Skip Seamless? This app connects people with home cooks.
It's 6 p.m. and you are still on the train headed home. You can't bear another night of greasy restaurant takeout, and there is no way you are cooking for yourself. What you want is a home-cooked meal.
Gigamunch is an app that promises, if funded, to deliver just that.
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This isn't UberEats or Maple, which offer restaurant and chef-cooked food. This program pairs home cooks with program users to deliver home cooked food on demand.
Gigamunch's Kickstarter campaign aims to raise $10,000 by Mar. 12 in order to launch.
The app connects home cooks to hungry iOS users. Browse changing menu items (use tags like specific dietary needs, type of food and spice level) and even request items to see if any home cooks can satisfy that Tibetan momo craving you have had for weeks.
Then, choose how you want your meal/snack/dessert/etc. to be delivered or picked up, pay through the app and set the table.
Cooks have the opportunity to make money doing what they love without having to work in someone else's kitchen full-time, open their own restaurants or follow a set schedule.
Co-founder (with Atish Patel) Xavier Brown tells Mashable, "Big successful companies like Uber, Airbnb, Etsy, etc. all carved out this two-sided market trend, and we realized if we didn’t create cooking version of one of these companies, someone would, and they would be successful."
Though Etsy and Gigamunch both sell homemade food items, that's where the comparisons end.
Mary Andrews, a senior manager of merchandising at Etsy, tells Mashable, "Small batch food and drink items are well represented [...] edibles that can be used as party favors are popular particularly for weddings."
Gigamunch isn't looking to compete in the shelf-stable, artisanal jam space. It's looking to serve up instant gratification in the form of a warm, home-cooked meal on demand.
Brown acknowledges a few hurdles the company has had along the way, including learning about Tennessee labor laws and finagling food safety measures (which now include background checks, food handler cards for all cooks and on-site kitchen inspections).
Since food safety measures vary all over the country, Brown knows he is in for an arduous journey but says, "I believe our talents plus the world’s desire for delicious food will triumph over political red tape."
Brown says what sets Gigamunch apart from chef-based food delivery services is that it lets anyone, from professional chefs to enthusiastic amateurs, offer his or her services. He believes the enthusiasm, freedom of cooks to make what they want when they want and the ability of customers to interact with cooks make this new venture totally unique.
"One chef showed us pictures of a flat red creation. When he revealed the secret ingredient was Flamin' Hot Cheetos we initially laughed out loud. I would be lying if I said I was not curious to try it though," he says.
If the app can really deliver homemade latkes on a cold night when my mom's cooking is just too far away, I would be curious to try it, too.
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Topics Apps & Software
Sarah Spigelman Richter is a contributor to Mashable's Food channel. Sarah covers everything edible, from the food industry to D.I.Y. recipes. She was previously the community manager for Tastemade NYC and her writing has been seen on The Today Show's food blog, Refinery 29, the Food Network, and Gothamist. She has also developed recipes for Tabasco and other nationally recognized brands and has blogged for 5 years at "Fritos and Foie Gras." Sarah is obsessed with "Orphan Black" and chili-cheese Fritos and is still depressed that Loehmann's closed.
