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Wonder is acquiring Grubhub

(about.grubhub.com)
146 points endtwist | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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geor9e ◴[] No.42129455[source]
This part feels like The Onion. 30 private taxis coordinating for your meal. "customers can order from upwards of 30 restaurants in a single order, with each item being made-to-order in a sequenced fashion so that they finish simultaneously and can be delivered to the customer together."
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1. nonameiguess ◴[] No.42129937[source]
Upon seeing this, I first thought "a bread company is buying Grubhub?" Then I clicked the article and realized no, this is a different company I've never heard of, apparently because they're only located in five US states all in the northeast nowhere near where I live.

As others have said, they appear to have physical locations and you can even go eat in person there, and they don't pick up food from 30 different restaurants to deliver to you. They seem to just get licenses to use the names and recipes of celebrity chefs or other restaurants. That raises the question of what the point of a restaurant even is. Seemingly, there has to be some quality gain from using a particular kitchen and particular staff, a particular source of ingredients, whatever it is. There has to be a reason some enterprising businessperson can't just hire random cooks, buy recipes from celebrity chefs, and recreate the experience and quality of a meal at 30 different top rated restaurants in a single kitchen.

That seems just as impossible as delivering from 30 different places at the same time.

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2. throwup238 ◴[] No.42130018[source]
Microsoft cafeterias manage it by just contracting out most of the stations to local restaurants. They provide the trained staff and get a consistent revenue stream in return. They’ve even got a local celebrity chef branded restaurant in the executive building (34) with a 3 course fixed price menu. It’s not a single kitchen per se, but the equivalent is commercial kitchens that are all over the place with multiple clients sharing the space simultaneously. This just adds online ordering and centralized management.
3. jfengel ◴[] No.42130490[source]
Because an enterprising businessperson has no idea how to run a kitchen.

Recipes are in many ways the least important part of what a chef provides. They're not secrets. If there's a "secret ingredient" it's that they're using more butter and salt than you'd use at home.

What a chef provides is a process. They get the ingredients ordered, at the quality level they want for a price they're willing to pay. They ensure that the ingredients show up, in the amounts needed, without waste and without falling short -- and have backup plans. They staff the kitchen, and ensure that they have all prepared their stations before service begins. They train the expediter to ensure that all of the food comes out together, without things waiting under the warmer.

The chef also provides a menu, which is more important than the recipes. It has something for every guest, and every item can be finished before the guest gets impatient.

It's not impossible for a business guy to hire a top-notch executive chef to do that work, but the business guy cannot do it. It requires years in the kitchen to know what factors are important. It requires a deep understanding of the culture of kitchen workers, and how to get the best out of them. It would require an enormous staff to do that properly, and training them extremely well.

You can see this at work at a place like The Cheesecake Factory. It's hardly great food, but it's reliably good. The menu is enormous, on par with a dozen restaurants at once. It can be done. You're just not going to do it Silicon Valley style, learning as you go.

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4. organsnyder ◴[] No.42130580[source]
I have enough trouble getting food on the table at the right time when I'm making a relatively simple meal for my family. Reading this description (which seems spot-on to me, though I don't have experience working in foodservice) is making me anxious just imagining it.
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5. jfengel ◴[] No.42130916{3}[source]
It is definitely nerve-wracking. But when things are going well, there's a kind of zen to it. They have the advantage of doing the same thing every day. They know the plan, and they stick to it.

Until something goes wrong with the plan -- somebody calls out sick, the refrigerator fails, an order gets messed up and has to be re-cooked -- and the rhythm gets disrupted. The dining room is full so new orders are getting backlogged, and more mistakes get made because you're off your game...

It's not for the faint of heart. It doesn't have to be as unpleasant as some TV shows make it out to be. But it's a whole different kettle of fish from cooking at home.