Take heart. A crop of new sites seek to gratify the pantry-phobic as well. Feel like takeout tonight? San Francisco-based Food.com offers on-line ordering -- and, more important, local delivery -- from more than 13,000 restaurants nationwide. Feeding your face is merely a matter of entering your zip code and navigating menu offerings. Since restaurants are notoriously low-tech, the company's server in Seattle translates on-line orders into a fax or a phone call, which is then sent to participating eateries, a service for which Food.com reaps a $400 setup fee, a $50-a-month retainer, and 5% of each order.
For those who'd rather dine out, at least two new companies offer on-line reservations. Both foodline.com, in New York City, and OpenTable.com, in San Francisco, are attempting to replace the traditional phone-and-paper-based restaurant-reservation system with a Web-based one. They charge participating restaurants about $200 a month in service and transaction fees (and in OpenTable.com's case, a $1,000 setup fee). Currently serving a handful of cities, both plan to be nationwide and to ultimately link their service directly into the restaurants' individual point-of-sale systems. They also hope to personalize the diner's experience. "Imagine being able to remember that Mr. Jones is allergic to shellfish or sending a promotional E-mail to your top 100 August diners," rhapsodizes former lawyer Paul Lightfoot, Foodline.com's 29-year-old CEO.
CookExpress.com, launched in January 1999, offers an on-line option that's between cooking from scratch and dining out: a gourmet, ready-to-cook meal sent to your home by FedEx. Founder Darby Williams, 46 -- another Microsoft escapee -- calls CookExpress.com a "smarter way to cook." Three-part meals (for example, roasted salmon with herb-caper sauce, potato-olive salad, and baby arugula), each requiring less than 30 minutes to fix, are delivered to your door (currently just in the Bay Area, where CookExpress.com is based) or by overnight delivery nationwide. Prices range from $8 to $15 per serving, plus a single $4.95 local delivery charge or a shipping cost of $12.95 to $16.95 (based on the number of meals).
Yeah, but is the stuff fresh? To mollify those squeamish about the idea of filet mignon that arrived through a delivery service (albeit packed in high-tech gelatin ice), the company has devised a system of labeling each package with color-coded dots that change color if the food hasn't remained chilled. The packaging also indicates how long the food inside should stay fresh (usually two days).
Williams boasts that the company has the potential to be a billion-dollar enterprise within five years. He plans to expand the CookExpress.com same-day service into at least 30 U.S. markets as well as another 6 to 8 markets outside the United States -- each worth $25 million in his estimation. He also hopes to add a retail component to his distribution.
The logistical complexity of such an undertaking actually appeals to Williams, although, he readily concedes, "had I been in the food business before, I probably never would have done this."
Child in the Wild
Julia Child is cooking. So who better to ask about the marriage of virtual and victual reality? And, surprise! She's all for it, having become Web-friendly and computer-adept herself during her many years of bringing haute cuisine to the masses. Contributing writer Alessandra Bianchi caught up with the culinary grande dame at her home in Cambridge, Mass.
Inc.: Do computers and cooking mix?
Child: They certainly do. It's marvelous what computers can do for you when you're cooking. In fact, A La Carte Communications, the producer of my new television series with Jacques Pepin, has a site, Alacartetv.com, and it has everything on there! You can get TV schedules, cookbooks, even précis of our upcoming shows.
Inc.: Do you use a computer in your work?
Child: Yes, I have had a computer since they first came out. I use it for writing. I used to do my books in longhand, but word processing is so much easier, for a clear copy and for cleaning up. Recently, I started using the Web to find books -- cookbooks from London, for example -- and it was a snap. It's tremendously useful for getting products, too. By clicking on www.fromages.com, you can get real French cheese directly from France, even though you're a person and not a company!
Inc.: But would a serious chef log on to the Web for advice, recipes, and menu planning?
Child: Perhaps not now. But eventually, quite possibly. Now it's fairly primitive, and a good chef would already have a recipe in his or her own library. The cooking information on the Web isn't always complete or easy to find. For example, if you look up fava beans on a search engine, you don't get much. But the Web sites are particularly good for beginners. One thing the sites haven't entirely worked out is how you pay for the research you do. Eventually, it will be wonderful.
Inc.: What do you think the development of cooking Web sites says about our culture?
Child: I think it shows we're a progressive culture embracing new ideas. It's incredible, really. Of course, it helps to know what you're looking for. But what's happening on the Web is marvelous for cooking.
