There are currently three options for people to dine: cook at home, eat in a restaurant or order a takeaway. PinStove, a new app, has now provided a fourth choice – home cooks preparing a meal for you.
As more denizens of the city crave wholesome, home-cooked meals but are either too busy or have little inclination to cook, a group of techies saw it as an opportunity to bring home cooks and hungry diners together through a “buy and sell app”. Says Aneesh V.K., co-director of PinStove: “Restaurants and wayside eateries may offer a range of dishes to satiate the appetite, from fancy three-course meals to humble street food, but nothing beats home-cooked food.”
The app, which is soon going to be a month old, currently has 48 home cooks on board.
Ilayappam
Through PinStove, customers can see what’s cooking in their neighbourhood. And there are dozens of menus to choose from – right from fluffy appams and flavoursome kadala curry to soft aloo parathas and creamy palak paneer. Snacks like achappam, chatti pathiri, samosa and cutlets are available and for those with a sweet tooth, there are mirror-glazed cakes, strawberry cupcakes, Karachi halwa, kai pola, unnakaya and more. Apart from two or three chefs who offer a taste of the exotic by serving Chinese and Arabian cuisines, it is mostly Indian flavours that rule in the kitchens.
Nasiya
“Anyone with a love for cooking can sign up. As all our amateur chefs enjoy pottering in the kitchen, it reflects in their cooking. Some of the cooks, like Nasiya and Fousia Ibrahim are well known, as they have participated in cookery competitions on television. We also have men who are cooking enthusiasts like Subodh Kumar and Prateesh Muraleedharan.”
Prateesh Muraleedharan
The registered cooks create a seller account that promotes their home-cooked specialities and prices. They can also decide the days they want to cook for customers. Customers are able to scroll through the dishes being offered in their area, choose the food they want, pay through the app and have it delivered. Most of the dishes have the list of ingredients that go into the dish. A preparation time gives customers an idea of how long it will take for their meal to arrive. In case they want the dish later in the day, they can specify the time of delivery. Some dishes need a day’s notice for the chefs. All deliveries are handled by PinStove operators.
Cheesecake
It’s mostly meals post breakfast that are doing well. “Most of our customers are office goers, who have demanding workloads and little leisure time. They are often jaded by the selection at their neighbourhood restaurants and takeaway outlets. Right now on PinStove, Kerala meals, pothi choru, biriyanis and North Indian dishes are popular. We get more orders during the weekend and on public holidays as many families like to relax and are reluctant to cook.”
Customers are encouraged to rate the dishes and the chefs on the app. “Those with fewer stars and consistent bad reviews are removed from the app.” Payments to the cooks are made every Monday.
Fousia Ibrahim and Ninitha Shaheen
For PinStove chefs Ninitha Shaheen and her mother-in-law Fousia, the time spent in the kitchen gives them a chance to bond, while for Deepika Kamnani, it’s a way for her to fulfil her passion for cooking and her late aunt’s wish to provide home-cooked food for those who are staying away from home. Malathy, who uses as much fresh ingredients as possible from her kitchen garden and only home ground masalas in her dishes says she’s living her dream of starting an eatery through this.
Biriyani
Says Aneesh: “One of the main reasons we launched this app is to create more job opportunities. Social conditions restrict many from going out to make a living. Pinstove gives them a platform which, we believe, will create more opportunities for them. A good home chef will be able to create a business out of this without any investment.”
PinStove is currently available for Android via Google Play.
About PinStove
The brains behind the PinStove are Baiju Mohammed, Bhagavan Das and Harry Croydon. The operations for the app are helmed by Aneesh V.K. and Jayamohan R.S.
PinStove is operational daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
PinStove will be starting service in Kochi in February and Bangalore in May
