Impress friends and family with a unique and memorable dining experience from the comfort of your home. Kitchit provides diners with an exceptional meal prepared by a creative and gifted professional chef, in your kitchen and then cleans up all traces of them ever being there. You’ll be the talk of the town with friends and your family will think you’ve been holding out on them. Want to spice of up your date life or give your spouse the night off? Plan a Kitchit dinner and use the time you would have spent cooking and cleaning to actually share a mindful moment with a loved one.
Tell me little about the inspiration behind Kitchit?
My co-founder, Ian Ferguson, and I were at Stanford business school. We ran into a chef who was talking about how he traveled through Italy and the new recipes he experienced. He was working for a catering company, so he got the opportunity to prepare the recipes instead of just talking about it.
We invited one of them over to cook for us, but thought it would be way too expensive. He said, “No everyone just give me 40 bucks.” He cooked a feast and it was great fun. He became the first chef at Kitchit and he’s an amazing cook! He served lots of food and talked about where the dishes came from and inspiration behind them. We had an awesome time and when it was over, the kitchen was spotless. Traditionally, you have to go to a restaurant to get that level of convenience and experience. With Kitchit, we found an opportunity to bring that intimacy, convenience and the power of the dining experience into the home. We realized this was a really magical experience. The food is one component but, it’s really the experience of connecting with others around the table.
What’s the philosophy behind Kitchit?
The whole mission of Kitchit is to connect through food. To take a moment out of your busy life and really be cared for by professionals who create an experience that’s really YOUR experience. It’s in YOUR environment. An opportunity to slow down and take a moment to really connect with friends and family and strengthen those connections. To relive and talk about the dinner party and dining experience years from now because of the memories that are shared with friends and family.
What makes using Kitchit different from just hiring a personal chef?
It’s a simplified experience where the chefs get to express their creativity. We also have a review system where clients can see comments about previous experiences. And the pricing is consistent; it will always be $39 per person and $9 per child.
Can your clients customize their own menu?
Yes, in addition to a Kitchit Tonight prefix menu, we also provide food restriction options like vegetarian and gluten free. Our chefs can also add-on or fully customize a menu from scratch.
Is it formal dining or casual dining?
It’s usually casual dining; get togethers with friends and dinner parties. It’s an easy way of doing it, but without all of the work. We do have clients who have used Kitchit for formal intimate gatherings. Either way, it’s an effortless dinner party.
What would you recommend to the new clients to make most of the experience?
You don’t need a fancy kitchen or a large one, for that matter. You just need a heat source (read: stove), some pots and pans to cook with, dishes and plates to eat on; and general kitchenware and utensils. It’s fun to see what a chef can do with limited resources. They are very talented and they are professionals.
I think the magical number for a dinner party is 6 people. Plenty of people do date night. The chef is busy with cooking and cleaning so, it’s not awkward having a third person. You’re just having a fun time with your significant other. There is always a nice balance between intimacy and group conversation. Also, I highly recommend having some kind of playlist.
How are the ingredients sourced?
All of the ingredients are locally sourced. Things like olive oil might be imported but, one of the huge advantages is the Bay Area has some of the best produce in the world and we try to partner with local farmers and seafood purveyors, like Two by Sea.
Do you get lot of clients who want something really out of the ordinary?
We get a lot of birthday parties and casual dinners, but sometimes we get dinner parties where the guests dress up in costumes, like Game of Thrones. It’s pretty funny.
Do the chefs really clean up after your task has been done?
We are totally hassle free so, people love it. A very important component is delivering the experience where you don’t have to do any work and you can focus on people around the table and you can have a great time.
How far would the chef travel? How far out would people travel? What is the distance?
The Kitchit Tonight prefix menu for $39 is available in the Greater San Francisco Area and we just opened in the penisula region; Menlo Park, Stanford, etc. We also have the Chef Market that serves the entire Bay Area, down to Santa Cruz and over to Tahoe.
How often do you change the menu?
The menu is changed on a weekly basis. There will be four menus that are available at any given time and each week we change one of the menus and replace it with a new menu. We found that people like having certain menus available throughout the month; they want to have it more than 1 time in a month. Customers would come back and say, “Hey, we love that and want it again!”
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