Mr. Pang and his wife are both native Beijingers. When describing themselves, the 60-year-old couple used a quite trendy word: foodies. "I have been teaching myself to cook ever since we got married 40 years ago, and I have sold more than a thousand steamed fish on this platform".
Mr. Pang is one of the chefs cooking for a food app called "Homemade Meals". Having been repeatedly referred to as “the Uber of food delivery service” ever since its launch in 2014, the app offers Chinese people the option to order food directly from individuals' kitchens. According to the companies vice president, most of the chefs working for Homemade Meals are older retired people like Mr. Pang who has more time staying at home and more cooking experience.
So it’s quite natural that Homemade Meals has chosen the slogan “Food that takes you back home” to promote itself among the younger working class usually coming from other provinces to big cities. Right now their service is launched in 6 of the biggest cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuhan.
The biggest concern for this app is of course food security regulation, and to be fair, it is a concern to the whole food industry. Chinese people have been exposed to many sensational food problems happening around them ever since the 2008 milk scandle. According to China's National Well-being Index, food security issue, followed by corruption, commodity price or healthcare reform, has been the top concern for Chinese people for the last 5 years. For a chef to start business on Homemade Meals, he or she needs to take a series of physical examination in order to attain a health certificate in the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This may sound reassuring, but considering that some certificated restaurants were reported to be using "gutter oil" in cooking, whether it is safer to eat from a stranger’s kitchen remains a question for many users.
Another drawback for the service is the delivery system, in that it doesn't have one of its own. When first started Homemade Meals built it’s own delivery team of 200 motorcycles in Beijing. But as the business expanded, they cancelled it for cost saving, and chefs need to call for third-party delivery service if they are too busy to send food themselves. The lack of regulation and power over delivery has caused many bad user experiences. In response to these issues, Owen Rui, the vice president of Homemade Meals has shared his thoughts:
Going through the customers' feedbacks on the app, many are praising the app for providing "a chance for homemade tastes during busy working days". More than this, a lot of the young users are actively interacting with the chefs mostly from their parents’ generation, calling them “uncle” or “grandma”, implying a rare sense of intimacy in today’s everything-online world. No one doubt that the sharing economy boosted Homemade Meals is a great creativity, but whether it could overcome the food security issue is the fundation of its success in today's China.
In Ms. Cho's kitchen, things are organized.
The bamboo sprout from Zhejiang is the best!
If those eating my food are happy, I'm happy!
