Airbnb has revealed their Cooking on Airbnb Experiences, a new category of bookable experiences that unlock the hidden culinary traditions of families all around the world.
From learning grandmas’ recipes to traditional Uzbek home-cooking, guests can now get access to 3 000 unique recipes that are usually reserved for friends and family in over 75 countries globally.
Airbnb Cooking Experiences is the booking platform’s new way to understand culture through food, unlike typical cooking classes which can feel intimidating or time-consuming.
The classes will be hosted by families, farmers, pastry cooks and more. Airbnb revealed in a statement: “Local hosts can now highlight the deeper meaning behind the food you eat, teaching traditional recipes and sharing stories in intimate settings around the world.
“To protect the personal nature of each recipe, each experience has been vetted against guidelines inspired by Slow Food, a grassroots organisation whose mission is to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions.
“Through this vetting process, we have verified that each host of an Airbnb Experience communicates the unique essence of every dish through their personal stories and has proven a deep knowledge of the heritage of the cuisine that they share.”
With the launch, Airbnb calls on locals from across the world to apply or nominate their favourite home cook, who will be treated to a once in a lifetime trip to Italy.
The lucky winners will learn to refine their family recipe and cement their legacy in an Airbnb cookbook, planned for 2020.
The top 100 applicants will study alongside experts including chef David Chang and his mom, Sherri, during one of the four, specially-organised five-day courses at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences, located within a Unesco world heritage site in Pollenzo, Northern Italy.
Alongside workshops, tastings, field visits and lessons from UNISG professors, there will also be hands-on lessons from one of the most booked hosts on the platform, Nonna Nerina, who has earned over $150 000 (about R2.1-million) just by welcoming travellers to the Roman countryside to learn about her and her family’s love of pasta-making.
Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder, said that since the first guests travelled with Airbnb, the company has realised that sharing a meal is the key that unlocks culture and fosters connection.
“Through Airbnb Cooking Experiences, we want to bring back the tradition of people coming together to make and share meals, and through this help preserve unique recipes that are shared within family kitchens around the world,” he said. ”
To be one of the lucky 100 sent to Italy, eligible Airbnb users can enter on their own or nominate their favourite home cooks via airbnb.com/cooking, submitting a personal essay on why the nominee’s passion for cooking and their family recipe makes them the perfect fit.
Applications close on December 23, 2019. The lucky 100 will be selected by a panel of judges, including representatives of Airbnb, Slow Food and the University of Gastronomic Sciences.