Dishpatch partners with restaurateurs to launch meal kit platform

Dishpatch was founded back in March, as the Coronavirus lockdown was coming into effect, by friends Pete Butler and James Terry as a way for restaurant suppliers affected by the pandemic to sell their produce to the public.

Now, however, the pair have begun partnering with a number of chefs and restaurateurs to create and deliver DIY meal kits that come fully prepared, with dishes only needing to be finished off at home.

The participating chefs and restaurants will change monthly, and in August include Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, the Hackney-based catering company founded by chef and author Zoe Adjonyoh; Soho bistro Andrew Edmunds; and Bongbong’s Manila Kanteen, the Filipino-inspired restaurant concept by Lee Johnson and his partner Sinead Campbell, which previously featured on the BBC's My Million Pound Menu​.

The menus will range from £40 to £59 in price for two people, and can all be scaled up for four, six or eight as requested.

Orders can be placed up until 5pm on Wednesday for delivery on Friday of that week.

“Our mission has always been to help people experience the joy of great food, in the comfort of their home," says Butler and Terry in a statement.

"What started as a directory and became a marketplace has now evolved into a way for some really great independent chefs and restaurants to hugely expand their reach, and for customers who can’t get to those restaurants to experience them."

Creating and selling branded DIY meal kits, which allow consumers to recreate specific restaurant-quality dishes using ingredients provided to them, has been something many business in the sector have turned to in order to bring in some form of revenue while restaurants remain closed as a result of the Coronavirus lockdown.

Last month it was reported that Mac & Wild co-founders Andy Waugh and Calum Mackinnon had joined forces with a group of independent restaurant operators including including Flank founder Tom Griffiths and Yum Bun founder Lisa Meyer to create meal kit versions of signature dishes​​ from their respective businesses.