These Immersive Food Tours Transform Your Travel Experience

My favorite way to experience a new destination is to eat my way through it. Whenever possible, whether it’s a street-food stroll in Mexico City, baguette-hopping through Paris or a nighttime gyoza crawl through Kyoto, I’ll discover a new place by snacking from street carts, finding whatever’s fresh in the markets and food halls, and generally eating like a ravenous local.

If there’s time, I’ll take that approach a step further—by buying and kneading and braising and grilling what I eat. In unfamiliar destinations, I always try to find a cooking class, market tour or some combination of both to immerse myself in the area’s cooking traditions and regional flavors.

That’s the idea behind Let’s Eat the World, a network of food and wine tours and hands-on culinary workshops in France, Georgia, Italy and Spain. From a weeklong cooking class in Paris to eight days of paella and tapas in Seville, the company connects visitors with local chefs and gourmands for a travel experience that goes beyond just a quick taste. In small-group sessions that typically involve multiple private cooking classes, wine tastings and meals in a shared centrally located villa or home, Let’s Eat the World lets travelers take a bite of a destination in a way you don’t get when you’re trudging through museums and checking off sites.

My wife and two friends of ours recently joined an enchanting evening class in Parma, Italy, to see what Let’s Eat the World is all about. It was a mere taste of what the company normally does over five or six days and nights. At a B&B 30 minutes from town, we learned about the foods that define the region of Emilia-Romagna, known for its Parma ham, Balsamic vinegar & Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Our chef-instructor-muse was Ilaria Bertinelli, a charming and charismatic food lover from a family of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese producers. Her passion and knowledge helped make the night our standout experience during a week of travel around Italy.

Over the course of several magical hours, Illaria helped us prepare a feast of local and iconic dishes, including a pasta course of Tortelli d’Erbetta; the rose-shaped, beef-wrapped Parma ham known as Rosa di Parma, and a rich and indulgent shortcrust pastry with plum jam called Torte Vescova, or Bishop’s Cake. Afterwards, our hosts brought out digestives and a few after-after-dinner-drink drinks (Giancarlo, who runs the B&B, is clearly proud of his homemade libations—cherries soaked in 100-percent-proof spirits; grapes marinated to intoxicating perfection in giant vats of grappa.).

Full and deeply satisfied, I wanted to know about the company behind all this deliciousness, so I contacted Let’s Eat the World founder Yetunde Oshodi, who lives in Seville.

David Hochman: What’s the quick origin story of Let’s Eat the World?

Yetunde Oshodi: The name for my culinary travel agency, Let’s Eat The World, was a domain name I had acquired many years ago thinking that one day it would serve me well. While I have a degree in the culinary arts, my pursuit was based more on a desire to work with chefs rather than to be a chef myself. It was almost like learning a foreign language – another of my loves. But hospitality and food and beverage were always destined to be my focus. After helping my French chef husband, Eric Fraudeau, open his French cooking school, Cook’n With Class, in Paris in 2007, I focused my energy more on the hosting side with my vacation rental company also based in Paris.

Clients requested something special and unique to do in Paris and for me, cooking with a French chef who would guide you through a beautiful market then take you back to his kitchen study to prepare a 3-course meal, fit the bill perfectly. We later opened a second school (now closed), in our new hometown, the city of Uzès, in southern France and it was there that the idea came up to design a culinary holiday created by chefs with home cooks in mind. Clients who took our 1/2-day French market class were often requesting more complex French dishes that required more time than we were able to offer in just a morning of cooking.

We felt there was a niche to fill in the area where people could spend several days with us cooking, tasting, and exploring the beautiful region. And so our Week in Uzès (Let’s Eat Uzès) Tour was born in 2016. Participants cooked delectable French dishes, visited local producers who we had befriended, and explored the vibrant markets at a leisurely pace allowing them to truly discover France. We did not see the need to offer fanciful recipes that required purchasing expensive equipment but rather to give people the confidence to appropriate French cuisine with the knowledge that skills and tips they acquired from Chef Eric, made French cooking approachable. We guaranteed that every recipe they did with us they could easily repeat at home. This was the stepping stone to future destination tours and remains the benchmark for all the tours that Let’s Eat The World offers.

David Hochman: How does the company differ from other food-based travel companies?

