This Service Will Cook Bobby Flay's Food Right In Your Driveway
The whole notion of a sought-after table — and prime reservation — at a celebrity chef's restaurant might be a thing of the past.
Even though many people have longed for the chance to actually eat Bobby Flay's food — if you have seen it on television or heard about in food circles, how could you not? — that experience used to require more planning than the next challenge on "Beat Bobby Flay." Now, Marc Lore, the founder of Jet.com, has created a new service that is not the typical restaurant take-out and food delivery: instead, the restaurant kitchen is now coming to the driveway.
According to Lore's company, Wonder, the new concept is to "have extraordinary food made to order in a kitchen that comes to you." While this idea might sound like a chef sets up in the home kitchen, it is not that complicated. It seems to be a streamlined version of a modern food truck concept that offers celebrity chefs' recipes. With food being finished at the delivery location, the hope is that the meal is as close to the flavor and execution as the restaurant dish without the incessant chatter from the table in the corner.
While ghost kitchens have seen celebrity chefs offering pop ups, and food delivery has become common, Wonder looks to set itself apart from the crowd not just with the food delivery method but with the dishes that it offers. From Nancy Silverton to Marcus Samuelsson, the chef list is impressive. Wouldn't you like to have a Bobby Flay meal while binge watching old episodes of "Iron Chef" at home?
Can Wonder leverage its celebrity chefs' recipes successfully?
According to a New York Post article, Marc Lore looks to set Wonder on a successful path not just for its innovative idea of preparing and serving fresh food in front of an individual's home, but for its chef partnerships (Flay included, being one of the first ones that Lore contracted). Lore said in the article, "we are buying the exclusive right to the menu and the name." These "exclusive, perpetual rights" to that menu item are substantial. While it appears that the chefs are well compensated, it begs the question: If people get can that famous Flay tamale at home, why would they book a table at his restaurant?
Even though the concept seems to be driven by people's hunger to simultaneously get great food at home while avoiding the food delivery debacles, the implications of this type of service might cause concern in the restaurant industry. Sometimes the impeccable food is more than the perfect recipe: The a la minute preparation, the ambiance, and the overall experience blend into the memorable bite. While the idea of hot, fresh food finished at the door entices, the dish cannot be exactly the same as eating it in the restaurant. Even though it appears that the celebrated chefs might be well-compensated for signing over their intellectual property, it begs the question, will these dishes never be served at the restaurant table again? Granted, the restaurant industry is looking for a lifeline to rise from the darkness that has overtaken it, but hopefully all the chefs read the terms carefully, or they might have made a poor trade.