Distribution: Cook it Yourself

Home cooking is seeing a resurgence as we are bombarded by celebrity chefs imploring us to eat more healthily and be more adventurous in our kitchens. We're not all equally gifted in this department nor equally well equipped in the kitchen. Localnet can certainly help to level the playing field and let us all cook more and more successfully - with much less waste than before.

This section discusses:

Existing Provision

What

Even where we aren’t tempted to buy more than we know we need, there are many cases where it’s not possible to buy as little as we need. The obesity crisis and associated health problems have prompted some noteworthy initiatives – such as Jamie Oliver’s crusades to improve school dinners and, more recently, to get the nation cooking real food. A varied diet certainly helps but someone just starting out experimenting with new recipes or anyone living on their own is handicapped in trying a new recipe because they don’t have any of the secondary ingredients to hand. It’s fine going out to buy the Dover Sole to go on your plate but when the recipe calls for seven different spices, a nutmeg grater and a fish steamer – none of which you own – it’s tempting to go back to the burger and chips option.

How

Today, our only option is to buy whole packets of everything we need but don't already have to hand. These then sit, three-quarters full, at the back of our cupboards making us feel guilty until well past their sell-by date at which point we throw them away and curse having wasted so much food and money.

We also end up filling our kitchens with equipment bought on a whim, used once (if you're lucky) before being hidden at the back of another cupboard.

Volume and Frequency

Those who cook for themselves regularly will find this whole area less fraught than the occasional or seldom chefs amongst us. However, the better chefs tend to be more adventurous and probably try (or would like to try) a dish the stretches their supplies and/or equipment as often as the rest of us try cooking at all.

Financial Model

The ingredients that we use rarely and hence waste much of not only cost us money over the long term, the ones that we don't have and need to buy full packets/tins/bottles of also present an immediate and very real financial barrier to even attempting a recipe that requires us to try several new things.

Pre-packaged sizes - typically designed for a couple or a family of four - also present a financial burden to single people and to families with odd numbers of children. A family of five is continually weighing up whether to potentially waste money on a sixth portion or risk someone going hungry if they buy four. This problem is especially acute with children and new recipes - a dangerous mixture.

Providers

Most supermarkets only provide relatively few ingredients by the exact weight required. Many other items come in whole bottles or tins. Unless we look right up to the top end of the market where cooks will turn up with ready prepared meals to put in your oven ahead of your dinner party for thirty, there really isn't a way that one can obtain just the right ingredients or borrow a fish steamer for the night.

There are a number of niche providers offering home-cooked ready meals that simply need to be cooked. These typically operate within a small area.

Trends

We are being encouraged (or almost “ordered”) to throw away less food waste while at the same time, are being told to eat healthier and more varied diets. At the same time, we're all being squeezed for extra tax and need to watch our pockets as well as our belts.

With Localnet

What

Having the option to buy exactly what is needed for a given recipe – taking account of the number of people you are cooking for – would not only reduce the waste for those who would otherwise buy whole pots or jars of each ingredient but never use the lot – but it makes it viable for the rest of us to try

How

If each LocalHub contains a kitchen - which it needs for the local coffee shop it houses anyway - and staff there include people who know how to cook then it is not difficult to provide a service that delivers exactly what you need to prepare any one of a wide range of recipes.

Customers use their touchpad to select a recipe they would like to cook that evening or the following day. A wide range of “standard” recipes will be shown plus featured ones - such as those shown on any TV channel in the last week. In the same way we narrow our choice of laptop when shopping online by clicking on “in stock” so the recipes thin down to just those for which the LocalHub has every ingredient and utensil required available for you.

You select the recipe, indicate when you want to serve it and for how many people (you actually just tap on the pictures of you, your wife, the two youngest kids - and you've previously told it their ages, preferred portion sizes and any particular likes or dislikes). In my house at least, I'd see an immediate warning if I'd pressed my daughter's button and the recipe contained coconut - her pet hate.

I'll see a set of buttons each showing an ingredient and an amount. Some I will cancel as I know we have that spice in the cupboard. Others I'll move the default amount from “just enough” to “whole bottle” as I know we use a lot of soy sauce and will get through it. Some will have other options shown. Depending on how pushed for time I am I might choose “pre-chopped”, or “already filleted” - or even “ready to cook”.

I might also touch one or two of the pictures of utensils it shows me - as I know we don't have bain-marie or a piping bag. An hour or two later, a box with the ingredients and any utensils I ordered will be delivered - in plenty of time to start preparing the recipe.

Volume and Frequency

It would be great if we all cooked and ate a more varied diet so anything that could encourage us to cook at least once a week should be supported.

Financial Model

The overhead of weighing out and preparing the ingredients must be paid for - but is probably more than offset by not having to buy more of any item than is required.

Careful stock control in the LocalHub kitchens should allow very effective “clearance” offers of items that are approaching their sell-by date. If a couple of attractive recipes incorporating these ingredients - at a discounted price - can be shown to all residents at the touch of a button, it should be very easy to avoid waste. The system can immediately cancel or change the special offers as soon as exactly the required twenty-three portions of fillet steak have been ordered and move on to the next item and its associated recipes.

Providers

Localnet could employ chefs within the LocalHub and/or one or more independent cooks could offer their services. Customers could see, via their touch pads, which chef is working each day and take that into account when choosing their recipes. Even quite complex dishes may be within your reach if an expert is doing some of the preparation for you.

Those growing their own ingredients may also want to offer these alongside the rest of the items needed to make a dish. At one extreme, shipping “ready meals” for you to pop in the oven.

Evolution

This service could extend into residents and/or local restaurants' kitchens with them preparing ingredients for customers that are collected by vans and delivered alongside the “off the shelf” items in the order that have been picked and packed at the LocalHub.

 

Comparison

The table below assesses the impact of localnet on this service on a scale of -5 to +5 (details here)

  Existing services As part of localnet Score
Scope Very little available. Wide range of ingredients, recipes and utensils available same day. +5
Frequency Hassle of accumulating all the ingredients then watching the rest of the bottle go off is a serious impediment. Residents much more likely to cook for themselves with this service behind them. +4
Security Not applicable. Not applicable. 0
Convenience Just finding ten unusual ingredients can take the average man several days (and that's when they're in the cupboard, never mind a large supermarket). Hallelujah! +5
Cost Wasted over purchase. Mistakes choosing unripe items or wrong items. Cost of weighing out and/or preparation. +2
Quality Do you know how to pick a ripe avocado? The chef at the LocalHub does. +3
Carbon Footprint How many shops will you have to visit to find this lot? The ingredients come to you - sharing transport costs with other items being delivered. You don't have to keep the other 16 cod fillets frozen for 6 months till they're gone. +4
Time Drive to supermarket. Find ten items there. Drive back. Touch ten buttons. +4
Resources Used Have to buy whole packs of many items. Buy what you're likely to eat. +4
Reuse & Recycling Small packs in many cases - so poor packaging to content ratio. A teaspoon of fennel seeds taken from a catering-size jar is much more efficient. Hardly any packaging waste. +3
Landfill Waste As above for the non-recyclable packs. As above. +3
Other Differentiators Encourages us all to eat a more varied diet. Will help rebalance cooking duties more evenly in couples where one partner is a reluctant cook. +3

Services