Yetunde Oshodi: I am a travel lover and believer that deliberate travel creates understanding and tolerance. By truly exploring the cultures around us, we learn so much about ourself. What could be better than cooking and sharing a meal with someone – a privileged moment when we can trade experiences and insight.

With so many places in this world to explore, I knew I wanted to go beyond France and really “Eat the world”, so more tours followed in Seville, Spain, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Parma, Italy, as well as bringing people back to where the story all began in Paris at Cook’n With Class. The tours focus around food but never leave out the cultural excursions that tie the whole thing together.

Most, if not all, our tours have several cooking lessons taught by a chef, and if not a professional chef, then they will be taught by the best transmitters of the culinary culture of that particular destinations – the mamas and grandmamas who inspired those chefs. We keep the group sizes small intentionally (no more than 8 people), in order to ensure that everyone has our attention. It is an intimate experience and certainly more manageable than groups of 12 and above.

David Hochman: How involved are you in the various experiences you offer?

Yetunde Oshodi: All my tours are tested by me, chef-approved, and include time to discover the areas we visit at a leisurely pace. We, as travelers, always want to pack in as much as we can and I was tempted to offer more and more activities in our tours but some of the best travel experiences are those that having us aching for more. That is only possible when we have taken the time to just let it all in with slow travel. We pace the programs in ways to make that all possible – so you don’t end up needing a vacation from your vacation. When you leave our tours, you should feel as if you’ve learned something about the area, the small producers who are upholding its culture and innovating its cuisine, and know that you can reproduce at home the things you prepared during the tour. How many cities/regions do you operate in, and what are your most popular offerings?

David Hochman: If someone’s having a hard time deciding on which tour to pick, any advice for them?

Yetunde Oshodi: We are well known for our Let’s Eat Uzès, a weeklong tour in Uzès, France, which we have been offering since 2016. Who can resist the French countryside? The tour focuses on Mediterranean and Provencal cuisine in an area that is France’s largest wine-producing region. The picturesque weekly market is an inspiration for our meals and we are guided by the seasons to offer dishes that our guests will enjoy preparing and tasting. But I have since been offering a tour in Seville, Spain (Let’s Eat Seville) where I am working with a local Spanish chef by my side highlighting the Andalusian culture in dance, music, food, and wine, and newly in Parma, (Let’s Eat Parma) the gastronomic heart of Italy, and Tbilisi Georgia (Let’s Eat Georgia) with its position as a crossroads between east and west. The last destination may not be place that is necessarily on many must-visit list but after I personally visited the city and the neighbouring countryside, I fell under its charm and in love with its cuisine. We also offer a gastronomic 5.5 days in Paris, France (Let’s Eat Paris) where we include the Champagne region in a day trip.

David Hochman: Illaria Bertinelli is a phenomenal instructor. She brings Parma cuisine alive from the moment you meet her.

Yetunde Oshodi: Absolutely. I love passionate people and when I was introduced to Ilaria Bertinelli, I knew that I was in the presence of an incredible woman. Not only does she speak fluent English, which is helpful, since my tours are all in English, she has an amazing backstory and a unique approach to Italian cuisine that I appreciated and adored. I could now proudly say that I was able to offer a culinary experience to those who had special dietary needs including low sugar or gluten-free without compromising the experience for anyone without intolerances. She was the perfect candidate to be chef and guide to my groups going to Parma for the Let’s Eat Parma tour.

David Hochman: What’s next for Eat the World? Anything exciting coming up?

Yetunde Oshodi: Many things. After having explored over 18 countries in the past year with my husband and son—a trip that was both work and pleasure—I am now collaborating with several local agents and agencies in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Tanzania, and Senegal to build tours that I believe will inspire people to travel, taste, and discover. These will be our next destinations, and perhaps I may be able to include Sicily as I have recently been approached by a potential partner there. I design tours that I would personally love to go on, and if my collaborators don’t feel the same after hearing about a tour, it’s back to the drawing board to create something that will truly excite them. Having run a cooking school, a vacation rental company, and with my earlier tour experience, I know exactly what I expect from an exceptional experience. I aim to offer an authentic connection to local culture, combined with a high standard of comfort and service. I can’t wait to get these tours online and invite more people to explore with us.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.