Take away food:
Rethink how we get food – A traditional restaurant is one brand under one roof. With a commissariat kitchen you have several brands under one roof. But with Boil Unit it is different. Their “roof” is an app that connects chef and consumer. Technology helps food move more easily, which is a win for cooks and eaters alike.
Chefs help with scales – While the average chef might feed hundreds a day, CookUnity helps them reach thousands with a scalable model that includes kitchen space, ingredients and essential services for running a food business. This model has helped their chefs earn much more money than if they just cooked in one restaurant.
Customers want variety – In the food industry, the customer wants choice. Mateo Marietti points out that even the biggest burger brands don’t reach a majority of customers because the market demands options. CookUnity helps provide diners with a plethora of choices by partnering with dozens of chefs from across the United States.
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CookUnity CEO Mateo Marietti is on a mission to reconnect farmer, chef and eater.
Mateo Marietti co-founded the CookUnity meal subscription service with a belief in the power of good food. And great food comes from great chefs.
All too often, it’s hard for chefs – even the best – to expand beyond the walls of their restaurant.
That’s where CookUnity comes in.
“We want thousands of people to enjoy your recipes every day, not just hundreds,” Mateo Marietti told Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef of CaliBBQ Media.
CookUnity is an innovative “chef collective” that sells personalized meal subscriptions with an emphasis on quality, health and sustainability. It connects top chefs from top restaurants directly with thousands of diners across the United States.
The New York-based company provides kitchen space, ingredients and other essential services for their large lineup of chefs. Then the meal magic can be scaled much more easily.
“The problem we’re trying to solve in the first place is the access problem. So if you’re a successful restaurateur or chef, your impact isn’t that big. Your reach isn’t that big, even the successful ones.”
Being a chef at CookUnity means being able to tap into a pre-existing customer base, scalability potential, and much less headache than it takes to operate a restaurant location.
“We have two chefs making over $2 million a year, with more than 20 percent of our chefs making over a million,” said the company’s co-founder.
CookUnity meals include specialties such as Miso Roasted Brisket from Maiko Kyogoku, Parmigiana Chicken from Pat LaFriedaand Asiago-stuffed Gnocchi from Fabio Viviani, the previous guest of Restaurant Influencers.
Mateo Marietti has been connected to food all his life. He was born on a farm in Argentina and has worked in the company for a long time at the intersection of food, logistics and technology. Mateo estimates that the brands he’s built have delivered more than 25 million meals.
The 2020 pandemic took CookUnity to another level with an increase in people wanting to eat at home.
“It was a turning point. And we’ve been growing steadily ever since,” he said.
While CookUnity operates in an emerging food industry space, Mateo knows that in a few years, people will get used to the idea of ordering their meals online directly from great chefs. After all, there was a time when it was still new to rent a stranger’s house through a website, or get a ride from a stranger with a mobile app.
“I will argue that customers are always looking for new things and not necessarily satisfied,” said Mateo Marietti. “Even the biggest brands, companies are becoming a small part (of the market). And to me that’s a sign that consumers are always wanting to try new things.”
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