Dutch gastronomy service coming to Budapest

Hiring chefs and foodtrucks anywhere? That is what Dutch enterprise Chef Plaza offers. Budapest is the first venue that starts off their international extension. They aim to become the first complex online connection-platform in gastronomy, according to Forbes.hu.

For those who want to host a barbecue party but do not want to spend their precious time with baking and making a fire, the solution will come this autumn: it’s the Chef Plaza, the Dutch entrepreneur Tim De Visser’s startup.

Tim came up with the idea after he wanted to create his own enterprise. He started a chef hiring service during the gastronomical revolution of Rotterdam in 2014.

He saw the opportunity in fragmenting huge online markets, like eBay, into smaller units. He was considering cleaning and babysitting besides catering, but they picked gastronomy in the end, because they all loved good meals.

When you use Chef Plaza, you just browse the profiles of selected chefs online and pick the one whose style and reputation you like the best. You just send a message including that you want to have a garden party next Friday with 25 guests. They will call you back within 24 hours to discuss the details. Then you just discuss the menu, pay thereafter, and you are done.

In the Netherlands, an average menu with four courses for eight people costs 65 euros. It is expected to be 50 euros in Hungary. It is difficult to count an average, as there is a big variety: Chef Plaza offers everything from one to one hundred guests, from luxury villa to a cottage in the countryside, from Turkish breakfast to fine dining. The ideal number of guests is 6-8, which requires only one chef, so the price for each member is relatively low.

The difference between Chef Plaza and the catering companies is that the latter often apply set solutions, while Chef Plaza’s offers are unique and personal.

Another branch of the enterprise is the Food Convoy.  It is another service that Tim added later, in 2015, when he saw street food becoming even more popular.

In the Netherlands, chefs prepare dishes in spacious and comfortable moving vehicles, and when these food trucks go to the streets, only the last stages and the serving is left to do. The first SefPlaza Kitchen will be opened in Hungary: it is a preparation kitchen, a large and well-equipped venue for events. It is a co-working office for chefs. It is under construction on the first floor of the marketplace on Klauzál Square.

Four people are working currently on the Hungarian and the Dutch unit, each. In Hungary, chief manager András Szántó, gastronomy expert Márk Wirgha, and marketing and financial manager Tibor Zsirmik are working on the project. 600 chefs are working for the Dutch branch with seven private dinners per chef in a month. 10-12 chefs are registered for the Hungarian unit right now, who also have their own main jobs or their own enterprises.

Tim claims that the extension to Hungary is just the beginning. He chose this country — besides its merits in tourism — because he saw the development in gastronomy.

He is also planning to try his services in Luxemburg, Austria and Switzerland soon. Though Tim is the only owner of United Food Concepts Ltd., he is currently looking for investors. He states that is does not matter whichever country they come from, only that they have the required overlook, connections and intention to take risks.

The goal is to make Food Convoy and its companies a complex platform for gastronomy — a kind of an Amazon for food.

Ce: bm

Source: Forbes.hu