How a home kitchen opens on your street

It starts with a person, not a menu

Every home kitchen on PikaBox belongs to a cook who applied in her own name. She tells us what she cooks, shares photos of her kitchen and the area she cooks from, and we check her ID before anything else happens.

Her address is never shown to anyone ordering. Neighbours see the area, the cook and tonight’s pot; the rider sees the gate only for the pickup.

A food-safety course comes first

No kitchen goes live, and no pot opens, without a valid certificate from our home kitchen hygiene course. It covers clean hands and surfaces, hot and cold food, raw and cooked, allergens and packing. The certificate lasts six months, and a lapsed one hides every pot until it is renewed.

Then the pot goes on

A cook puts a pot on in the afternoon: the dish, the plates she has cooked, the price and the allergens. From the moment it is cooked, a four-hour freshness clock runs. When it runs out, the pot closes itself.

A PikaBox rider collects at her gate with a code, seals the plates and brings them to your door. Nobody goes into her home, and she never learns where you live.

Kitchens grow by stages

New kitchens start small, with a cap on plates a day. As orders are delivered and neighbours rate them well, with no safety strikes, a kitchen moves up through Neighbourhood and Star to Kitchen legend, and can cook more. A safety strike moves it down at once.

Nothing good goes to waste

When plates are left as the clock runs down, a cook can share them free with a verified feeding programme nearby. PikaBox pays the rider for the run; there is no fee for the cook or the programme.