2/3/2017 Startup launches platform turn home cooks into professional chefs - San Francisco Business Times

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CHEF PEEHOO DEWAN

Chef Peehoo Dewan

From the San Francisco Business Times: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/02/03/taro-home-cooks-commercial-kitchens.html

Startup launches platform to turn home cooks into professionalchefs SUBSCRIBER CONTENT:Feb 3, 2017, 2:38pm PST

Krishna Mehra’s aunt had a day job as a teacher, but moonlighted asa talented home cook, serving family and friends food they couldn’tfind at any local restaurant.

When she attempted to turn that hobby into a legitimate business,however, she ran headlong into the tangle of upfront capital costsand regulations that have a tendency to trip up aspiringrestaurateurs.

“I think that sometimes starting a tech company in the Bay Area iseasier than starting a restaurant,” Mehra said.

The problem inspired the creation of Taro, a Mountain View-based company that provides a platformmeant to make it easier for nascent chefs to start their own business by connecting them to resources,guidance and logistic services. The company currently has around 10 employees and 50 chefs on theirnetwork.

One major differentiator for Taro from other similar food service companies is the requirement that chefswork from health department certified commercial kitchens. That provision allows them to bypassCalifornia’s stringent Homemade Food Act, which has tripped up companies like Oakland-based homecooking startup Josephine in the past.

To help ease the transition for home cooks Taro started an incubator program that helps find and rentspace in commercial kitchens as well as provide professional mentorships from other chefs on thenetwork. The company pays for four to six weeks of time in a kitchen to help the chefs gauge customerinterest in products and develop an initial menu and business model.

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Chef Peehoo Dewan, who operates a shop on Taro called Good Karma that serves vegetarian Indian food,always had the dream in the back of her mind to pursue cooking as a career.

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After leaving her job in the tech industry, Dewan embarked on a two month volunteer opportunity at aBuddhist Center where she cooked regularly for around 35 people. Soon after returning, she joined Taro inorder to test out her business ideas.

“It gave me an opportunity to try out professional cooking,” Dewan said. “It gave me the platform to goand do something that I might enjoy, with less stress and worrying about the delivery, permitting andinsurance.”

For more sophisticated food entrepreneurs – like those with existing catering companies – Taro providesconsistent business in an industry reliant on big events. According to Mehra chefs make up to $2,500 percook date.

“One of the biggest challenges that caterers face is that there’s a lot of variability in that model,” Mehrasaid. “As a customer when you get comfortable with somebody’s style of cooking, you just keep orderingfrom them again and again, so they have regular business without relying on a large party or event comingin.”

Additionally, Taro’s platform offers a more professional alternative for marketing and ordering thanFacebook groups and printed flyers, while also provides delivery services to the company’s more than50,000 customers across the Bay Area.

“Getting started is only the beginning for these chefs, I think more important is the fact that we help themwith the logistics,” Mehra said. "Most of these chefs used to sell this food on WhatsApp or G-chat."

For foodies especially, Mehra highlighted the idea of “micro cuisines” that chefs can offer through theirplatform, which may not be viable in a mass-market brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“That’s something that works really well on our platform because if you look at most restaurants, theirmenus are much more standardized for the general population,” Mehra said. “But in our case, chefs areable to find and target people who like a specific kind of food.”

Case-in-point Chef Hanson Zhai, who has a rotating menu of different kinds of steamed dumplings or ChefDewi Sutanto, who serves traditional Indonesian food like Nasi Kuning, which translates to turmeric riceand Beef Rendeng, a spicy meat dish.

Looking forward to the rest of 2017, Mehra said the main goals are to expand partnerships with othercommercial kitchens and start to expand unique menus geared toward specific cuisines, while continuingto find ways to support the chefs on the platform and their budding businesses.

“They manage the delivery, they are in contact with the customer, they handle the ordering. Yourresponsibility is buying your ingredients, cooking it, packing it in the bags and dropping it off,” Dewansaid. “It’s definitely a great help because it would be too overwhelming and impossible if I had to do allthat myself.”

Kevin TruongMultimedia producerSan Francisco Business Times

2/3/2017 Startup launches platform turn home cooks into professional chefs - San Francisco Business Times

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