Michelin

Kimchi risotto, burford brown egg & sesame. Ballotine of pig’s head & black pudding, saffron aioli & pickles. Charcoal-grilled lobster with fresh herbs. But not in a fancy restaurant, served by elegant waiters. At home, just like with pizza. Many restaurants at higher price levels are now entering deliveries, but of course not really like pizza.

We talked with Supper, a delivery company based in London which focuses exactly on servicing high-end restaurants and their clients. These guys are picky, naturally. The level of service and attention to detail to provide is at another level. “All our drivers follow specific procedures, they have to dress in a certain way, they get trained in the way they interact with the restaurant and with the customer.” “We provide that reassurance to a restaurant that wants to retain its brand in the delivery process.” Crucially: “The whole process is a restaurant style delivery service it’s not a third party plug in”.

The main concern of restaurants is whether the food will still be beautiful and tasty when delivered, especially when someone is paying a lot for its Michelin star meal. “People believe their food is difficult to carry”. They will say “Oh, fried food doesn’t work!”. Supper had to carry out extensive tests over the years to entice the big names.

Supper customers spend almost 60 pounds on average on each order, more than 3 times the average order value of Just Eat. It’s not just that each plate costs more than, say, a burger. Some restaurants are recreating in deliveries what they typically like to offer their dinner as preferred option: testing menus. Deliveroo partnered with Galvin at Windows, Michelin-starred restaurants on the 28th floor of the London Hilton. They offer a 3-course meal at £35 per person. You can see how restaurants could start deliver the different dishes at different times (Deliveroo Plus?), in order to recreate the experience of a served dinner, but from the comfort of your home.

Many restaurants remain doubtful. How can the experience stay the same, if you are not in the environment so carefully build to accompany the food? They really don’t have much choice. “The market has moved so quickly that they are now considering deliveries. Because they are losing ground to their competitors”. Gotta deliver that kimchi risotto.