In this episode, Rodney George is joined by Aashi Vel, the visionary founder and CEO of Traveling Spoon. Aashi and her team are revolutionizing the travel industry by connecting travelers with authentic, in-home culinary experiences worldwide. Unsurprisingly, publications like Forbes have dubbed Traveling Spoon the 'future of culinary tourism – a remarkable achievement. Finally, we'll delve into Aashi's inspiring journey, explore the magic of experiencing a different culture through the lens of its cuisine, and discover how Traveling Spoon is empowering local communities while creating unforgettable memories for travelers. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [2:36] Aashi described the catalyst for her business
• [5:08] How Traveling Spoon grew to be featured in Forbes Magazine and the experience of dining in someone's home
• [10:54] Aashi describes the expanse of the countries they cover, and she shares experiences from host families and members
• [19:11] Travel advisors and national magazines recommend the Traveling Spoon to clients
• [22:14] Your hosts are the best home cooks around the world

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Traveling Spoon operates in 70+ countries and 230+ cities, connecting travelers with in-home cooking experiences hosted by residents, including many women who are now micro-entrepreneurs
• Traveling Spoon offers unique and memorable travel experiences, fostering lasting connections through in-home dining with locals and providing a more profound cultural immersion than traditional tourism. With top destinations like Japan, Bali, Italy, Mexico, and Greece, Traveling Spoon enables families to create lasting memories by sharing meals and learning culinary traditions within local homes, offering a more authentic and enriching travel experience.
• Traveling Spoon, recognized by Forbes as the "future of culinary tourism," connects travelers with authentic in-home dining experiences worldwide, fostering cultural immersion and empowering local communities and hosts.

RESOURCES:

Luxury Travelers - Podcast

Luxe Travel - Website

Luxe Travel - Facebook

Luxe Travel - Instagram

Traveling Spoon - Website

Aashi Vel - LinkedIn

GUEST BIOGRAPHY: 

Aashi is a food and travel enthusiast who is passionate about creative problem-solving, product innovation, and foraging. An industrial designer and patent holder, Aashi has designed several award-winning products. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design and received her MBA from UC Berkeley.

#Luxury #rodneyGeorge #Adventure #cruise #traveltips #cruise

Rodney George: Well, good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning Whatever time of day you're finally [00:00:45] getting around to watch this exciting episode of the luxury travelers podcast I have a really Incredibly different guest with me today than our typical guest. I actually met her at the Signature, uh, Travel Network [00:01:00] Conference in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago when there were 4, 000 top travel advisors from all over the country there and 550 vendors.

Aashi Vel: Thank you, Rodney. It's a pleasure to be here.

Rodney George: Where does today find you, uh, in the world? Where are you today?

Aashi Vel: I am located in the Seattle area.

Aashi Vel: So, we're lucky to have sunlight today.

Rodney George: Good, good. For those of you who have not heard of Traveling Spoon, uh, that's because you're reading the wrong publication.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about the, the, the name should give us a, a little bit, but tell us what [00:02:30] goes on at traveling spoon and how different the experience is from a traditional vacation experience.

So, You know, the whole [00:03:00] reason we started the company was to make travel more meaningful and food is such an incredible connector of people when you're breaking bed with someone and sharing a meal and learning to cook, you just open up and share [00:03:15] stories and it just, Makes people feel so comfortable, and for me, Rodney, that is the power of travel, right?

And so that's what we do. We're an online [00:03:45] marketplace. It's TravelingSpoon. com and we connect travelers with insightful food experiences in people's homes around the world. And we personally vet every single host that we bring on to

I thought I have to drop an anchor here. We need to talk.

Rodney George: Well, our clients are always looking for, uh, something different. They're always looking for, uh, kind of bragging rights, if you will, and, and to say that you toured, [00:04:45] uh, Italy, or Spain, or Portugal, or the United States, and you had dinner in someone different's home every day.

Aashi Vel: Imagine you are going to Italy and you visit a Florentine grandmother in her [00:05:30] home and learn to make Tuscan pasta from scratch and, you know, share that meal with her and then I'll actually describe to you one of our experiences in, in Florence. So please do. Uh, we have a host named Patricia, who [00:05:45] is a food and wine journalist.

