For a lot of the previous decade, CookUnity has operated as a subscription-based ready meal service constructed round a community {of professional} cooks. This week, the corporate made its first main transfer past its personal platform via a partnership with Airbnb, permitting friends to order chef-prepared meals immediately via Airbnb as a part of their short-term rental expertise.
“It goes from the subscription mannequin, proper, which is what we’ve been doing for a decade, into a brand new mannequin whereby we’re now taking the chef’s unbelievable meals and making it out there via different platforms like Airbnb,” mentioned Morley Ivers, CookUnity’s head of partnerships, in an interview.
In response to Ivers, the mixing is lively throughout 22 U.S. states and Washington, DC. Vacationers can pre-order meals to be delivered able to warmth of their Airbnb rental, turning an empty fridge right into a stocked one with no grocery run.
“One of many conventional downsides of choosing Airbnb, maybe, is you stroll in and your fridge is empty,” Ivers mentioned. “The strategic partnership that Airbnb and Prepare dinner Unity have arrange has modified that for now and for the longer term.”
Meals begin round $15 and are designed to be reheated rapidly with minimal tools, corresponding to a microwave.
Not like a few of the bigger ready-to-eat supply suppliers, corresponding to Issue, CookUnity doesn’t function a single centralized manufacturing facility that mass-produces meals. As an alternative, it runs eight regional commissary kitchens throughout North America, the place cooks are available with their very own groups and function independently.
“We’ve got eight very massive kitchens with 180 unbelievable top-tier cooks,” mentioned Ivers. “They arrive in as their very own bosses, as entrepreneurs with their very own groups.”
CookUnity provides the infrastructure—actual property, tools, packaging expertise, ingredient sourcing, logistics, and supply—whereas cooks deal with creating and executing menus. This mannequin results in some regional variability, as every commissary kitchen hosts its personal roster of chef companions, although some cooks, as Ivers explains, have begun utilizing the CookUnity system to broaden past their core markets.
Cooks aren’t paid flat charges or licensing royalties; as a substitute, their compensation is tied to buyer suggestions.
“These aren’t staff inside our kitchens who’re getting a recipe from Cat Cora and form of executing her recipe,” Ivers mentioned. “That is really Cat Cora, who’s coming in together with her recipe. Our staff is working together with her on it ensuring it meets the parameters of what’s required for an unbelievable ready-to-eat expertise for shoppers. But it surely’s her staff that’s executing that dish to her requirements and clearly our requirements as nicely.”
In response to Ivers, cooks on the platform are making a mean of $850,000 per 12 months. That determine is putting and means that some cooks might more and more deal with creating meals for CookUnity moderately than investing their very own capital in opening and working eating places.
The ready meal supply class continues to develop, pushed by client demand for comfort. Estimates recommend the broader world ready meals market might rise from round $190 billion in 2025 to greater than $300 billion by 2032, with supply representing a fast-growing portion of that complete.
It stays to be seen how the Airbnb partnership will carry out over time, nevertheless it clearly opens up a brand new marketplace for CookUnity’s cooks and creates a further income stream past the corporate’s residence subscription mannequin. In response to Ivers, this partnership is only the start, with extra third-party platform integrations anticipated in 2026 and past.
You may see my full interview under.
