Traveling Spoon is a
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
-based
food tourism
Culinary tourism or food tourism or gastronomy tourism is the exploration of food as the purpose of tourism. It is considered a vital component of the tourism experience. Dining out is common among tourists and "food is believed to rank alongsid ...
startup company
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...
that connects travelers with local hosts who prepare homemade local cuisine in their homes.
Travelers can also purchase cooking classes and visit marketplaces for cooking ingredients with their hosts. The company offers home dining packages in 38 cities
in 15 countries located throughout
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
Traveling Spoon was founded by Stephanie Lawrence and Aashi Vel and its beta site launched in July 2013. The
bootstrapped
In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input. Many analytical techniques are often called bootstrap methods in reference to their self-starting or self-supporting ...
company is a graduate of the Venture Lab Program at the
University of California, Berkeley's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
The Venture Lab program also awarded the company $12,000 in prize money.
[
]
History
Stephanie Lawrence and Aashi Vel founded Traveling Spoon shortly after they met in 2011 at the Haas School of Business
The Walter A. Haas School of Business (branded as Berkeley Haas) is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a Public university, public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a pub ...
, where they were students in the school's Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...
program.[ The two connected over a similar desire to eat indigenous cuisine prepared by locals and learn about native cultures they encountered when traveling abroad.]Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
[ and ]India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, which includes 12 cities within the country.[
]
Operations
Traveling Spoon offers homemade meals from 200 local hosts in 18 countries.[ When a traveler registers, they are able to specify dietary restrictions including ]vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
and vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
.[
All hosts are personally vetted by the company, which conducts interviews, in-house visits, and taste tests.][ Hosts must have some proficiency in English and have Internet access.][ The majority of hosts are women.][ Hosts determine the price of meals and many offer special packages that include cooking classes or market trips.][
]
References
Further reading
"Hosting The World"
9 Websites That Will Make Your Vacations Better
External links
* {{official, http://www.travelingspoon.com
Food and drink appreciation
Food and drink companies established in 2011
Transport companies established in 2011
Companies based in San Francisco
Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area
2011 establishments in California
Food and drink companies based in California