In the world of fast-moving technology and food culture, it seems like it is impossible to come up with an innovative food-related idea that has not already been put into effect. But these Ukrainian startups do the job just perfectly.
From breathtaking architectural cakes to customized meal plans to touchscreen restaurant tables allowing the instant placement orders without waiting, these businesses are bound to impress foodies in and out of Ukraine.
Mestnaya Eda
Monthly food delivery service Mestnaya Eda (Russian for “Local Food”) helps small Ukrainian food brands to get exposure.
Mestnaya Eda delivers a cute wooden box filled up with the products of around seven Ukraine food brands to a subscriber’s doorstep every month.
“Our task is to initiate the first encounter between the customer and the business and to help small businesses reach their target market,” Maryna Bulatskaya, the founder and owner of Mestnaya Eda says. “We put the contact details of the brands we work with on our website so that our customers can find them and buy from them in the future.”
Set up in 2014, Mestnaya Eda has found many interesting small brands already, but the service is constantly searching for fresh and exciting new ones.
To subscribe to Mestnaya Eda, go to: www.localfood.com.ua.
Interactive tables
Upon entering a restaurant or a cafe, it becomes obvious how much technology has invaded modern lives because many people cannot stop looking at their phones even while eating. Thanks to the invention of Kyiv-based IT company Kodisoft, it is now possible to check Facebook newsfeed, read the news or look up weather right on a restaurant table surface.
But the main purpose of the Kodisoft’s touchscreen tables carries a deeper meaning. The interactive tables reduce the waiting time and the amount of staff needed due to allowing to place orders by viewing the restaurant’s menu directly on the touchscreen table and tapping the choice.
The tables are durable and stress-resistant having been tested with people walking on top of them, knives trying to cut through and more.
A woman uses one of the interactive tables designed by Kyiv-based IT company Kodisoft, in Vladikavkaz, Russia. Customers can place orders, check Facebook, read news and much more. (Courtesy)
At the moment Kodisoft tables can be found in some places in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Limassol, Vladikavkaz and Lviv. Good Wine bar on the sixth floor of Kyiv’s luxury department store TSUM, will be the first venue to have this technology in Kyiv.
To find restaurants using Kodisoft interactive tables, go to: www.itrestaurant.net/restaurants.
Foodex
While there are many diet delivery services in Ukraine, Foodex stands out with the fact they cater for far more than just gym-goers or people trying to lose weight. It has diet plans for the pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as for diabetics and people with other conditions that require a diet. One of the latest additions is a gluten-free diet plan.
“Of course, weight management is still one of our key orientations, but we are also shifting towards a medical angle right now,” the chief marketing officer of Foodex Oleksandra Maksymenko said.
Foodex, which started in 2014, has a nutritionist helping customers pick a diet plan according to their needs. Once the choice is made, a set of three meals and two snacks containing their recommended daily calorie amount will be delivered to their doorstep every morning, making healthy and balanced eating easier than ever. The average price is Hr 500 per day.
To subscribe to Foodex, go to: www.foodexhub.com.ua.
Zakaz.ua
Why walk to the supermarkets and wait in lines to get served, when Zakaz.ua, a grocery delivery service, can deliver the goods right to the customer’s door? Founded in 2010, Zakaz.ua allows customers to order food from four major supermarkets in Kyiv: Auchan, Novus, Metro and Fozzy. The delivery fee starts at just Hr 59.
While there are many delivery services in Ukraine, Zakaz.ua stands out with the fact all their food items on the website contain quality up-to-date photographs. To achieve that, Zakaz.ua designed their own portable photo studio that can take 360-degrees photographs of every item in just one minute. The device resembles a plastic barrel with a rotating platform, on which a product is placed, and a camera installed inside is operated using the specially developed software.
Ukrainian confectioner Dinara Kasko uses 3D printing technologies to make her distinctive cakes. (Courtesy)
The project was so successful in Ukraine, that after five years of operation it expanded abroad and entered the U.S. market in Boston.
To order groceries delivery, go to: www.zakaz.ua.
Dinara Kasko
Ukrainian confectioner Dinara Kasko, a former architect, combines architecture and bakery by creating stunning geometrical cakes.
She draws her future cakes in a computer program 3D Max, used by designers and architects, then prints the form out using a 3D printer and makes a silicon mold that can be used for baking.
So those who crave something more fascinating than an ordinary brownie or Victoria Sponge cake, can replicate Kasko’s futuristic cakes by buying the silicone molds online for $43–55. The cake recipes come with every purchase.
Kasko’s cake molds are sold at www.dinarakasko.com/shop.
