With one click you can find cheap food or sell a plate of cheap and good food. Cookisto, a Greek “patent” that is now flourishing abroad, is an online community that allows someone to find homemade food in their neighborhood or share their own creations, for a small fee.
Greek idea
Cookisto is the culinary community where e-chefs prepare, with passion and pure ingredients, homemade food for just €4.
In an extensive BBC article online, foreign journalists follow a Greek housewife and how she got involved with "Cookisto". As she herself stated, she cooked for her family, but often had excess food and was forced to throw it away.
She thought that she could sell the excess portions for a little money, thus not only not throwing away the food but also strengthening herself financially. Thus, by disposing of her extra food, she manages to earn about 200 euros a month and leaves several of our fellow citizens who are looking for a well-cooked dish happy.
Several Greeks turned to homemade food during the crisis. Some started cooking because it was now more economical for them than buying, while others were looking for well-cooked dishes that were also economical. Thus, cookisto was started by a chef and some young people who possess "the technology skills" and became the social revolution of the kitchen.
Do you eat or cook for others?
This new social network is aimed at two types of users. First, those who cook and then those who like to try new dishes. Its operation is simple, a user who has cooked or is going to cook announces their dish, its price and their location on the cookisto page. The post appears on the cookisto map and based on the location that the interested party has declared, they see the available cooks and the menu of the day. Then, through the contact information provided by the cook, the "foodies" get in touch with him and arrange how they will receive their meal.
There is also the possibility for those who try to leave comments about the food and the cooking skills of the cook. This helps to build an "audience" and of course to increase the credibility of the cook and to be featured. The public is the only judge of this platform as there is no rule about how the kitchen should be. The philosophy is that everything is done in house.
Cheap and good food.
Portions range between 3-4 euros each, while there are several choices between meals and even desserts. Cookisto has earned the respect of many Greeks, especially workers who do not have time to cook. Almost 16,000 users have tried one of the dishes of the 1,300 "e-chefs". Registration is free for both and everyone can "try" both roles.
If you want to try it, visit the site: www.cookisto.com
Today, the idea is run by Michalis Gontas and Petros Pitsilis. Initially, it had 300 cooks and 2,290 foodies. Today, it has 1,439 cooks, ten times as many registered foodies (22,703), to whom 15,642 dishes have been suggested, while 3,210 chickens have been plucked for their sake!
Long before its creation, the Cookisto team knew that the idea was applicable all over the world, and as they looked far ahead - and also at potential imitators lurking -, when they felt that they were firmly on their feet in Athens, they decided to spread their wings to foreign markets, starting in the following days from London.
And in London
Michalis Gontas, CEO of Cookisto, has also settled in the British capital, and is racing to catch up with his competitors from France, the USA and the Netherlands, who are also seeking expansion in London.
How did the idea seem to the Londoners?
"They liked it a lot. Because we belong as an idea to the collaborative consumption movement, people related to the space greatly appreciate that this started in a country that is being tested by the economic crisis. But it's not just them. The idea, that we are at the age we are (ed. Michalis is 26 years old and the ages of the six children who make up the Cookisto team are the same) and that we are from Greece during the recession was something that found positive acceptance and was embraced, both by investors and by the major media in London. "We simply keep this plus, but we know that without vision and a lot of work, Cookisto will not be able to reach where we dream," answers Michalis Gontas.
"We have received proposals from India to Argentina, to mention the most distant ones, but we believe that because the team is small and we are in our first steps, we should not act aggressively. After the summer, when we will have a clear picture of our progress in London, we will consider our next steps," Mr. Godas states to fortunegreece.
