Reconnecting Diners & Chefs to Ensure a Better Food Future

Guest post by Noah Karesh, founder of Feastly. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect. 

One of our favorite food-spirations comes from everybody’s beloved omnivore, Michael Pollan: “Eat anything you want as long as you cook it yourself.”

When we talk about this quote, we don’t mean heating up the Velveeta mac and cheese and we don’t even mandate you have to cook for yourself. The sentiment behind this quote is to eat food made by people who care about food, respect where it comes from, and understand how to treat it. Feastly is made up of a bunch of people just like that.

We know everyone is not always going to cook for themselves due to time constraints, working hours, culinary capability, kitchen resources, etc. The next best option is to find the people who will put as much love into a meal as you would for yourself or your family.

How do you find these chefs? The traditional business model for dinning establishments is centered on food quantity. This leads to a focus on profitability and not necessarily on the quality or what Danny Meyers has coined as “Enlightened Hospitality.”

Feastly is about creating unique experiences with a focus on the food and the people. Our platform makes it possible to connect people all over the world with both the chefs and eaters that care. We want to tell the story behind the food that is only possible in these intimate experiences. There are chefs like Chef Erin, who wants to open up her own restaurant focused on treating all diners like friends and is using Feastly as a testing ground. Then there are chefs like Yana, who was never able to find the food of her native Philippines anywhere and now hosts Filipino pop-ups all over the country. These are just two personal stories of myriad chefs we work with. We are empowering chefs all over the world to take matters into their own hands, to serve the food they want to serve with integrity, transparency, depth and most importantly — a story.

Through Feastly, we have designed a system that ensures a level of quality and “enlightened hospitality” not possible in the traditional dining industry. Every chef on the platform is vetted on culinary capability as well as integrity. Taking this process a step further, we offer diners the ability to review their experience to benefit allow chefs to improve and provide transparency to the community.

This connection between the diner and the chef is something you cannot find in the traditional restaurant industry. Part of that disconnect is that most chefs are hidden behind a restaurant name and diners know the restaurant, not the person preparing the food. By changing up that dichotomy and bringing the chef to the forefront, there is more incentive for chefs to meet who they are serving and diners to appreciate the story behind the chef.

Through technology, Feastly is empowering a new generation of chefs and eaters to have a real experience with their food. Or as we’ve starting saying, “Eat anything you want as long as it’s prepared by a Feastly chef.”

Internet of Food is editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between February 17 and April 2. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using#internetoffood, Facebook or LinkedIn. 

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Noah Karesh (Speaker); Founder of Feastly. Noah is an innovative food enthusiast, technology lover and entrepreneur. He is obsessed with building products that create disruption and provide value. From a social media driven taco stand in the Middle East, to a highly praised pop-up cafe in D.C. (Blind Dog Cafe), to his current startup Feastly, Noah uses creative dining concepts to build community around the world.