OPENCATER - Home Cooked Food - Here I Come!
So the other night, my friend and I were discussing about the horrible food (if you can even call it food) that we we just finished cooking. We were cooking partners for over a period of 2 years and although we knew we were not good with anything to do with the stove. I remember my friend over boiling eggs to the point where all the water evaporated and it was just the eggs being toasted for 5 minutes (the one thing that you were supposed to do!). We basically have no other option other than restaurants which are well known for not being completely healthy and over a period of time you don't really want to go to the same place anymore. Although there might be some friends who are born chefs, most of us end up eating crap. Oh, how important food actually is. You realize once you leave your family and live by yourself far away. Folks back home living in another city, please don't relate to this. This is not the same kind of pain because you folks at least get to visit home whenever your tongue cries out to be rescued. Unlike us, we do not and cannot just hop on a bus,train and get home. It costs freaking $2000 for a round trip from Canada to India.
Huffff... Let out all my frustration there... Excuse me...
If you want to skip all my narration bull shit and go straight to the point of this post, please visit www.opencater.com
Anyways, as we were talking about a solution to this crisis that we were facing, we thought about many families from India and plenty other countries living here and most women (stating facts - not being a male chauvinist) taking care of the house and don't go out to work but love cooking - just cook for their families. These people should cook for us - come on - that's a great solution. But yeah, they are not going to open up a restaurant nor are they going to let you sit in their dining table and eat their food even if you are willing to pay them a fortune (which I am).
Enter another loud mouthed yet know-it-all friend of ours and asks what we were discussing with obvious need/urge to contribute. As we narrated the initial plot, he started rolling out the climax and credits. He talked about a website called opencater.com and went on further to say it is, if you will, the AirBnb but for food. We were intrigued just to hear that and yes, we did understand what it was and I could definitely say I have heard of such a platform before. We visited the website and voila, it was exactly what we thought it to be.
OPENCATER is a platform, just like how AirBnb is for housing and accommodation. Those who love to cook can sign up as 'Be A Cook' as the site says and those who want to eat (like me and my friend who is peeking in on my phone) can just order food out of the menu that the cooks prepare themselves. The chefs can add their best dishes and the worst (at least that's what my mum thinks of her most delicious paneer butter masala) to their menu and let the diners decide what they want and how much of it they want and when they want it. That's awesome if you ask me - specially to order when you want it - like it could be 2 days later or even 5 days later and you can still order it. The magic here is because the place where you get the food from is not a restaurant to not take such an order. It is made mostly in a home and has the same ingredients that the home uses for their food. It is healthy, yes and it is made with the personal touch of the same person who cooks for their family. That really attracted me and made me think I should suggest this to some of my friends' mothers who are home and are able to and willing to make money by doing something they like doing (cook). Although the platform is not exclusively for those who are at home, the aspect that grabbed my interest was the fact that I can finally get home cooked delicious meal whenever I want. Yes, I do not mind spending and again it's not as expensive as a restaurant, so I guess this is a very good bargain.
As per the website, I think it is only available in the United States and Canada as of now and I am waiting for them to launch their own mobile app which can seriously bring it more people to sign-up and to order food.
The best part about this website is that it connects people. Just like every other popular and useful social media tools, this is something that is more than just useful - this is FOOD. I can now say my search for home cooked meals are close to over as I am still waiting for someone from the South Indian chef to sign up and start making dosai, idly and vadai (just to write these words I had to close my mouth tightly to prevent my saliva from wrecking my keyboard). We need more chefs here - are you hungry cooks listening and seeing such developments? Please do, it will be a direct benefit for me and thousands of such friends living far far away from home. More chefs singing up, more options for us to choose from (yaay!)
I have added some screenshots from the website here so you get the picture (:P) as to what this online tool is all about. For additional details just visit the website and it has pretty much everything you need to know to sign up as a chef or to just EATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
Huffff... Let out all my frustration there... Excuse me...
If you want to skip all my narration bull shit and go straight to the point of this post, please visit www.opencater.com
Anyways, as we were talking about a solution to this crisis that we were facing, we thought about many families from India and plenty other countries living here and most women (stating facts - not being a male chauvinist) taking care of the house and don't go out to work but love cooking - just cook for their families. These people should cook for us - come on - that's a great solution. But yeah, they are not going to open up a restaurant nor are they going to let you sit in their dining table and eat their food even if you are willing to pay them a fortune (which I am).
Enter another loud mouthed yet know-it-all friend of ours and asks what we were discussing with obvious need/urge to contribute. As we narrated the initial plot, he started rolling out the climax and credits. He talked about a website called opencater.com and went on further to say it is, if you will, the AirBnb but for food. We were intrigued just to hear that and yes, we did understand what it was and I could definitely say I have heard of such a platform before. We visited the website and voila, it was exactly what we thought it to be.
OPENCATER is a platform, just like how AirBnb is for housing and accommodation. Those who love to cook can sign up as 'Be A Cook' as the site says and those who want to eat (like me and my friend who is peeking in on my phone) can just order food out of the menu that the cooks prepare themselves. The chefs can add their best dishes and the worst (at least that's what my mum thinks of her most delicious paneer butter masala) to their menu and let the diners decide what they want and how much of it they want and when they want it. That's awesome if you ask me - specially to order when you want it - like it could be 2 days later or even 5 days later and you can still order it. The magic here is because the place where you get the food from is not a restaurant to not take such an order. It is made mostly in a home and has the same ingredients that the home uses for their food. It is healthy, yes and it is made with the personal touch of the same person who cooks for their family. That really attracted me and made me think I should suggest this to some of my friends' mothers who are home and are able to and willing to make money by doing something they like doing (cook). Although the platform is not exclusively for those who are at home, the aspect that grabbed my interest was the fact that I can finally get home cooked delicious meal whenever I want. Yes, I do not mind spending and again it's not as expensive as a restaurant, so I guess this is a very good bargain.
As per the website, I think it is only available in the United States and Canada as of now and I am waiting for them to launch their own mobile app which can seriously bring it more people to sign-up and to order food.
The best part about this website is that it connects people. Just like every other popular and useful social media tools, this is something that is more than just useful - this is FOOD. I can now say my search for home cooked meals are close to over as I am still waiting for someone from the South Indian chef to sign up and start making dosai, idly and vadai (just to write these words I had to close my mouth tightly to prevent my saliva from wrecking my keyboard). We need more chefs here - are you hungry cooks listening and seeing such developments? Please do, it will be a direct benefit for me and thousands of such friends living far far away from home. More chefs singing up, more options for us to choose from (yaay!)
I have added some screenshots from the website here so you get the picture (:P) as to what this online tool is all about. For additional details just visit the website and it has pretty much everything you need to know to sign up as a chef or to just EATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
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| How OpenCater works for the Cooks |
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| How the OpenCater works for US, the Eaters - sorry Diners |
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| A Sample Description of one of the items in a chef's menu |
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