Traveling Spoon

Visiting distant locations is no longer enough for the modern traveler. Travelers no longer look to simply check famous landmarks off their bucket lists, they are looking for unique experiences, a way to immerse themselves in a culture. Traveling Spoon is leading the way by creating a unique experience that gives adventurers, especially avid foodies, a whole new perspective on a destination.

Traveling Spoon is changing the way we think about food and travel with experiences that allow customers to “travel off the eaten path.” They view food as a catalyst to bring people together and feel there is no better way to truly discover a destination than through its food.

The company was founded by Aashi Vel and Steph Lawrence in 2013, after both women had similar experiences of visiting destinations and finding dining options limited to touristy restaurants that catered to Western palates. Both women recognized how much more meaningful their travels would be if they had the opportunity to experience a destination’s truly native foods, cooked by a local, in the home of a local. Thus, out of a passion for finding the authentic foods of a culture and its peoples, was born Traveling Spoon.

Traveling Spoon matches travelers to 170 various destinations spanning 55 countries with locals willing to share their homes, their cultures and shared passions for food. Local hosts offer in-home meals, in-home cooking classes or tours to local market places for an opportunity to see, firsthand, how and where locals shop for the ingredients that give their dishes heart.

Traveling Spoon’s experiences are great for solo travelers as well as small groups. The company arranges experiences all over the world in exotic locations like Thailand, Indonesia, Italy, Greece, South Africa and India, just to name a few.

As co-founder Aashi Vel said, “The power of travel lies in meeting people from other parts of the world and learning that we aren’t all that different.” Vel and Lawrence are proving, meal by meal, that food is a catalyst that brings us all together.