What Cesarine does

Cesarine (legally Home Food s.r.l. Società Benefit), founded in 2004 and headquartered in Bologna, operates Italy's oldest and largest marketplace for in-home culinary experiences. The company connects tourists and travelers seeking authentic Italian food experiences with a network of 1,500+ amateur home-cook hosts (Cesarine) across all 20 Italian regions. The booking platform (cesarine.com) supports discovery, filtering, payment, and review of cooking classes (€70–€235 per guest), food and wine tours including market visits (€40–€245 per guest), and home-restaurant dining experiences (€62–€194+ per guest), with child discounts at 50% of adult pricing and gift cards available in €50, €100, and €200 denominations.

The platform extends beyond core dining into online cooking classes, sailing and food experiences in coastal regions, and a producer-experiences layer featuring partner wineries, dairies, and farms. Underlying infrastructure is a web-based marketplace with self-serve consumer booking, a dedicated travel-agent portal with commission structures and downloadable catalogs, hotel and accommodation affiliate partnerships, and direct corporate sales for team-building and custom gastronomic events. Revenue is generated primarily through a variable transaction commission on bookings, supplemented by corporate/team-building fees, gift card sales, and B2B referral commissions. Distribution combines direct-to-consumer (cesarine.com), channel/reseller relationships (travel agents, hotels), and event-driven corporate sales.

Customer segments include individual tourists and travelers (primary), corporate clients for team building, travel agents and tour operators, hotels and accommodations seeking differentiated guest offerings, and wineries and local producers seeking access to traveler audiences. The company is registered as a Società Benefit (Benefit Corporation), holds Slow Food Presidium recognition, and is certified under the Uniter gender equality management system. Brand equity is reinforced by ongoing media exposure including the Banijay Italia TV show 'Home Restaurant.' In September 2021, Cesarine raised €1.1 million in seed funding from Finalca and Cdp Venture Capital's Fondo Rilancio Startup toward a €3M round.

Name

Cesarine

Legal name

Home Food s.r.l. Società Benefit

Website

https://cesarine.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cesarine (Home Food s.r.l. Società Benefit) operates an Italian marketplace connecting tourists with 1,500+ local home-cook hosts across all 20 Italian regions for cooking classes, food tours, and home dining experiences, also serving corporate clients, travel agents, and hotels.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Culinary Experiences Marketplace

NAICS

Special Food Services (7223)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Culinary Skills Workshops (Baking, Regional Cooking, Food Prep Skills) (THAJAKAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Culinary & Wine Travel Agencies (THAKAFAH), Private Chef & In-Home Dining Services (HSACAGAE), Street Food Tours (THAJAGAC)

Keywords

• Culinary experiences marketplace
• Home cooking classes
• Food and wine tours
• Home dining experiences
• Italian culinary tourism

Headquarters

HQ city

Bologna

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Booking Commission: Cesarine operates as a marketplace platform connecting guests with Cesarine hosts. The platform charges a variable percentage on each booking total amount as commission for the connection service. Hosts set their own prices and the platform takes a cut of each transaction.
2. Corporate and Team Building Events: Revenue from corporate team building events, custom-designed gastronomic experiences for companies, and corporate partnerships.
3. Gift Cards: Sale of gift cards for Cesarine experiences, available in denominations of €50, €100, €200, or custom amounts.
4. Travel Agent Partnerships: Partnerships with travel agents who book experiences on behalf of their clients, with dedicated accounts and commission structures.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Cesarine operates an online marketplace that connects travelers and food tourists with a network of approximately 1,500 amateur Italian home cooks (called Cesarine) who host culinary experiences in their own homes across all 20 Italian regions. The platform facilitates discovery, booking, and payment for cooking classes, food and wine tours, traditional home dining (home-restaurant meals), local-producer experiences, online cooking classes, and sailing-and-food experiences, with supplementary offerings for corporate team building, gift cards, and B2B distribution through travel agents and hotels.

