Airbnb is going way beyond just beds. Its new app lets you step into the life of a local for a spell. Lisa Haynes tries being a food stylist in the City of Angels
I’M not even hungry but I’m scrambling for the most photogenic doughnut from a hipster cardboard box. I opt for a gooey chocolate ring. But I don’t eat it; not even so much as a lick of the reflective glaze.
I’m snapping baked goods on a smartphone as part of a ‘Foodporn’ masterclass in Santa Monica. It’s one of hundreds of new experiences on Airbnb’s new Trips-with-a-capital-t phase, but more of that later.
We find our host, 36-year-old Insta food stylist Stephanie Goldfinger, sitting cross-legged on colourful Aztec blankets on Santa Monica’s picture-postcard prom.
Donning a mustard T-shirt, floppy hat, and La-esque white smile, she’s like a 2016 version of Farrah Fawcett.
“I’m a little cheesy but I’m a chef, so that’s allowed,” she says with a laugh. Our snap-happy group sits surrounded by Sidecar doughnuts, Izze clementine bottles, and a library of glossy foodie magazines for inspiration.
So far, so Instagram-friendly. Stephanie hands out tip sheets for budding foodie-pornmakers headlined “Warning: 10 Things to Expect as a Budding Food Stylist” that also outline basic smartphone camera angles employed by super-bloggers. She tells us shots of stuffed sandwiches are the trickiest to do justice in photographs. My tummy rumbles. “I’m going to show you how to make your plate pop,” Stephanie says enthusiastically. “You’ll come out of this looking at food a bit differently, maybe even changing what you order in a restaurant.”
As a veggie Insta-chef with a penchant for comfort food, Stephanie’s two-day Food Porn Experience (£208 per person) also takes in fresh produce shopping at Santa Monica’s Farmers Market, serving/styling lunch tables at her rooftop in Venice, and chatting about the hippest food hangouts on everyone’s lips, like Gjelina.
It’s not just food styling but a gourmet tour of LA’S westside districts through Stephanie’s eyes.
And that’s precisely what Airbnb is feeding to travel-seekers via the new Trips app with Experiences – expanding on the living-in-someone’s-home-thing, so that you’re stepping into a local’s shoes and living out their passions alongside them.
“We think travel is about who you can become, not just where you go,” says Airbnb founder Brian Chesky. “These aren’t just guided tours, you actually participate.”
For one day only – or more if you really want to immerse yourself – you can be a kimono stylist in Tokyo, a stargazer in LA, or a truffle hunter in Florence. And the list of 500-plus bucket list experiences goes on.
How about ‘Jack, The Prison Warder’ – a two-day experience in Cape Town run by Nelson Mandela’s former prison guard and cook. As one of Airbnb’s Social Impact Experiences, 100% of the £232 a head goes to the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Experiences last anything from three hours to several days and are currently available in 12 cities – LA, London, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Cape Town, Tokyo and Seoul – with a further 39 to be added in the next few months.
They’re presented on the app in the form of movie poster-style billings that make the host the ‘star’.
The movie poster is especially apt for Kevin Townsley, who runs ‘TV Writers,’ one of the most authentic, old school LA trips on the Experiences list.
“You get to experience a day in the life of a TV writer, morning, noon and night, based in three very different LA settings,” he explains. “I’ve already hosted someone who used it as a taster before they moved out here.”
But I’m off to meet Mika Otani. Wearing traditional kimono dress and obi, she’s practised the ancient art of Ikebana flower arrangement, or what she calls “living sculptures”, for 30 years. Although she’s in LA at the moment, she usually hosts ‘Exquisite Ikebana’ in her Atelier Soka studio in Tokyo, where she continues the theme with attention to detail – wagashi confectionery in the shape of flowers and black tea served with dried petals in the cup.
On my last day in LA, I explore my superhip Airbnb district, Silverlake.
Before I know it, I’m googling Instagramworthy brunch spots and stumble across Sawyer – all white marble tables, vaulted high ceilings and statement floral walls. I watch the bartender shake up virgin cocktails, and observe the chef ’s attention to detail, realising the potential for experience masterclasses everywhere I look.
I ponder the next Trip on my app hit list, then get back to Instagramming my eggs Florentine, carefully styled up with a side of sunglasses and a glossy magazine.
SANTA MONICA