Almost everyone has a grandparent with a secret recipe, or one that somehow makes food you could get anywhere taste unlike anything else. Dubbing itself “The Grandmother Home Kitchen,” Lou Papé is a new service allowing you to basically rent a grandparent to cook a specialized meal for you and your guests.
Only available in France (we’re hoping for a U.S. version), Lou Papé allows people to choose from a selection of senior home chefs and retirees. Once selected, the chef provides the customer with a menu of what they will prepare for dinner. The chef then comes to your location, cooks a four-course meal, cleans the dishes, and leaves you be — just like grandma used to?
No chef is under 58, and the meals range between 12 and 42 euros per person, but vary dependent on the chef. The Lou Papé website does not make explicit why the service targets seniors, but does offer an astute observation on the food industry: “We are witnessing a growing desire to rediscover nostalgia kitchen.”
Lou Papé extends past the nostalgic appeal of a home-cooked meal. On the site users can put in a special request for services tailor-made to their desires. Cooking classes and butlers joins the grandparent chef rental services.
There is currently no word on any expansion into the U.S., but Lou Papé would be entering an on-demand food delivery industry that is more geared towards vast accessibility than curation. While Lou Papé prides itself on carefully selecting who prepares your food, services such as Uber Eats simply turn the independent contractors that would be driving you around into deliverymen, ready to drive your food to you.
So until Lou Papé descends on American shores or Silicon Valley conjures up a suitable (and more expensive) rehash, get your tickets to France ready — or just be really nice to your grandparents.
