Feedzaa is a marketplace for buying and selling homecooked food. The tight knit, Leeds based team have developed a unique concept to connect certified and registered homechefs with people looking for fresh homecooked meals and bakes created in their local communities.
To learn more about Feedzaa, the ambition of the small company, and the unique concept on offer, I had a conversation with two of the founders and tried out a meal available in my area.
How it all began
The three co-founders of Feedzaa are foodies, passionate about good food created with care. They’ve been friends for years and brought their ideas to life following several discussions over the dinner table. I asked the co-founders about where the idea for Feedzaa originated and why they felt there was a need for a marketplace for buying and selling homecooked food.
The co-founders explained that they ‘”struggled to find good homecooked food, especially the kind of comfort food you can get in India…..sometimes, when you don’t want to cook, it can be hard to find tasty food easily.“
So they aimed to set up a community and a system by which homecooked food could be created and delivered to local people. “We wanted to help build a community of cooks, matchmaking homechefs with foodies wanting good homecooked food. And to go beyond that, sharing unique food, and allowing people to share their cultures.“
The journey so far
In 2018-19, the team developed an initial concept, one that was a simple way of connecting home chefs to people wanting freshly cooked, homemade food. “We launched a menu listing app at a food event in Kirkgate market to assess the interest. It was just a list of options and the chefs took phone bookings initially. We ran it like that, in a pilot phase for 2 years. It helped us to understand the community.“
After the pilot, the team went all in, and decided to change the brand to Feedzaa. The co-founders explained: “We worked on the branding and app development with a small team of software developers. We learnt a lot during the time. Some challenges and differences to what we initially planned but we are happy with Feedzaa now.“
The challenges
As with any new business, I expected that the small Feedzaa team would have faced several challenges during the development of the app and I was keen to hear about these challenges, and how they had worked to overcome them.
The co-founders agreed that one of their key challenges has been explaining to people that Feedzaa is not a delivery app. They went on to say “We take pride in matching the customers to the chefs. That is what we want to promote. Feedzaa is not Deliveroo for home cooks. We are building a community, and a network to share culture through food. It is a matchmaking service, one where people can make and eat good food without feeling guilty.“
Another challenge that the team have faced is helping to explain to people that good food takes time to prepare, especially when cooked on a small scale, and as a result, the food cannot be ordered, cooked and delivered in an hour.
“The core challenge for us is that food is usually not available immediately. Lots of the chefs work full time and they will either cook the food for customers after their working day or may even cook a few extra portions when they are preparing food for their families. Explaining that this is how the chefs work, and that the food takes time, is the challenge. We are still tackling that. We want to satisfy the chefs and the customers’ needs.“
How is Feedzaa as a concept being received?
Feedzaa arrived in Leeds in 2021. I wanted to know what home chefs and foodies have thought of the app and the food. It was clear in our conversation that the founders have had great feedback from both their team of chefs and the foodies.
“We haven’t had any bad reviews. People can taste that the food has been prepared with love and care. The chefs are passionate and proud of what they are producing. Anyone who has been introduced to Feedzaa and the food on offer, has fallen in love with the dishes they have tried and wanted more. This is not always the case with takeaways or other restaurants.“
Most popular dishes
The founders helped me to realise that Feedzaa food is not just about the dishes on offer; it is more about the chefs and being able to pair them with foodies in their local areas.
“There isn’t one dish that is most popular on Feedzaa. It’s not the dishes that we look at; it’s the chefs. Some people will eat anything that the chef that they live close to cooks. When customers trust their chefs, they are more willing to try new dishes. Also, the menus change every week and so there is a lot of variety of dishes available. The dishes can also vary; it depends where you buy the ingredients from.“
Plans for the future
As Feedzaa is a relatively new business, I was intrigued to hear what plans the co-founders had for the future.
From branching out to other cuisines and types of food: “We currently have mostly Indian chefs. We are working to include other chefs. We want people to share their cultures. Make it a cross cultural platform. We want to share food from all over the world. It is different when cooked at home. We are also wanting to expand to home bakers. There are lots of new people who are cooking and we want to get these people on board too.“
To spreading Feedzaa’s wings and expanding into other cities. “We want to find other places where we can launch Feedzaa. But we need to teach others about the importance of pre-ordering first. That is key to home food.“
Finally, the team are looking to update and amend the app, and also offer a range of options for foodies. “We will be developing changes in the app. We will be looking at subscriptions for meal plans. We may look to develop a social notification function so that people can follow chefs and see their new dishes. We are also wanting to further develop the app so it can understand the user. This will allow the app to set preferences so that they can get things delivered to them, within budget and without thinking. We are still testing it all at the moment. But our key concept is to develop a community. We want to develop the links.“
What would you say to encourage people to try out Feedzaa?
Whilst I think that I’ve been converted to the Feedzaa way and am already looking forward to my next homecooked meal, what would the Feedzaa team say to encourage Feedzaa virgins to give the concept a try?
“Feedzaa is community for the community. Your neighbour is cooking for you. This sharing concept is prevalent in South India where people share good food with neighbours. We want to bring this to the UK. We are embracing the networking aspect and hope to build communities around food.“
“Have you ever tasted food that’s cooked from scratch? People cooking with passion and from the heart. When you order from Feedzaa you know that the food is prepared for you. Just think about why pizza is so good. It’s cooked fresh. That is what we are offering but with so many different dishes.“
My thoughts on Feedzaa and the food
In order to be able to try Feedzaa out for myself, I ordered a meal from my local area. I ordered a meal from K Kitchen, opting for something that I had never had before – chole bhature, a vegan feast. I ordered the meal on Wednesday afternoon and as requested, it arrived at 6:30pm on a chilly Thursday evening. It was delivered by hand by the chef, which was amazing and gave me the opportunity to see and speak to the person who had taken the time to prepare the meal for me.
The meal itself blew me away. First, the portion size was very generous. It felt like the chef had served up the meal for us, wanting us to be satisfied after eating it. Second, the dishes, which included a flavoursome chickpea curry with whole spices and a rich sauce, a stack of warm bhature (fried bread), loads of seasoned rice, bowls of lentil pappad (a wet lentil dhal type dish which I loved as a sauce for the rice), and a beautiful fresh salad with beetroot, radish, tomato and cucumber, were incredible.
I had not tried chole bhature before and would not have opted for it if I was in a restaurant, so giving the dishes a go at home was a really great new experience. Every element had been carefully made and I could taste the care, attention and time that had gone into each of them. As mentioned, the portions were big, so we had enough to last us a few days, meaning that we had lots of great food to enjoy over the weekend.
Feedzaa.com
Photograph by Gemma Bridge.
