Would you pay for someone to batch cook meals in your home?

[Ppppoppy]

Hello, just floating a question as it's a very new thought I've had (not seriously considering this as an all in, quit my job, start a business kind of thing haha, more just thinking out loud and curious what people think)
Cooking is my lifelong hobby/interest and I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself. I've got varied and pretty extensive knowledge of food styles, recipes and prep, and lots of experience cooking for friends (usually family style, big dishes to share). I've also cooked for large group dinners in a b&b/hostel setting (this was a volunteer position but I learnt a lot about catering for bigger numbers there). I don't have professional chef experience but I have worked in F&B for 5 years so I've been around professional kitchens a lot, know how they run, processes, dietary stuff etc.
Wanted to ask if the idea of someone coming into your home for a few hours to meal prep for your family would appeal to you at all.
There's obviously a fair bit I'd need to sort before this could actually be a real thing, but here's roughly the shape of it in my head:

• I'd sort out hygiene certificates, insurance, etc, whatever's actually required to do this properly and safely (this one feels non negotiable to me tbh, letting someone into your home with your kids around, you'd want to know they're checked out)
• An initial call or chat first, talk through what you're after, how many people, how many meals, preferences, any dietary stuff, and specifically allergies and individual preferences likes and dislikes too
• Also chat through how involved you'd want to be, some people might want to pick the dishes themselves, others might just want to hand it over and be surprised, or anwhere in between
• You'd provide/ pay for the groceries, this could include using stuff you've already got in (only what you're happy for me to use obviously, not going through your cupboards uninvited lol) and then I'd put together an order for anything else needed. I'd do the actual ordering bit but always from your usual shop and sticking to your preferences on brands and budget and okay before it’s ordered etc
• I'd come at a time we'd agree in advance, could be while you’re in or out lit depending on what you wanted . I bring my own basic kit /appliances (knives , maybe frying pan / pot ) and seasonings if you'd rather I not use yours, then prep, cook, portion it all up and clean up properly after myself before I go
• Would want to talk about whether you're picturing freezer stash type meals, ready to eat that week, or a mix of both, probably depends on the person
• First session would basically be a trial for both of us really, see if it works, see if you like my cooking, see if it's not weird having someone in your kitchen haha

I do get that having a stranger cooking in your kitchen isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and that's completely fair enough, just wondering if this is something anyone would actually want or if I'm being a bit mad haha
(also would maybe suit certain people more, new parents, people who've just had surgery or are recovering from something, elderly relatives, just busy families in general, so if you fall into one of those categories especially curious what you think)
Again very much just an idea floating around my head right now, not a proper plan yet!

My SIL works as a professional cleaner and often cooks for her clients as an additional service. She cooks food to order (Made in her own home)or occasionally will whip up a Victoria sponge or pop something in the slowcooker ready for her clients when they get home (while she's at their house using their own ingredients)
I don't think coming into someone's home to batch-cook would work though as usually people batch cook to try to save money and would just do it themselves.

I have indian colleagues who pay for this service, it also includes shopping for the meal prep. So the cook agrees weekly menu,shops, brings shopping home and cooks. Then she gets costs covered +paid hourly rate for cooking.
I also know few eastern european moms who get freezable meals ordered on weekly basis, think dumplings, pierogis, other regional staples.
Both groups use the service as they find cooking their native food too difficult.

For me personally, Fiverr type service does it.

No I wouldn’t want that. I would prefer you to cook it and deliver it. I wouldn’t want a stranger in my home and we can all have differing expectations cleanliness wise. It wouldn’t work for me.

I would use this and have looked for this service in the past but really struggled with us having to order the food in as another chore. And the cost was wild !
I find Frive to be a good option when I’m shattered

Yes! I would love this. I hate cooking and due to disability struggle to batch cook. So to have someone make meals would be amazing! I guess it would depend on cost though.

Can I ask if you’d have found it better if say you gave what you’re willing to spend on ingredients , a very brief brief (e.g. anything goes , ‘we don’t like X’ , ‘no pork please’etc) then the ordering was all done without you having to do anything else ? . What would you have been prepared to pay for the cooking component ? (Aside from the cost of ingredients) . No pressure to answer haha I’m genuinely interested

yes that would be fine - equally some menu options that I just had to click

Happy to pay an hourly rate for the cooking

I know someone who has a similar service as part of a disability package - she can no longer cook due to medical reasons and is coeliac with very severe reactions to gluten. The chefs time is paid for as part of her disability benefit package. She agrees a menu with the chef who then buys to groceries ( paid for by the client). It is prepped and cooked at her house to ensure a completely gluten free kitchen. Tends to be fresh food for the next few days - maybe because she does not have a large freezer. Seems to work well but the chefs only seem a stay a relatively short time before moving on to other jobs.

