Food Tourism

Traveling Spoon is a California-based company that connects travelers with local, vetted hosts to share authentic food experiences—from market tours to home-cooked meals to cooking classes. Before the coronavirus pandemic paused travel and battered the economy, the company was offering culinary tourists over 1000 different food experiences, spread over 180 cities in more than 60 countries.

As part of the sharing economy that began more than a decade ago—the same model that gave birth to EBay, Airbnb, Uber and ToursByLocals—a number of social dining platforms, like Traveling Spoon, emerged. By and large, social dining (also called meal sharing) was a recipe for success: Culinary travelers realized that one of the best ways to learn about different cuisines, cultures and customs was to break bread with strangers. 

Not only did the fusion of food and social interaction introduce travelers to new ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques, it also offered them an unvarnished glimpse inside the homes and lifestyles of strangers, both in the U.S. and abroad. Over a meal, travelers often made fast friends and had intimate discussions about everything from parenting to politics.