleans, our mission remains the same: create meaningful travel, preserve culinary traditions, and provide income for locals.

What are some other local American foods we should be introducing to travelers?

I love the sound of this. Empowering women to earn money from doing what they know and love as well as opening up a whole world of connections through sharing food with local people. Sounds fantastic!

Love the logo!

My personal motto when I started traveling was to "taste my way around the world." I love this concept and fully embrace this style of authentic, immersive travel experience. So many excellent culinary traditions to explore in the U.S. – southern BBQ (and all the various types), German heritage in Wisconsin and other parts of the Midwest, New England seafood, foraging/crabbing/fishing and other Indigenous culinary traditions along the PNW, the birth of farm-to-table cuisine in the West Coast, and the list goes on and on!

Great initiative

Love this!