Introducing Airbnb Cooking Experiences
Today, Airbnb are unveiling Cooking 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.
Ever since the very first guests travelled with Airbnb, we have realised that sharing a meal is the key that unlocks culture and fosters connection.
Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder.
Unlike typical cooking classes, which can feel intimidating or time-consuming, at the heart of every Experience is human connection; people coming together to make and share a meal together. Hosted by families, farmers, pastry cooks and more, local hosts can now unlock the deeper meaning behind their food, teaching traditional recipes and sharing personal stories in intimate settings around the world.
Celebrating the launch of Airbnb Cooking Experiences – and to find the next wave of culinary treasures – Airbnb is calling on the world to apply or nominate their favourite home cook to be treated to a once in a lifetime trip to Italy. There, they will learn to refine their family recipe and study alongside chef David Chang and his mom, Sherri, during one of 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 just by welcoming travellers to the Roman countryside to learn about her and her family’s love of pasta-making.
With hosts like Nonna, it’s no wonder bookings of Airbnb’s food and drink Experiences have been growing at a rate of 160 percent year-over-year since 2018.
Guests are also invited to take part in a very special, one-time Cooking Experience in the UK, hosted by cook, business women, journalist and novelist Prue Leith.
The Experience, which will be hosted at Leiths School of Food and Wine, will see Prue teach a range of recipes from her latest cook book before sitting down to enjoy the creations with the guests.
The Experience will have ten spots and is open to anyone, costing £150pp. To book, head to airbnb.co.uk/prueleith from 9th December.
The new Cooking category brings together the very best of the platform with brand new Airbnb Experiences, united by new principles that ensure an authentic, local experience in intimate settings and small groups.
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 .
Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder.
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 are now open, closing at 11:59pm EST 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. 25 spots are being offered on each of the four course sessions, starting June 15, 22, 29 and July 6 2020.
COOKING EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
- Make Lunch with Prue Leith (London, UK)
- Maize Workshop with Enrique Olvera (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Heritage Cooking with Damian D’Silva (Singapore)
- Traditional Uzbek Home-Cooking (Brooklyn, NY)
- French pastry making in Montmartre (Paris, France)
- Mexican Food You Can Make at Home (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Home-Cooked Flavors of Singapore (Singapore)
- Ancient Cooking Customs of Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Make Japanese Street Food with Mom (Tokyo, Japan)
- Handmade Pasta with Grandma (Rome, Italy)
- Soba Noodle Making in a Traditional Home (Tokyo, Japan)
- Traditional Argentinian Home-Cooking (Forest Hills, New York)
- A Modern Take on Traditional Zulu Food (Dolphin Coast, South Africa)
- Make Chinese Dumplings from Scratch (New York, New York)
- Slow Food- Bento Box Making (Fujinomiya-City, Japan)
- CACAO Dishes from Fruit to Bar (London, UK)
- Secret Garden Dinner in Historic Mansion (Khet Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Thailand)
- Cooking with Critters (Los Angeles, California)
- Cook and Sword Performance Back in Edo (Tokyo, Japan)
All Homes and Experiences referenced on the Airbnb Press Room are intended purely to inspire and illustrate. Airbnb does not recommend or endorse specific Home listings or any other Homes or Experiences on the Airbnb platform.