KOCHI: Eating out can be a nightmare for those living away from home. There are those days when you have ordered in dinner, and it just doesn’t feel right, and you begin to wish you were home. Here is some good news for Kochites who miss home-made goodness. Cukom.in, an app that serves meals cooked by 40 mom sthroughout the city is here to save the day. Cukom, ie cook from home, serves the elaborate Kerala lunch including rice, mango curry, sambar, chammandi, scrambled eggs, avial, thoran, fish fry, fish curry etc in a microwaveable and biodegradable package.
The app was started by three foodie friends—Sathish Kumar, Mansoor M M and Shameem. They had three motives—serve tasty food to everyone in the city, empower homemakers by giving them a source of income and be eco-friendly by completely avoiding plastic and using degradable substitutes.
“It took us one-and-a-half years to put this idea into practice and find homemakers who cook delicious food,” said Sathish. From the initial 200-300 women who responded to their advertisement, they narrowed down the list to 40 by conducting personal interviews and background checks. “We will be providing a minimum profit of `20 for these moms. If they cook 35 food packets a day, they can generate an income of `17,500 every month,” he said.
Apart from meals, they also serve Dum Biriyani cooked in pure ghee, Chapathi with veg and non-veg curries and organic options like ‘Prakruthi Oon’ which comes with Rakthashali rice (red rice), avial, cheera and gooseberry chammandi. Homemakers who cook snacks and fryums can sell those through the app. “We ask them to cook only using coconut oil and freshly ground powders,” said Sathish. At present, the app delivers to Kalamassery, Kakkanad, Panampilli Nagar, Thripunithura, Aroor and Fort Kochi.