Moroccan food catering at home - would that work?

[runsense]

Hi all!

I thought of a side hustle I could start to make some extra money. I'm half Moroccan and thought of perhaps starting a catering business from home, either for special events or weekly meal preps. I'm based in London.

Do you think it might work? Or is that a stupid idea?

There are a few businesses like this where I live, they take orders for dinners in the morning and then deliver the meals in the afternoon.

First step is to figure health and safety, any licensing and insurance you'd need.

Also look at the costs including ingredients, utilities, packaging and transportation and work out if it's worth it

Thank yo so much

It would tempt me, I love Moroccan food 🙂.

If you've not done anything similar before and this is a 'side hustle', work out the hours you'd have available, capacity, costs, pricing, margins and any food hygiene/legal requirements to decide if it would be worth it.

A few years ago, someone on a local Mums Facebook group (also London) started advertising homemade curries to people within a certain distance. Announced each Weds which two options she would be making, took orders up to the capacity she was happy with, cooked them every Saturday, and then went round delivering them early Saturday evenings. She was a really good cook and it turned into a full-time business where she catered local school events etc, and hired other people, but she was totally able to control how fast it grew.

@TheOpenRoad Great minds think alike... you obviously type faster than me though 😁

OMG! That's really clever.

Do you know roughly how much she would charge for the curry? Would it be an individual or a family portion?

And thank you for taking the time to reply to my post x

We have a bar local that doesn’t serve food every Friday night a Persian family do a eat in or takeaway 3 course meal we’ve never eaten in but collected a few times really nice food they change menu and advertise on social media it’s really popular

That's brilliant! How much do they charge for the 3 course meal if I may ask?
Persian food is absolutely delicious

Sounds good to me, just read up on the laws and make sure your home kitchen can meet the requirements of a commercial kitchen (mine certainly couldn't). You'll need public liability insurance, business insurance for your vehicle, the appropriate food hygiene certificate, the correct equipment for transportation etc. cooking in someone else's property is slightly easier I found, I did some personal chef work and also buffets all prepped onsite so no need to certify my kitchen

£15 per person
last time we ordered we got 3 dips and bread as a starter a chicken main and a rose water exotic eaton mess type desert but they offer different set meal each Friday

Thank you all for your replies. I just made my first order!