March 17, 2016
Homemade/Facebook
Homemade is a new app that connects consumers with homemade food, made by strangers.
Take-out in Philly may never be the same.
According to Foobooz, Homemade, an app developed in New York City by entrepreneurs Nick Devane and Mike Dee, expands its food-sharing services to Philadelphia today, the first U.S. city outside of New York. In concept, it allows amateur cooks and hobbyists to serve home-cooked foods to app users who are craving a meal, but don't want to deal with a restaurant. Think of it as Etsy for cooks, only with the promise of a thorough vetting process for the seller.
Well, sort of.
Cooks are required to present their culinary background and certifications to Homemade. Homemade then weighs the strength of those qualifications and asks cooks to pull together 20 customers to test and review their food, according to Foobooz. Barring any serious red flags, the Homemade team then approves the cooks to sell, equipping them with marketing and pickup/delivery strategies, along with guidelines for food safety. A cook's ability to remain in business on the app is based on a star rating system: If a cook drops below three stars, Homemade shuts him or her down and conducts an audit.
Payments, if you're wondering, are specifically processed as "donations" to circumvent state laws that would ordinarily prevent using a home kitchen for commercial use. Applicants are asked in the vetting process whether they have food permits or a commercial license, but are not required to present them. How that all plays out with the Philadelphia Department of Licenses & Inspections, of course, remains to be seen.
In practice so far, prices range from about $8 to $13 for a meal, with Homemade profiting through a 9 percent service fee. Trending dishes include baked goods and vegan meals.
Homemade will expand to New Orleans, Miami, Boston, Austin and Los Angeles later this year. Since its launch in January, it has accumulated 700 cooks in New York and cities in Canada and Australia.
If you're feeling generally pretty good about how your neighbor's kitchen looks through the window, try your luck this evening and give the app a whirl for free on iTunes right now.
