#cookisto

A #WildMushroom #Mousse (Left)

A #ParmaHam #MelonBall #Medley (Right)

By Pam Tobey, Washington Post, July 8, 2014

It seems like a good idea: an app that allows you to share your food and leftovers instead of throwing them away. Europe appears to think so.

Foodsharing apps have appeared in the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands, and are spreading across the rest of Europe. With most of them, you put your food online using the app, wait for someone to get in touch and then arrange for the food to change hands. (Where those hands have been, however, you may never know.)

Of course, before you buy, you need to know what’s cooking in someone else’s kitchen. Budapest-based app Piqniq can help satisfy that need. It allows users share what they are cooking and eating--and for users to share in those meals.

The app has about 2,000 members in Hungary, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany and other countries, according to the Budapest Times.

Greece has Cookisto, which began as a way to connect home cooks with busy people looking for a hot meal. Founded in 2013 and expanded into the United Kingdom, Cookisto is described as a “community marketplace for homemade food.”

German Internet platform Foodsharing.de allows users to share surplus food in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. According to the Web site, which debuted in 2012, the app has more than 43,000 users who have saved 37,408 kilograms of food, which comes out to roughly 82,470 pounds.

Italian app Ratatouille allows users to post their extra food in their “fridge” in the app for others to claim and arrange drop-off points. The location-based app debuted for the iPhone in April and, according to the Ratatouille Twitter account, had nearly 300 users in May, including some in the United States. An Android app is in the works.

Back in the United States, LeftoverSwap, described as a “Craigslist for leftovers,” was developed in Seattle and began in 2013. Users take pictures of their offerings and post them for others to claim and pick up. Some of the guidelines for users include “Don’t give away any food that you wouldn’t eat yourself” and “Don’t take any food without knowing how old it is and making sure it was kept in proper storage.”

Νέοι άνθρωποι, νέες τεχνολογίες, νέες ιδέες που αξίζουν εκατομμύρια και εξάγονται από την Ελλάδα σε καιρό κρίσης.

Η εκπομπή «360°» και η Σοφία Παπαϊωάννου την Τρίτη 28 Ιανουαρίου στις 23:45 πραγματοποιούν ένα οδοιπορικό στον κόσμο των επιτυχημένων start ups, των νέων επιχειρήσεων που βασίστηκαν σε μία ιδέα με ελάχιστο κόστος και κατάφεραν να επεκτείνουν τις δραστηριότητές τους εκτός των ελληνικών συνόρων.

Οι βασικοί συντελεστές των επιχειρήσεων αυτών εξηγούν στην κάμερα της εκπομπής τη συνταγή της επιτυχίας τους και τα μυστικά πίσω από τις ιδέες τους.

  Ακόμη, οι «360°» συναντούν τον άνθρωπο, ο οποίος βραβεύθηκε ως «Επιχειρηματίας του 2013». Η ιδέα του κέρδισε γρήγορα επιχειρηματικό έδαφος και  έτσι η εταιρεία του βρέθηκε ανάμεσα στις πέντε καλύτερες του πλανήτη, στον τομέα του ψηφιακού μάρκετινγκ.

Επίσης, η εκπομπή συνομιλεί με τον άνθρωπο που ετοιμάζεται να επενδύσει 10 εκατομμύρια ευρώ σε ελληνικές start ups αλλά και με νέους επιχειρηματίες που τόλμησαν να ποντάρουν στην καινοτομία και κέρδισαν στην Ελλάδα της κρίσης.

By Theopi Skarlatos, BBC News, Athens, 22 Sept. 2013

The traditional way of getting dinner is buy food and cook it, or to go to a restaurant. But what if someone in a nearby street has cooked more than they need and is ready to share it for a small fee? It's already happening in the Greek capital and will soon be arriving in London.

It's time for Marilena Zachou to get up, make a Greek coffee, get the kids fed and off to school. And when the peace and quiet descends at 10am, the cooking begins. Today it is moussaka.

