A new home food delivery service, described as the Uber of food, launched in Ottawa with the help of Carleton’s Lead to Win program on June 13.
The service, named eCelery, is a tool to connect home chefs of various styles of cuisine with customers to deliver a new option to the takeout market, according to co-founder and University of Ottawa (U of O) alumnus Cyril Moukarzel.
Moukarzel founded the service in February with fellow U of O alumnus Mathieu Jobins. Moukarzel said the idea began when his grandmother moved to Canada.
“[My grandmother] didn’t know how to speak English, but she could cook really well. Unfortunately she had to leave and go back to Lebanon because she couldn’t find employment,” Moukarzel said. “I thought there are many people in the city who wanted to cook or have their own restaurant but can’t because of the language barrier.”
To use eCelery, Moukarzel said customers log on to the website and type in their postal code to see if there are any chefs working within a 7 kilometre radius. Once they find a chef, they can select a meal to order, and then wait for eCelery’s drivers to deliver the meal.
eCelery was aided by Carleton’s Lead to Win program, a support system for young entrepreneurs in the community to build ventures that can generate $1 million within three years.
Started in 2009, individuals or groups can give presentations to the opportunity review board, consisting of well-established entrepreneurs and professors at Carleton to pitch their ideas, according to Tony Bailetti, creator of Lead to Win.
Bailetti added that at the end of the presentation, the review board will rank the project as green, yellow, or red. If passed with a green, new members will be given plenty of resources, such as workshops, coaches, and mentors and help finding stakeholders.
Bailetti said what stood out about eCelery was their unique business model and their ability to spread opportunities.
“eCelery will give an opportunity for many people [from] around the world. It’s a niche market,” Bailetti said. “Many of them are women who are stay-at-home moms and it’s a great opportunity for them to make income by staying home with their families and cooking for them.”
Currently, Moukarzel said there are four chefs and recruitment is ongoing. Ideally, eCelery would like a roster of 20 chefs by July to serve customers all across Ottawa, he added.
Moukarzel said in order to be an eCelery chef, individuals must have completed a food handler certification course and have their own insurance. He said chefs are also subjected to random kitchen inspections and only use fresh ingredients.
Right now, eCelery services primarily the Nepean area, but once they have expanded across Ottawa, Moukarzel said their goal is to spread nationwide.
