food-tourism
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Traveling Spoon
Traveling Spoon is a food-tourism marketplace that lets travelers eat home-cooked meals, take private cooking classes, and tour local markets with vetted home cooks - mostly women - in their own kitchens around the world. Founded in 2011 by Haas MBA classmates Aashi Vel and Steph Lawrence, the company turns a stranger's dining table into the most authentic seat in a foreign city, giving hosts a new income stream and travelers a meal you can't find on any restaurant menu.
Stephanie Lawrence
Stephanie Lawrence is the co-founder and co-CEO of Traveling Spoon, the marketplace she built to put travelers at a stranger's dinner table around the world. Born from a failed quest to learn dumplings from a Chinese grandmother, the company connects guests with vetted home cooks - 95% of them women - across dozens of countries for private meals, cooking classes, and market tours. A Dartmouth and UC Berkeley Haas MBA who worked with Alice Waters and Google.org before launching, Lawrence turned a travel frustration into a business that funnels income to local women while preserving family recipes that might otherwise vanish.