WhyNot?

Home Cooked Meals To-Go!

Category: Food
Responses: 14 (9 in support, 1 neutral, 4 in opposition)
Number of views: 2440
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Many students and young professionals don't have time to come home and cook. Either they don't have the skills or they lack the motivation and time. However, they all often miss home cooked meals.

I propose starting a company that networks people who like to cook in college towns (or in towns that have a large population of young adults), who cater to students and young professionals via a carry-out or delivery platform. And these cooks will set the supply according to how much time they have - some may only make a few meals while others might turn this into a business.

The idea would work like this:The parent company puts out adds for people who are interested in making lunch or dinner meals for students and young professionals who pre-order what they want a day or two in advance. These cooks can have a preset menu or can take requests and their kitchens would have to pass a health inspection. The only way a cook would be fired is if his/her food repeatedly made people sick. And all payment would be done online, with the the sales being split in some proportion between the cook and the company.

The hope is that young people will continue to receive quality home cooked meals and that people who are normally unemployed or who have to stay at home to care for kids or elders will have a source of income.

bluefish, Jan 23 2007

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Comments from other members:

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As a student living on her own, I agree with this idea. One problem I find is the level of customer satisfaction, as the taste of the home-cooked meals will differ from one to another.

herbq79, Jan 23 2007

The logistics makes sense, but it would be difficult to retain customer satisfaction.

jmy, Jan 23 2007

Interesting idea, though tried and tested in Mumbai and other Indian cities. They are called Dabba wallahs and have an extensive, well developed network. Quite cool in fact. The problem with this model is that one cant expect buyers to pre-order food 2-3 days in advance.

cloud 9, Jan 23 2007

good idea, but i worry about the variations in quality of homecooked meals from home to home. why not just start a chain of restaurants that cooks home-style?

kbomb, Jan 24 2007

great idea

bsa, Jan 24 2007

Good idea.Food is a difficult one though as there is lot's to comply to. If the logistics are worked out, it would work, how would you keep standards level across the board though. It's not really ideal to only disband a cook only after they have made multiples sick?

Creo, Jan 26 2007