As we say, the Eaton Path, what's so non touristy, it gives you a true understanding of the local culture and how she lives, [00:06:30] and what her hopes and dreams are, and the food that she cooks, and she shares, you know, family recipes with you that have been passed down through generations and her family. So it's truly an immersive food experience that gets you as close as possible to the culture of that region.[00:06:45]

Rodney George: Well, the lady that was in your, uh, booths with you when I was at the show was actually one of your providers.

Aashi Vel: Yes.

Aashi Vel: Yes, that's our Nancy, she is wonderful, and don't forget her flourless chocolate cake too, it is delicious.

Aashi Vel: We love to host you, Rodney.

Aashi Vel: That's right. And before that, I was an industrial designer designing [00:07:45] medical products for about 10 years on the East Coast. So are you

Rodney George: living the dream or what is this?

Okay. But after my time as a designer, I truly wanted to get into entrepreneurship. And food is just so close to my heart. It is. You know, it is what it is. I love food. And I [00:08:15] truly, um, wanted to start a company. And I remember in the spring of 2011, I was in Mexico, in La Playa del Carmen, in the Yucatan, and I just had a touristy experience when I was in [00:08:30] Mexico.

And Rodney, I still remember. Walking down the street one day to another restaurant and I happened to pass by this house on the street and I looked through the window for some reason and I saw this woman cooking in her kitchen and it just [00:09:15] struck me, you know, that moment. I was like, Oh, that's what I want.

And so we decided to work on it together and see if it was just a personal pain point, or if this was actually something people were looking for. [00:09:45] Turns out they are, but we laugh about it because, you know, she, we started the company and she really wanted to learn how to cook and I just wanted to eat in a local home.

And while I think it is fun to have a group shared experience around a big dining table where there's, you know, 10 or 12 people, the guests end up talking to each other, which [00:10:30] is fun, but our entire mission is to make travel meaningful and connect travelers with locals in their homes. So all of our experiences are private.

Rodney George: So is there a list somewhere of all the people that you have or all the cities where you have [00:11:00] participants?

So if

And over 230 cities around the world, anything from, you know, Buenos Aires to Ulaanbaatar, uh, in Mongolia. So, you [00:11:30] know, it's just everywhere. And we truly try to find the best home cooks around the world and give them this platform and opportunity to just share what they love, to make money doing what they love.

Right. And now they get a chance to just show off their cooking skills and, and make money and become micro culinary entrepreneurs.

How'd this

And now I, you know, clearly don't [00:12:45] do that as much. We have a team, but what truly enabled us to scale was it happened by accident. So we remember receiving. You know, applications from people who said, I love what you're doing. I'm a huge foodie. I love to [00:13:00] travel. Um, you know, can I help province phone and said, you know, we love your background, but you know, there's only so many jobs and we're a small startup at the time.

So hosts that we bring on, we'll say, Hey, I, hi, I have an amazing host friend who cooks the best biryani in South India, or who makes, yeah, you know, the best asado in, um, in barbecue in [00:13:45] Buenos Aires. And so they would bring them on, but in order to vet them, we then told, would reach out to our ambassador group and say, if anyone is traveling to, you know, Buenos Aires in the next couple of months, we have a host for you to vet.

Rodney George: Well, it's easy to be passionate about food, especially when you weigh 220 pounds like I do. It takes a lot of food to keep that up. To keep that going, uh, what are, [00:14:30] what are some of the, uh, uh, some of the best experiences that you've either heard about or read about from your, from your clients at various host family or host members, uh, homes?

But I love that a couple from San Francisco is willing to pay to learn to make my mother's recipe. So it's a wonderful way to, you know, preserve those culinary traditions. [00:15:15] Um, We had another experience, you know, my favorite travel memory and experience was meeting our host Deva in Bali. Deva at the time was a gardener and staff member at the local resort.

And I remember Rodan being in that garden and looking up at the And spotting this bright orange papaya on the tree. And I was just like, [00:16:00] Deva, what is that still doing up on the tree? Why aren't we eating that right now? And he, he truly is a modern day Buddha. A lot of our reviews say that too, but he was very solemn.

