To create Photo credit: Noah Severino
Home delivery of food is perhaps one of the best things that technology has gifted us. Hyderabad-based FoodHosts.in is a platform that offers food that you don’t find in restaurants. Prepared by home chefs based in the city, the dishes vary from regional specialties and Mediterranean cuisine to Continental and American.
Eat by the kitchen table
Launched in March 2021 with 15 chefs, the idea was to connect a select range of independent artisan chefs with food lovers. “I wanted to provide a platform for home cooks to showcase their skills. Food aggregators offer almost identical dishes. We not only provide food to diners,” says 29-year-old Sarojana Kannomori, founder of FoodHosts.in. Serving non-commercial food, but also empowering home cooks to become foodies. We take care of their tasks as they work their magic in the kitchen. This has resulted in many chefs and cuisines. Hidden gems are discovered.
How to order
Eat by the kitchen table
From the platform’s browser page, you can select dishes from home chefs as per their specialty, mention your preferred delivery date (works on pre-order) and make your payment. The platform takes care of pickup from the chefs and delivery to the customer.
Pre-order is a must as home cooks cook in small batches. Currently, the platform has around 30 home cooks.
Business dreams
Patishpata from Chakraborty’s Kitchen
Home cook Urmi Chakraborty (Chakravorty’s Kitchen) says the platform has fulfilled her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Although the 58-year-old loves to cook and has been cooking to order for a select group of friends, she didn’t know how to approach a larger clientele. Urmi says, “This platform has helped me deliver food in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. More than the business, it’s the love that comes from customers that makes me the happiest. I have frequent customers for typical Bengali dishes like Machar Kalia, Pati Shapata, Kach Kolar Kofta And Basanti Pulau and much more.
Talking about what made her start FoodHost, Sarojana says, “I was working in business marketing in Canada. Returning to India in late 2020, I wanted to do something on my own. And I saw a gap in organized platforms for home cooks. It took me a few months to identify home cooks and bring them on board. The most important criteria for that was to list people who were available in the commercial space. Offer no-frills food and cook in small batches and remain professional,” she adds.
Errors? Being home cooks, they usually have to work with a limited number of orders. “We can’t force anyone to go big because when they sign up, we don’t guarantee them multiple daily orders. Also when they go on vacation, like other food aggregators we Mention ‘currently unserviceable,’” explains Sarojana.
Every home cook’s kitchen has a name, some go by their own names.
Roshni and her husband Errol Nathan joined the community in 2021 as ‘The Kitchen Table’. Roshni says it’s nice to get the feedback and happiness that people express through their messages on the platform. “Having worked in the F&B industry for more than a decade, I have always encountered people who are looking for something special and different restaurants have certain restrictions because they have to go by a menu. These restrictions food hosts. Like the platform, which offers a wide selection of non-commercial cuisines by home cooks, Nathan’s specializes in Goan, Mangalorean, Anglo-Indian and Continental cuisines.
Sarojana says they are yet to reach the outskirts of the city where delivery services are not yet available.
