Local app turns home cooks into takeaway chefs

26 May 2017 - 12:05 By Catherine Black
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There’s definitely a trend towards home cooked meals, based on the perception that home cooked is healthier.
There’s definitely a trend towards home cooked meals, based on the perception that home cooked is healthier.
Image: iStock

It’s a conundrum faced by busy people the world over: they want to eat healthy, unprocessed food, but they’re too busy to cook meals themselves. But thanks to a clever smartphone app, there’s now a solution.

Called Wazupa, the app lets you choose a home-cooked meal, cooked by a “home chef” that you select in your city or neighbourhood, that’s then delivered to your door.

The concept is the brainchild of Joburger Lance Baum, who launched the pilot in Gauteng in July 2016. Not even a year later, Wazupa operates nationwide and supports more than 800 home chefs and more than 3,000 customers.

We chat with Lance to find out more.

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Where did the idea for Wazupa come from?

I’ve been involved with tech start-ups for most of my career. The idea for Wazupa came to me when my wife and I had our most recent child. After the birth, we were flooded with delicious home cooked meals from our community. It was always exciting for me to taste someone else's home cooking and I thought, why not make this into an app. So I did!

What trends are you seeing with regards to demand for home cooked meals versus normal takeout? 

There’s definitely a trend towards home cooked meals, based on the perception that home cooked is healthier. There’s also so much variety in home cooking, and people are getting tired of traditional takeout options.

So what could be improved in the “food tech” space?

We need to work on getting South Africans to rely on and trust technology, especially apps, to help them make their lives more convenient. I find that South Africans are still behind the curve in terms of the adoption of tech: when you go to a city like New York, people run basically every aspect of their lives via apps. In South Africa, many people still don’t know how to work an app, or are afraid to trust the technology.

What’s the most popular type of food being ordered via the app?  

Indian dishes are our most popular to date.

 

What are your future plans?

South Africa has been an awesome test bed for us, and we’re now looking to launch in two or three US cities within the next few months. We’ll make a few tweaks and changes, but the basic concept will be the same.

 

This article was originally published in one of the Sunday Times Neighbourhood: Property and Lifestyle guides. Visit Yourneighbourhood.co.za, like YourNeighbourhoodZA on Facebook and follow YourHoodZA on Twitter.

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