She gently fries the onion and minced lamb in olive oil. She reaches for the pepper, salt, paprika and tomatoes and inhales as the aroma fills the kitchen and escapes from the windows and out into the street.

She uploads details of the dish online and watches the screen as people from the area order their portions.

There will be no wasted food in her household today. At least five other people in the Athens district of Marousi will be sharing her family's evening meal. By midday, the entire oven dish has been sold. She notes down the delivery addresses for later.

This morning ritual is not unique to Zachou. It is happening across Athens.

Office workers, students and busy parents are connecting online with local cooks--anybody who loves cooking and can do it well--who provide them with a meal for less than they would be likely to pay anywhere else. In Athens, the price is usually between three and four euros (£2.50 to £3.40).

"I just could never calculate the correct portion amounts for my family," Zachou says. "We don't have a dog or a cat. I was throwing away so much. I guess making too much food is embedded in my Greek genes."

That was what led her to Cookisto, an online community of amateur cooks and hungry city dwellers.

She is now a Cookista, with a profile on the Cookisto website, and her meals are rated every day. Apparently her moussaka has "no excess oil, is always made with the highest quality products, and tastes just perfect". She is, according to those who eat her food, not just a housewife, but a five-star chef.

The site has attracted 12,000 cooks in Athens in the last few months. What began as a master's degree thesis (in the form of a business plan) for entrepreneurship student Michalis Gkontas has now become a reality in crisis-stricken Greece, and is due to launch in London next month.

"It is a win-win situation," says the 26-year-old Gkontas. "The cooks get to earn a little extra, while foodies get nutritious home-cooked dishes for cheaper than if they were to get a takeaway."

He is one of many young Greeks turning to the start-up scene following the rise of unemployment to a staggering 27.9%, and the rapid shrinkage of the once-bloated public sector--once the natural choice for many graduates.

For Zachou, the extra money she makes from Cookisto, about 200 euros (£168) a month, goes towards the supermarket shop.

"It's not all about the money," she says. "I feel we are pulling together in the crisis. Many students are struggling to make ends meet. I've been there… fed up of eating bread and takeaways. It's nice I can provide them with food their mothers would cook and for very little."

It's all part of what Sydney-based innovation consultant Rachel Botsman calls the "revolution" of collaborative consumption, or the sharing economy. Since the global financial meltdown, "people have reverted to old market behaviours that involve trust--swapping, sharing, renting, bartering", she says.

Cookisto joins the likes of Airbnb (bed and breakfast), Lyft (ride-sharing), Liquidspace (space rental) and Taskrabbit (deliveries and errands)--all occupiers of this online space where trust and online credibility is crucial to success. The reviews say it all.

Office worker Dimitris Coustas buys at least one lunch from Cookisto most weeks.

"The cooks deliver the dishes to you themselves," he says. "Sometimes they add a free dessert to encourage you to choose them again next time. It's funny, sometimes the housewives will ask if you have ordered from anyone else on the site and enquire how their food rates compared to others'. I think there is quite a bit of competition!"

Cookisto has no way of monitoring the hygiene of the cooks' kitchens or checking the freshness of ingredients, but it urges users to post truthful reviews.

In Greece, the Cookisto community has spread outside the internet realm, with users organising get-togethers and feedback sessions. Evangelia Tavladoraki, a political scientist by training, says being part of that community has helped her regain her confidence after the shock of unemployment.

"Every day I feel proud helping others. And the best reward I can get is when people tell me how much they like my food," she says. "This is another road I have gone down because of the crisis. I didn't study cookery. But it makes me feel optimistic."

A friend of mine posted a link yesterday to this BBC articleabout a website called “Cookisto”. Cookisto started as a Greek student’s thesis project, and has grown into a living business. It has been very successful in Greece and is about to expand into…

Τι είναι το Cookisto? Μόλις το ανακάλυψα και σας το παρουσιάζω. Δεν το έχω δοκιμάσει, αλλά μου φαίνεται πολύ ενδιαφέρον και πρωτότυπο, σαν ιδέα τουλάχιστον. Άραγε στην πράξη?