@pinkandwhiteroses I think you eventually get used to the person there so you don't have to make a huge effort. They understand what you want plus if you hate the food, you get rid.

My friend has a cleaner/cook so she does the house then batch cooks some meals for the week. By word of mouth, the same person cooks for lots of families. I think its a pretty good set up.

That would be a commercial operation as you are being paid, so I think the kitchen you cook in would have to be up to commercial kitchen status. That would make it a no go as a business I’d imagine. Not 100% sure but you’d have to look into it.

I’m your target - older, fed up with cooking, live alone so can’t be bothered, eat badly so am nutritionally at risk, have adhd so every aspect of food prep is tedious beyond words, and have a sufficiency of cash to be able to afford this. I’m my mind it would fall under “health care”, like a personal fitness instructor or a cleaner or supplements.

im in N Herts and would happily be your first client!

I provide a similar service but all prepped and cooked in my council approved home kitchen. I have a monthly menu and deliver fresh and frozen meals using all organic local ingredients with homemade sticks and sauces.

my clients are mostly the elderly with a couple of corporate clients and holiday customers.

I cook for 20 regular customers, one complete meal a day. I don’t advertise and have a waiting list. I work very closely with the local carers.

I have also provided family meals for people going through chemotherapy, new Mums etc.

I can charge an affordable price (4.95 per complete meal for one ) because I manage supplies; benefit from economies of scale; design the menus around seasonality and clever/complimentary recipes.

it is a really fun and rewarding and I consider my clients to be wonderful friends.

I wouldn’t like to cook in other peoples homes and contend with unpredictable appliances/equipment etc. So maybe look at doing a deal with a local pub/cafe out of their core hours to use their kitchen.

Definitely not. Because then on top of all the other shit I have to do I'd also have to do a proper big clean in the kitchen every week or however often you came, so you weren't silently judging our slovenly home (which is not an actual yurt!).

No,I would absolutely hate the idea of a relative stranger cooking in my kitchen. It would set me right on edge.

Hi OP - i know someone who uses a service like this and swears by it. I think your audience is quite niche though: people who are time poor and so wish to delegate some of the common, but are tidy and organised enough not to mind someone coming into their house to cook

I have looked into it and it’s actually a sound/ valid legally acceptable thing, it’s how private chefs operate :)

My in-laws are elderly and had a service like this for a while and they absolutely loved it!

I’m not sure you could compete with something like “Cook” which people can use to get quality food delivered without having someone in their home.

There might be the odd people here and there who’d go for it but I can’t see it being popular enough to make a business of it. You’d need it to work out cheaper than Cook, and at the end of the day most homes only have one standard size oven so you couldn’t even make that much at one time to make it financially viable?

On a local basis, if you could do the same thing from your home it might work. There is a Thai lady locally to me who does really well selling home cooked food on a takeaway basis from home, and another who does Caribbean food.

People will have different views but as someone who loves food and has had a housekeeper who cooked the occasional meal; a cook who batch cooked and delivered and used posh ready meals (Charlie Bigham, Dalesford) the two most important things for me are:

privacy
great food

when someone is cooking outside my home I get more privacy but the food is less good and vice versa. So there’s an important balance.

if someone is in my home, taking time in my space, using my things I need the food to be better than something that can be delivered in. It doesn’t need to be restaurant standard but fresh and tasty and not a “batch” cook.

oh yeah that was the idea, perhaps I should have written prepped but when I wrote batch I moreso meant a number of lovely meals prepared in one go ‘batch’

Oh, absolutely you do get used to it.

I guess my point was more that OP may find a lot of people like the idea but aren’t comfortable with the reality so while she may get a lot of initial bookings, whether those turn into anything long-term is very different.

I know soneone who uses a service like this and absolutely swears by it.

It’s quite a niche market though, I think: you need to find clients who are time poor enough to welcome saving time on cooking, but who are organised enough to pick meals and do any shopping, and who are happy with someone coming into their home to cook (I’d want my kitchen to be in perfect shape, and I’m sure the first time I’d be hovering around in case the chef couldn’t find my zester or whatever).

I would probably be interested in this atm, but I would need you to come up with the ideas for meals, do the shopping and then cook them at your own home and bring them to me tbh.

Honestly the detailed conversations it sounds like you’d need sound like they’d take a while - are you charging for that time plus ordering time plus travel time, cooking and cleaning time… what you’d need to charge in total is way above a price most time stretched families could afford for a few trays of food. Especially when they’re paying for the ingredients too.

This would be a luxury service and luxury payers would rather have a private chef.

Youd do better to take orders for things and do it at your house and then deliver. That way you can make 5 trays of X, 5 of Y etc and keep the time constraints down.