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Munchery Is Trying to Reinvent The Personal Chef, And Early Signs Are Promising

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Re: Munchery Is Trying to Reinvent The Personal Chef, And Early Signs Are Promising

#11

Post by prawn »

tt wrote: post #8
forgot_password wrote: post #6

Are there any legal issues here? Aren't these chefs acting as a restaurant and wouldn't they need a license?

Indeed there are. Our chefs have business licenses, ServSafe certification, and food reseller permits. Regardless of legality, there are food safety issues. I wrote about how the traditional peer to peer doesn't work for food: http://blog.munchery.com/2011/11/pro-to-peer-a-new-paradigm/

Are these generally off-work or out-of-work chefs, or people specifically setting up to provide this service? In the TC article, it sounded like a current restaurant chef; in that case, isn't it basically takeaway?

I've always thought the game changer in this field would be based around bulk orders (group buying) - e.g., cheaper curry dish for you if others in your office or immediate area group together to improve scale efficiency for the chef and delivery.

Re: Munchery Is Trying to Reinvent The Personal Chef, And Early Signs Are Promising

#12

Post by shabble »

zem wrote: post #5

the sort of casual home-based cooking for others as a small enterprise works well in india (any big city where people flock for work has tons of people working to keep them fed). however, in the usa i believe commercial kitchen requirements would make it a very high-overhead enterprise.

I came across something about this a little while ago, specifically the Dabbawalla/Tiffin[1] industry in Indian cities. The organisation and effectiveness of the system is quite astounding, especially given how ad-hoc and decentralised it all is. I can't seem to find the original article I'm thinking of, but there's one by the NY Times[2] that looks ok.

My recollection seems to tally with the WP numbers, with hundreds of thousands of deliveries a day, with less than 1 in a million mistakes, despite a multi-party transport network and widespread illiteracy (no written addresses!)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29...

Re: Munchery Is Trying to Reinvent The Personal Chef, And Early Signs Are Promising

#13

Post by shabble »

tt wrote: post #8
forgot_password wrote: post #6

Are there any legal issues here? Aren't these chefs acting as a restaurant and wouldn't they need a license?

Indeed there are. Our chefs have business licenses, ServSafe certification, and food reseller permits. Regardless of legality, there are food safety issues. I wrote about how the traditional peer to peer doesn't work for food: http://blog.munchery.com/2011/11/pro-to-peer-a-new-paradigm/

It seems like there's a much greater scope for casual/ad-hoc delivery than production, based on the safety/certification issues. Of course, there are still potential risks with poorly trained/equipped transport workers letting your food get too warm|cold|stale, etc.

I was thinking a little while ago about how we're almost at the point of making the digital timer pizza-box from Snow Crash a reality -- or in my scheme, something more useful, like a data logging thermometer.

It might be a little clunky still, but if you established some sort of ongoing service, an upfront purchase/loan/amortised lifespan device might make it practical to have a little temp + humidity + realtime clock with bluetooth/nfc comms to talk to your phone when your food gets delivered. And you have a solid audit trail if anything turns out dodgy.

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