Sous

Sous was created in collaboration between the cofounding team at Shmeal — an app that connected home chefs with customers nearby, and Elite Personal Chefs — a Chicago personal chef co-op. In 2018, cofounders Craig Silver and Justin Hamer shared the dream of working in the culinary industry. But neither wanted to go into debt from culinary school, or grind in low-paying restaurant kitchens. So they created Shmeal – an app that allowed home chefs to serve meals from home kitchens. They discovered thousands of people who shared their dream, and over 10,000 meals were served on the platform, by independent home chefs. After learning about the personal chef industry (a promised land of independence and high-pay for many chefs), the cofounding team worked with advisor and gold-medal winning Chef Austin Yancey of Elite Personal Chefs (EPC) throughout 2023, building the technology that would become Sous. For customers — We believe having your own personal chef is the best way to eat great food on an everyday basis, and eat your ideal diet (whatever you imagine that to be). We work to help our customers de-stress, eat better and live longer. For chefs — We believe that by creating a marketplace for personal chefs, we can create opportunities for thousands of chefs to escape the low-paying restaurant grind, work for themselves, get paid more, and lead better lives.