Product overview

Cesarine operates a marketplace platform connecting travelers and food enthusiasts with local amateur cooks (Cesarine) who host culinary experiences in their homes across Italy. The core offering consists of three main experience types: Cooking Classes, Food & Wine Tours (market tours), and Dining Experiences (home restaurant meals). Supporting products include Local Producers Experiences for partner tastings, Gift Cards for gifting, Online Cooking Classes for virtual participation, and Sailing & Food Experiences for coastal regions. The company also offers a Corporate Team Building module for business clients and a dedicated Travel Agent Portal for B2B distribution. A content platform called The Cesarine's Cookbook provides recipes and culinary content. The platform is operated by Home Food S.r.l. Società Benefit, a certified Italian benefit corporation established in 2004.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cooking Classes Hands-on cooking classes hosted by local Cesarine across Italy, where guests learn to prepare traditional regional dishes such as pasta, pizza, and local specialties. Pricing ranges roughly €70 to €235 per guest depending on complexity and exclusivity.
• Food & Wine Tours Market tours and food & wine tasting experiences led by local hosts, visiting historic markets, wineries, and producers to discover regional flavors and Italian culinary traditions; shared experiences typically range €40 to €245 per guest over 2–4 hours.
• Dining Experiences (Home Restaurant) Traditional lunch and dinner experiences hosted in Cesarine homes, offering authentic Italian home-cooked meals in a social setting; per-guest pricing ranges from about €62 for basic experiences to €194+ per guest for premium or private dining with views.
• Local Producers Experiences Exclusive experiences at Cesarine's partner producers including winery visits, dairy tours, vinegar cellars, and tastings at historic Italian food and wine establishments.
• Gift Cards Digital gift cards available in €50, €100, €200, or custom-amount denominations, redeemable for any food experience on the Cesarine platform and valid for 12 months from purchase.
• Corporate Team Building Tailor-made corporate gastronomic events for companies, including team-building cooking challenges, corporate dinners, aperitifs, and custom-designed culinary experiences across Italy.
• Online Cooking Classes Remote, virtual cooking classes conducted by local Cesarine hosts, allowing participants to learn Italian recipes regardless of physical location.
• Sailing & Food Experiences Combined sailing and culinary experiences in Sicily and coastal regions of Italy, including sailing day trips, sunset aperitivos, brunch, and private sailing dinners paired with local food.
• Travel Agent Portal Dedicated B2B portal for travel agents and tour operators offering private accounts, downloadable catalogues (including the 2026 Cesarine Catalogue and Producers Catalogue), commission structures, and booking tools for arranging culinary experiences for their clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 20 years of operation since 2004
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Wineries and Local ProducerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCesarine partners with Italian wineries, farms, and local producers to offer exclusive experiences such as vineyard tours, cheese-making classes, and tastings. These partners are promoted through Cesarine's 2026 Producers Catalogue and integrated into the platform's experience offerings.
• Hotels and AccommodationscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCesarine offers affiliate partnerships for hotels and accommodations to enrich guest stays with authentic local food and wine experiences. Partners can contact [email protected] to join the program.
• Travel Agents and Tour OperatorscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCesarine provides travel agents with a dedicated program including free sign-up, private accounts, commission structures, and access to the 2026 Cesarine Catalogue and Producers Catalogue for booking experiences for their clients.
• Banijay ItaliacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCesarine partnered with Banijay Italia for the production of 'Home Restaurant,' a cooking show featuring Cesarine hosts. The second season of the show aired, bringing visibility to the brand and its community of home cooks.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• EatWith: EatWith is a home-dining marketplace where local hosts invite travelers into their homes for meals — directly comparable to Cesarine's home-restaurant dining experiences and sharing a similar supply-side model with vetted home cooks.
• Withlocals: Withlocals is a marketplace of local hosts offering food tours, cooking classes, and dining experiences across Europe; it competes head-to-head with Cesarine in Italy for culinary experiences with similar community-host positioning.
• Cookly: Cookly is a marketplace specializing in cooking classes with local chefs across multiple countries, including Italy; it overlaps directly with Cesarine's cooking-class category and shares the D2C booking model.
• ToursByLocals: ToursByLocals operates a global marketplace of private local guides offering private tours, including food and culinary experiences in Italy; it shares the local-host booking model and travel-agent distribution approach with Cesarine.

Broad incumbents

• Airbnb Experiences: Airbnb's Experiences marketplace is the largest global platform for host-led local experiences including cooking classes and food tours; it competes for both demand (travelers to Italy) and supply (would-be Cesarine hosts), but covers thousands of categories far beyond food.
• GetYourGuide: GetYourGuide is a global attractions and experiences OTA offering food tours, cooking classes, and local experiences in Italy; it overlaps directly with Cesarine's tours and classes inventory and represents a major SEO and demand-side competitor.
• Klook: Klook is a large Asia-rooted experiences and activities OTA that has been expanding its European food and culinary experience inventory; it competes for international traveler demand to Italy similar to Viator and GetYourGuide.
• Viator (TripAdvisor): Viator is a leading online experiences marketplace with deep Italian culinary experience listings; it competes for the same inbound travelers searching for cooking classes and food tours, with greater scale in marketing and demand acquisition.

Regional players

• Taste Bologna Food Tours: A local Emilia-Romagna food tour operator offering market tours and culinary experiences centered on Bologna — directly comparable as a regional culinary experience provider, even though it is a tour operator rather than a marketplace.

Emerging players

• BonAppetour: BonAppetour connects travelers with home-dining hosts for authentic meals, mirroring Cesarine's home-restaurant model; it is a smaller, peer-shaped player in the same niche of curated home-cooked food experiences.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/11252764

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cesarine