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by dawhizkid 3059 days ago
I like the idea but I think the food safety/perishabiliy/logistics challenge is too much.

Personally I would like something like a “social buying” restaurant delivery app, where you can vote on what you’d like made in a centralized kitchen and then place an order to be delivered if whatever you voted on was chosen by popular vote.

Recipe holders could submit recipes to be voted on and make a commission from sales if their recipe is chosen.

2 comments

Don't restaurants already effectively do this? Although voting doesn't happen in the traditional sense people will vote with their purchasing choices. The restaurant will offer certain things on the menu and ones that don't get ordered will likely get eliminated (assuming the restaurant wants to make money). From what I've read most restaurants in America tend to offer many choices compared to countries like Japan where much more specialized places can prosper so your idea could be much more efficient but I'm not sure how practical it is to get people to agree on anything.
Not really. I mean this would be more like Top Chef on demand with no fixed menu. There's an inventory of non-perishable/perishable ingredients available in a commercial kitchen. If a lot of people want to order some meal then that gets made with some scheduled delivery time.

Surprised no one's attempted the "Uber for whatever meal your heart desires prepped by a personal chef." It'd be expensive, yes, but I could see that being a luxury food delivery option that would be appealing to someone with money but no personal chef.

It simply can't be done on demand. I have first hand experience: I work with a chef who spends a day to create a week's worth of meals for me but smaller chunks are not feasible as you need to prep, cook etc and it takes hours -- even if some of the work can be done in parallel while one dish is cooking the other can be prepared etc but still you just can't have a meal ready in 45 minutes after you click order. Quite a few meals actually need to be started the previous day so the dish or parts of it can marinade / simmer / slow cook / set / etc overnight. (I think you meant private chef -- those are employed by the super rich, a personal chef works for multiple clients.)

Also anyone like him will strive to have his schedule full for a few weeks ahead.

So no, this is not Uberable. But, if you are in Vancouver and want good food, drop me an email I will connect you with Michael :)

It can be done if you don’t let the client choose the meal or the delivery moment. If the menu is chefs choice and designed for ease of production and you deliver daily at a scheduled time, it can be done affordably.

There can be no “I’d like pad Thai in an hour and can you make it gluten free?”

But GP said

> Surprised no one's attempted the "Uber for whatever meal your heart desires prepped by a personal chef."

Where I presumed "Uber" meant "on demand right now".

Yes, daily at a scheduled time might work.

Like https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/bbb?query=personal+chef ?

I don’t know how that would work in Uber-like environment. The chef in question simply might not have the ingredients on hand (especially expensive ones, like truffles or caviar), whatever my heart desires might require significant prep lead time (roasted suckling pig) or not very suitable for delivery (seafood towers, tartars, sorbets).

Not a bad idea. Like GroupOn without the discounts.