Part-time cook finds recipe for success in home services

Jin Weijie brought a chef with him to a customer's home in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, at around 9 am one Saturday in May to make a meal for the customer's housewarming party.

The customer had ordered five cold dishes and 15 hot dishes for the party, including salt and pepper mantis shrimp, mandarin fish stew, braised pork belly, stir-fried beef tenderloin with onion, sauteed celery with lily bulbs, tofu soup and braised pak choi with Chinese mushrooms.

The cook wasted no time in getting the meal ready, and he started to serve the dishes in less than three hours, and finished serving them all around 1:30 pm.

The preparation work started much earlier, though. The cook began shopping for the meal the day before the party.

He had also made some dishes, such as the braised pork belly the previous evening, not only to ensure that the banquet started on time but also to make the meat more savory and tender by immersing it in the gravy overnight.

While the cook was busy working in the customer's kitchen, Jin, a 30-year-old native of Changzhou was helping him with chores and filming the process for a promotional video he would later post on his social media accounts.

Jin is an intermediary agent who offers the "cooking at home" service.

Cooking at home services gained popularity in China last year. People come to the homes of those who are not able or don't want to do the cooking themselves and prepare meals for them.

Numerous short videos of people providing such services pop up if one does a search for them on social media platforms.

Jin became aware of the trend late last year, and decided it was a good idea. He developed his own aptitude for cooking when he was about 11 years old.

Back then, Jin got off school at around 5 pm, but his parents wouldn't get home from work until two or three hours later. The only way to have dinner on time is to cook it himself, he said.

"For me, cooking is not that hard," said Jin, whose cooking is often praised by his family members.

Jin first posted short videos of himself cooking in December last year, and people soon contacted him for a cook-at-home service.

Working as a salesman of turning machines at that time, Jin spent his spare time making dinners and weekend meals for his customers.

During the process, he found on social media platforms a lot of locals like him who were hoping to make extra money by cooking for others, and he realized it was an opportunity to take his business to another level.

In February, he quit his job as a salesman to build a network of people who are good at cooking and hope to work part-time doing home cooking for others.

Jin said now he has more than 70 people he can turn to for the cooking, and more than 10 of them are professional cooks.

Such a talent pool allows Jin to take demanding orders that he wasn't able to handle when he was working all by himself, such as business receptions and banquets.

Jin said his team offers a menu of about 50 dishes for people to choose from. Or they can order the dishes they want if they are not on the menu.

The price of a meal varies according to the number of the dishes ordered. The team charges 88 yuan (about $12) for cooking four dishes, and 118 yuan for six dishes. A banquet consisting of 20 dishes will cost 588 yuan to deliver.

The team also charges extra for grocery shopping and dishwashing.

Some will find the pricing expensive, and Jin admitted that his customers tend to be those who make middle to higher income.

But this hasn't stopped his business from growing. Jin said his team has finished more than 200 orders by now.

Compared to meals at restaurants and takeaways, many believe that home-cooked dishes made with food freshly purchased are safer and less expensive, Jin said, explaining what he sees as a booming demand for home cooking services.

The service also frees people from the kitchen. "Instead of being occupied by all the chores, they can enjoy chatting and interacting with their family and friends while waiting for the meal to be ready," Jin said.

Zhang Jiaping, a 36-year-old who works in the insurance business in Changzhou, has been receiving orders through Jin for months.

Zhang said her parents used to run a restaurant when she was a child, a formative experience that has led to her interest in cooking.

"I feel very fulfilled and happy seeing my family and friends eat the meals I make," said Zhang, who is the mother of an 8-year-old girl.

Zhang, who likes to share pictures of her cooking on her social media account, came across the short videos posted by Jin in January and contacted him.

Though Zhang had never worked as a cook before, she got a part-time job after an interview with Jin. Now she usually cooks for dinner parties at customers' homes.

"I always communicate with my customers beforehand to find out about their tastes, such as if they like to eat spicy food or not, if they like their meal sweet or savory, or if they prefer lean or fatty meat," she said.

When the menu contains dishes she hasn't cooked before, Zhang will search for recipes and tutorials online in advance.

For Zhang, the part-time job is about more than making money."This job allows me to know more people and build more connections, which is important for my career," she said.

Just like cat feeding, dog walking, house tidying and even haircutting, home cooking is part of the various home services which have a strong growth momentum in the country.

Statistics of a business data platform show there are 14,500 companies offering home services in China, Workers' Daily reported in March.

Zhang said she sees promising prospects for the country's service industry, because more and more Chinese people are willing to pay for services to make their daily lives easier and happier.

Her optimism was shared by Jin. His business now covers only Changzhou, but he said that he plans to develop a smartphone application and expand his business to the whole of Jiangsu province, and then, he hopes, across the country.