We’ve had services like Couch Surfing and Airbnb for some time now. These are websites that connect homeowners with out of towners looking for a place to stay. It could literally a couch to sleep on or a spare bedroom, or, more often in the case of Airbnb, the entire house or apartment. I recently used Airbnb to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Paris and was very pleased with the place. There was no daily maid service as you’d have in a hotel, of course, but it was fun to live more like a Parisian for the week.

Now a service, based in France for now, is trying to do the same for hungry travelers and aspiring cooks. Cookening is a startup site that is exploring the world of collaborative consumption. As explained in this Techcrunch story, Cookening allows visitors to a new town to find locals who are willing (and one hopes able) to prepare a home-cooked meal in their homes. The cook makes some money and the diner gets a taste of authentic regional food and the opportunity to meet some real locals and learn about the culture.

What do you think? Would you participate in this service, either as a cook or an eater? If  you consider yourself a great cook, what would be the meal that you would prepare for the people coming to your house? Leave a comment below.

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