And it was just so wonderful to, to feel that. Um, and then he brings, me into his home, which is this beautiful space that overlooks a lush garden here [00:16:45] in Bali. They tend to live in these family compounds where each nuclear family has their little home, but the home is within a family compound. So the kids run around and if something were to happen, you know, another cousin or aunt or uncle would bring them back.

It was simply one of the best bites I had. But, um, And then you cook on this like wood fired, uh, stove, you will learn [00:17:30] to press your great coconut on a bark and press coconut more fresh. And you eat this wonderful meal. And all to say that a few years later, I, um, the, you know, Deva had hurt his back [00:17:45] carrying luggage and so he wasn't able to work as much at the resort.

And he said, no, I wanted to thank you because now I am able to send my kids to school. The money that he was making for Traven Spoon, hosting from his home, sharing it with his family, um, you know, it was 10 times what he [00:18:30] was making at the resort, 10 times the minimum value wage. And so it just was one of the most gratifying, humbling experiences of, you know, owning Traven Spoon is to actually be able to give people a chance to make an income doing what they [00:18:45] love from their home.

Aashi Vel: What? Yeah, you're right about that, but we've been, you know, really grateful to have Signature Travel Network as our partner.

So we work with, um, our signature agents. And so they book our experiences on behalf of their clients. And um, [00:19:45] another way, another channel, Ravni is also, we work with Project Expedition. Which is, um, also a signature partner and they are an online travel agent specifically for travel advisors to, to book online.

Rodney George: Yeah, we're, we're looking at a lot of, uh, what I call aha experiences like you're providing so that we can differentiate ourselves from our [00:20:15] competition. Has your travel advisor ever suggested that you dine in homes all over the world with homeowners who are doing their great great grandmother's favorite recipes?

Aashi Vel: Yeah, thank you. We, you know, are so grateful and feel humbled by the press we've received.

Rodney George: Yeah, I noticed that it says you're going to have a promo on next Tuesday for 15 percent off every month. Any in person traveling through an experience at your 200 plus destinations around the [00:21:30] world.

Aashi Vel: That's right. So simply enter the code TRAVEL24 and you should have 15 percent off your extensions.

And by the way, none of these are just everyday people. They're not, they're not, uh, Culinary Institute of America trained chefs. They're just. [00:22:15] These are some

Aashi Vel: of the best home cooks around the world. Your mom, your grandma, your uncle, your grandpa. And yes, we do have a few Michelin star trained chefs on our platform as well.

We launched in New Orleans and. Cambridge, in Seattle, uh, L. A., you know, we're all over the country now, in Detroit [00:23:00] even. And my favorite recent experience that we brought on is our very first indigenous experience in Juneau, in Alaska. Oh, really? And yes, there are only 950 Tlingit tribes. [00:23:15] Uh, people left in Juneau and we brought on two of them.

Halibut or wild salmon with Cindy in her home. [00:23:45] Oh, I'm

Aashi Vel: It is, it is truly a delight. It is. Um, and it also, you know, you get a tasting of some indigenous foods that I had never heard of up until a few weeks ago.

Feeling like a rum cocktail in Barbados. We have a wonderful hostess, Shane, who offers a mixology class.

Rodney George: What country has the biggest number of your in home offerings?

Rodney George: Wow. So imagine this folks, you're taking your family on a multi generational family vacation to [00:25:00] Italy and wherever else in Europe you want to go.

Aashi Vel: Ravi, thank you for sharing that. That's exactly what so many of our reviews say, right? It's, [00:25:30] it's how people make you feel that lasts with you forever. And that's what they take back. Um, we recently had a review from a, a signature agent who said that their travelers, their, so their, her clients, the travelers went on an experience with our host [00:25:45] in Venice and.

And they said that we are going to be talking about this experience. For the rest of our lives, because it's just had such an impact on me.

Aashi Vel: Yeah.

Aashi Vel: Absolutely. So travel off the Eton path with us and thank you, [00:26:45] Arden, for this opportunity.

Rodney George: Yes, you're very welcome.

Voiceover: for joining us on the Luxury Travelers Podcast. For more information, head on over to LuxuryTravelersPodcast. com to connect with our team [00:27:15] or leave us a message. Until next time, safe travels and savor the [00:27:30] extraordinary.