Shef.com Reviews: We want to make sure your food is always safe to eat here at Shef. All shefs must pass an approved food safety certification exam and adhere to all local laws. Shefs must utilize Commercial kitchens or other legally permitted facilities if there are no home cooking laws. Check to see whether Shef is available in your area, and sign up with my code harryc for a $10 discount!
Shef Review: What Is It and How Does It Work?
Isn’t it wonderful to have a freshly prepared supper delivered to your door? Delicious, unique, and doesn’t require any cooking skills or the use of your own kitchen? While DoorDash and other food delivery services are great, what if you’re looking for something ethnic, local, or unique?
Optional Features and Pricing for Shef
Fresh, homemade meals created by local chefs are delivered via Shef. You can choose from a variety of cuisines depending on your area. I prefer to support exceptional chefs, restaurants, and cooks above “supporting local.” I also appreciate the idea of ordering ethnic dishes prepared by local chefs, many of whom are black women. Shef enables chefs to access a larger audience without having to commit time or money to opening restaurants.
Shef dinners start at $7 per person, with sides and desserts available as add-ons. The Shef you order form determines the meals, cuisines, and sides available. Alvin Salehi (former White House Technology Advisor and founder of Code.gov) and Joey Grassia founded Shef in 2018. (former Facebook employee and two-time food startup entrepreneur). Jeff Jordan, the former CEO of OpenTable, has joined Shef’s board of directors.
Shef Ordering
Enter your zip code on the Shef website to see what Shef home-cooked meal options are available in your area. You can then browse local favorites, order meals for next-day delivery, or search by cuisine. You’ll place your order a few days ahead of time so that the chefs can purchase and prepare the necessary items. Shef appeals to me because there is no need to subscribe because the meals are all one-off, allowing you to test different recipes whenever you want. I can quickly review the description, major ingredients, and even the level of spiciness in this dish! Shef also contains common allergy warnings if you or anybody in your family has food allergies.
My Shef Opinion:
Shef Alexis in LA ended up serving me pancit canton, chicken adobo, Ube sugar biscuits, and pork BBQ skewers. Lunches start at $7 per person for a full meal. Shef was also quick to provide. Shef looks to be a user of DoorDash Drive, DoorDash’s last-mile fulfillment service. My lunch was accompanied by a handwritten letter from Shef Alexis, which I much enjoyed. It’s comforting to know that the Shefs are eager to hear from customers and make improvements as needed. The supper was enjoyable overall, though I was disappointed there was no rice! The beef, on the other hand, was dry, and the adobo was subpar. Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum y For a first-order/experience, it’s a 2 out of 4!
How to Make a Shef Order
As you can see, cooking a delicious meal with Shef requires some practice. Shef isn’t like DoorDash, where you can order from a top local restaurant and/or check ratings on sites like Yelp, Michelin, and Zagat. You may need to try a few different Shefs before settling on one that you and your family like. That said, I believe Shef should do a better job of presenting your city’s top-rated meals. You can also be concerned about the cooking environment for home cooks. New cooks must complete a 150-step onboarding process, which includes a food safety certification exam, according to Shef.
However, as HNGRY points out, this is against the law. And I’m not certain that having hundreds of cooks cooking in their own kitchens with no supervision is a smart idea. Sharing a commercial kitchen with regulators and the Shefs safety team is one possibility, as is completing visual inspections alongside them. Shef, in my opinion, should learn from the failures of previous on-demand enterprises and take a proactive approach to food safety and regulatory difficulties.
Pros and Cons of Shef
- Your city’s local chefs
- scrumptious ethnic foods from the region
- There is no need to subscribe — this is a one-time service.
- On-time delivery
- Free delivery on orders of $25 or more!
To find your favorite Shef, try a variety of them. Shef is a good option. The bottom line is to support ethnic food made locally and to try Shef if it’s available in your area. If you decide to join Shef, use my link to get a $10 discount! Just because I didn’t like everything in my Shef order doesn’t mean you won’t. It’s possible that the next Shef I try will become a new favorite! While I am concerned about the sanitary elements of cooked meals, Shef appears to be planning to expand the service and hire new cooks with a recent $20 million investment.
Cons:
- Shef is defying culinary decorum in his own home.
- Shef will confront scaling issues as it attempts to onboard tens of thousands of new Shefs.
- Cooks may set a limit on the number of meals they offer, but too many can damage the quality.
Although it’s still a legal minefield, more locations are allowing local home chefs to sell their meals to their neighbors. Shef is a marketplace that links home chefs with clients, organizes orders, and delivers meals, thanks to a $20 million fundraising round. The startup has received funding from Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, M13, Padma Lakshmi, Chef Aarón Sánchez, Katy Perry, Tiffany Haddish, Orlando Bloom, and NBA All-Star Andre Iguodala. Jeff Jordan, a former CEO of OpenTable and a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join Shef’s board of directors.
20 million dollars raised for Shef’s Expansion
Shef operates differently in each market due to the differences in local rules. In some areas, they can employ local delivery networks, while in others, chefs manage deliveries. Cooks need to know exactly what they’ll need each day, thus pre-ordering is needed. However, whether such a service is even permitted varies by location. Even in California, where a new statewide law permits home cooks to sell their wares, each county retains final authority (and implementation details). To “home cook,” many areas still require a commercial kitchen.
Shef co-founders Alvin Salehi and Joey Grassia told me earlier this week that they expect a large portion of the funds raised to go toward two things: getting their services legalized in more markets (for which they’ve hired Danielle Merida, former general counsel for TaskRabbit), and onboarding chefs as new markets come online. The company claims to have over 12,000 home chefs on its waiting list, which has expanded as restaurants across the country have closed due to the pandemic.
A food safety certification exam and a food quality inspection are among the 150 procedures involved in onboarding a chef. Salehi says, “We want to reach as many people as possible.” “However, that necessitates resources, and most crucially, it necessitates the safe transport of resources.” Shef is currently available in the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and New York, with plans to expand in the near future.
