Restaurateur Evgeny Kuzin and culinary expert Chef Izu Ani, the forces behind restaurant concepts including Gaia and Shanghai Me, have partnered with hospitality group Accor to launch Kitch-In, an integrated food technology platform.
The value-added F&B innovation is set to launch in April, with plans to revolutionise home-delivery and in-room dining, through an intelligent infrastructure that manages and maintains consistent quality control at every stage.
Kitch-In features legacy restaurant brands including Gaia, Scalini and Shanghai Me, as well as an increasing amount of homegrown virtual outlets. To start, Kitch-In will launch with four digital brands, with many more planned to go live before the end of the year.
The team combines award-winning expertise with the knowledge of food scientists and nutritionists, led by CEO Adrian Azodi who brings skills and insights from his previous role at Deliveroo. Kitch-In designs dishes that are able to be delivered without compromising on flavour, taste and nutritional values. Leveraging an existing hotel kitchen network also reduces transportation times, ensures sustainability and smart kitchen technologies to minimise wastage and retain the best quality ingredients.
Initially launching in the Mövenpick Grand Plaza by Accor in Dubai Media City, the platform will partner with delivery aggregators, to provide people with quality food and with a goal of a 15-minute radius from everywhere in the emirate, followed by a expansion in key cities around the world and the launch of its own easy-to-use application.
Hospitality entrepreneur Evgeny Kuzin says, “Our goal is to simplify cooking, nutrition and sustainability by providing easy access to amazing food, prepared by an expert culinary team that meets nutritional requirements and reduces waste, at a reasonable price.”
He adds, “Kitch-In is the first and only F&B platform that has the capacity and technology to effectively monitor quality control across the entire ecosystem. This gives us the ability to scale each vertical quickly and skillfully, from the development of illustrious digital restaurant brands created and endorsed by celebrity chefs to the efficient delivery network, there is no limit to our scalability, and we have ambitious plans for worldwide expansion.”
Chef Izu Ani says, “Everything we eat is a reflection of who we are and how we are feeling. When we order at home, we aren’t necessarily in the mood to go out, it is often when we are feeling tired or relaxed. We created Kitch-In to become a part of your daily routine, something that can pick you up when you are down and hold your hand when you need. Taste is so closely linked to our memories; it takes us back in time and allows us to reminisce on our childhoods. Food is a comfort to us, and we want to nurture people and make them feel cared for with home cooked meals, delivered to their door.”
Adrian Azodi, CEO of Kitch-In says, “Our customized delivery model, and wealth of knowledge and expertise across every part of the food and beverage, hospitality, and delivery industries, allows us to provide an entirely new and rewarding customer experience.”
Yigit Sezgin, Chief Commercial Officer of Accor says, “Through Kitch-In, we have the ability to enhance and improve in-room dining, giving our guests the exclusive opportunity to enjoy exquisite, restaurant quality cuisine without needing to leave their room and further developing our approach to augmented hospitality. Our digital approach means that we can quickly and efficiently upgrade culinary options for our destinations and extend the experience of our hospitality outside of the presmises of our hotels.”
Kitch-In aims to democratise access to healthy, excellent quality cuisine at an affordable price for hotel guests and the wider community.
