Our Discovery of EatWith and how it changed our travel.
A great organization that feeds our love of food, all over the world.
When Andy and I travel abroad, we love, like most avid travelers, to find restaurants and experiences completely off the beaten path.
So, when I stumbled across the website EatWith, I was intrigued. After doing a bit of asking around, I discovered that none of my fellow travel enthusiasts had heard of it. This, of course, made it even more of an elusive find to me and so I decided to do a little more digging.
EatWith was created in France in 2014 with the goal of creating social and culinary experiences in a way that elevates people's travel.
With a mission statement like: "We are the first global community for shared food experiences, bringing people together around dining tables and food activities wherever they go. Harnessing the relationship between food, people, cities, and the world - we want to spread happiness through the power of sharing food, in your everyday life and travels," I immediately knew we had to try it on our next trip. The statement, to me, sounded like the most French thing I may have ever heard and our next travel designation just happened to be to Paris, Quelle coïncidence! (What a coincidence!) So, what exactly is EatWith?
It is a site that allows you to book experiences from one of three categories: Food Tours, Cooking Classes or Dining Experiences all over the world. While I love a good food tour, and believe me, EatWith Paris has some interesting ones to pick from, such as their Parisian literary tour and pastry tasting, I wanted to do something that was more out of my travel norm.
A cooking class sounded fun as well, but cooking classes are experiences you can find no matter what region you're traveling in and again, we were looking to try something completely different. This led us to learn more about their dining experiences section.
This section caught both Andy and my eye, mostly because it was something we hadn't seen offered anywhere else on our travels.
The average cost runs between 50 and 300 euros per person, giving you a variety of options depending on the kind of experience you'd like to have.
Usually, the ones that are the more expensive include the most high-brow food and more often that not include wine pairings.
What makes the dining experiences so unique? The host, be it an actual chef or just your average cooking enthusiast, invites you into their home for an authentic, home cooked meal surrounded by other travelers.
Think of it as an elevated communal-style meal with people from all over the world sharing local and personal dishes. Which travel enthusiast wouldn't want to have that kind of experience!? I feel like the common goal of most travelers is to experience the true culture of their location, food being one of them, but not end up at the most touristy joint in town. With EatWith dining experiences, you peruse a group of hosts, all offering completely different menus, and see what fits your experience expectations the best. When I was looking in Paris, there were a handful of options ranging from a typical apèro dînatoir on a roof top terrace to a five course seasonal French meal with dishes selected from the host's childhood. It's not all typical French, though. Some of the menus included traditional Moroccan, Créole, Peruvian, or even Chinese. And, for those travelers who want to try different regional foods without having to leave Paris, there are a few hosts that offer menus from different regions in France like the South West, Alsace or Provence. After checking out all of the options, we had opted for a multi-course seasonal dinner with Sylvie in her home in Montmartre.
Each host/hostess will set how many people can attend each dinner. Some even offer the possibility of making it a private dinner, for an up-charge, of course. To us, though, meeting up with fellow travelers from all over the world is what made it more fun, so we specifically sought out one that was close to being full.
We arrived at Sylvie's a little after the designated time. You don't ever want to arrive a few minutes before and target yourself as an uber-Americans! Her place was cozy and from the 1800's with beautiful original wood floors and molding all throughout. Over an apèro, a glass of wine and a few small bites, she explained that she was retired and had done this because she loved to cook and meet new people. There were two other couples that had signed up to have the dinner with us, a set of Australian friends who had been traveling across Europe together and a couple who were from Napa Valley and visiting France for the next few weeks. Ok, so not really anyone super exotic, but it was still fun dinner conversation to hear about everyone's travels thus far.
After the apèro, we all sat down for dinner, which included wine with each course (not all do and some are even BYOB events, so make sure to double check) and still or sparkling water.
The table was set beautifully with a bouquet of fresh flowers from Sylvie's trip to the market. You could really tell that she took pride in her dinners and wanted the experience to be perfect for everyone.
The first course was a chilled asparagus soup, garnished beautifully. It was almost too pretty to eat! As each course was served out of Sylvie's tiny Montmartre kitchen, us guests chatted about what we had visited and where we will go next. Andy and I were on our way to Brittany, while the the retired couple from Napa Valley were renting a car and doing a Loire Valley chateaux excursion. The Australian friends were off to the airport after tonight's dinner to catch a red eye to Switzerland.
Sylvie cleared our plates, quickly replacing them with steaming bowls of blanquette du veau. Despite it being the end of spring, it was comforting to have this dish. The first time I had had it was when Christophe made it for me during my time as a language assistant in his wife, Agnès', school. The smell brought me right back to that night, all of us sitting around a table, admiring his hard work. Though spending a short amount of time with him during my time in France, Christophe had an incredibly large impact on my experience there.
Andy ripped a piece of crusty baguette and the conversation switched to Sylvie, who began telling us all about her neighborhood and how it had changed in the past few decades. It was interesting to hear about Paris from a local's perspective. It wasn't all walks on the Seine and picnics under the Eiffel Tower.
When everyone had sopped up every last bit of sauce from their bowls, Sylvie again collected the empty vessels and shuffled back into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on dessert, a chocolate soufflé with fresh, seasonal berries.
She was an incredible cook and an even better storyteller.
When dinner was over, we had spent four hours with six complete strangers, swapping travel suggestions and itineraries and hearing more about the sorted history of the 18th arrondissement. Being so close to the Moulin Rouge, Sylvie had a front row seat to the neighborhood's changes, for better or worse. The wine bottles were emptied and the Aussie's flight was drawing near.
In typical French fashion, we all made our way to the door, standing there for quite a long time while saying our goodbyes, many thanks to Sylvie and swapping contact information. In the end, it was one the most unique dining experience I have ever had. Looking back at the mission statement of EatWith, I would say I personally felt as though our dinner was a living advertisement for it. Stating that they "want to spread happiness through the power of sharing food, in your everyday life and travels" seemed like a lofty goal, but as we left Sylvie's flat that night, we felt as though we had experienced something we wouldn't have if we had just went to dinner at the typical restaurant. We had met people we wouldn't normally have had the chance to interact with, enjoyed a locally-sourced, home-cooked meal and got to experience it all in a comfort of a traditional Parisian home.
EatWith can be found all over the world, but it is important to note that the bigger the city you are visiting, the more experiences you are going to find offered. When I searched the Provence region, around eight experiences came up compared to the over 100 that comes up for Paris alone. If you find yourself in a larger-sized city and are up for a true out of the box adventure, try Eatwith. No matter how the food is or what kind of people you find yourself sitting across from, you will leave with a quirky story to tell.
Tell me about your most unique dining experience below! Have you eaten somewhere incredibly different? Maybe you've had a dining experience unlike any other. Tell us about it in the comments!
Happy Sunday! -R
