Booking the Cooks
Food is big business online. From video sites like Look and Taste and iFood.tv, to ubiquitous recipe sites and restaurant guides, to marketplaces like Foodzie - everyone wants a slice of the proverbial cake.
BookofCooks.com is the latest entry into the market and is described as:
“an online resource connecting culinary professionals and foodies in the world’s first prepared foods marketplace. Incorporating the latest social networking technology, the Web site serves as an online community to help people locally find professional chefs, caterers, specialty foods and more within a particular region …”
In practice the site acts like a directory of food professionals – primarily caterers – who can use the site to showcase their menus and images / videos of themselves in action. For existing catering professionals, it’s a simple way to attract some new business.
For gifted amateurs (or professionals looking to start out on their own) the site offers a simple, and free, opportunity to set up a ‘virtual’ bakery, home delivery restaurant or catering business. Presumably, even someone with just one ‘great dish’ could earn a few dollars sharing their food with people in their area.
Visitors can use the site to find cooks in their area to deliver prepared food, cater an event, cook for you in your home or even work with you to create a great meal. Users and listed cooks connect directly via the phone number or email address the cook lists in their profiles, so the actual agreement might be anything that the two parties come up with.
It’s a great idea. In particular, the chance for amateurs or part-time foodies to earn via the site could be a huge attraction.
That said, the challenge for Bookof Cooks is the same as for any directory or social network – scale. And, as usual, it’s a chicken and egg dilemma: you need chefs and caterers to create detailed profiles to encourage users to use the site, but you need users on the site to encourage chefs and caterers to create those profiles.
What’s more, as the site is free to join and use, the founders will need to find innovative revenues streams beyond simple advertising. A BookofCooks iPhone app could be one option, as could partnerships with cookery schools and corporate caterers.
It’ll be interesting to see how the site grows and responds to these challenges.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment