Invite-only pilot, Vancouver BC
Your neighbours
are cooking.
Restaurant takeout keeps getting more expensive: menu prices, delivery fees, the tip screen. Meanwhile, some of the best food in Vancouver is being made in home kitchens nearby: the curry, the dumplings, the braise a family has been perfecting for years. Porchfare connects you with the cooks behind it. Full meals, chilled or frozen and ready to heat, from $8 per serving.
It’s a private marketplace, so you’ll need an invitation: each cook chooses the people they cook for. We’re running a small pilot now. Join the list and we’ll let you know when cooks near you start taking new buyers.
Three quick fields. No payment, no spam.
From $8 per serving
Priced by the cook, well under restaurant takeout, with no delivery fee or tip prompt on top.
By invite only
Every cook chooses who can see their menu, order from them and pick up.
0 min of prep
Cooked, sealed and labelled, chilled or frozen. Heat it when you're ready.
How it works
Find a cook. Get invited. Eat well.
- 01
Find a cook you like
Browse cook profiles: who they are, what they cook, and the food-safety training behind it. Menus, prices and pickup addresses stay private.
- 02
Get invited in
Ask a cook for access, or accept an invite from one you already know. Once they approve you and you verify your ID, their menu opens up.
- 03
Order, pick up, heat
Order once or set up a regular order, and pay in the app. Collect it at your scheduled pickup time, sealed and labelled with reheating instructions.
A private marketplace
Not a storefront.A cook who knows you.
Porchfare isn’t open to the public. Each cook runs a private circle of buyers they’ve chosen themselves, so you always know who made your dinner, what’s in it, and who to call if something goes wrong.
- Anyone can browse cook profiles. Only a cook's approved buyers see their menu, prices and pickup address.
- Cooks invite people they know, or approve people who ask. They can decline, or withdraw access later.
- Access is cook by cook. Being approved by one cook doesn't open anyone else's kitchen.
- Buyers verify their identity too, so every cook knows exactly who they're cooking for.
- No porch required. Pickup is a scheduled handoff, so it works as well from a condo as a house.
For cooks
Cook what you’re known for.Get paid for it.
Some of the best cooking in the city happens in kitchens nobody outside the family ever sees. Porchfare turns a bigger batch of it into steady income, sold to people you’ve chosen, on the nights you feel like it.
~$30/hr
What we’re targeting for an hour of your time, cooking in batches.
Ten plates in that hour, $33.
Cook the food you're known for
Your family's dal, your adobo, your Sunday braise. Full meals you already make well, just more of them, chilled or frozen for pickup.
You choose who you cook for
Invite friends, coworkers and neighbours, or approve people who find your profile and ask. Nobody sees your menu or your address until you say yes.
Your nights, your numbers
Post two portions or twenty, once a week or four nights. Approved buyers can set up regular orders, so a good week repeats itself.
Paid before pickup
Buyers pay in the app when they order. No cash, no chasing anyone for money, no awkward conversation about it.
Trust and safety
Trust and safety comes first.
A private marketplace only works if people trust the kitchens in it. That’s the thing we care about most at Porchfare, and here’s exactly what every cook does before their first sale and after it.
Checked before the first sale
Every cook verifies their identity, sends photos of their home kitchen for our review, and holds a current FOODSAFE certificate or equivalent food-handler training. We review each meal's ingredients, allergens and pickup arrangements before any buyer can see it.
Kept cold, start to finish
Meals are cooked, cooled quickly, sealed and labelled, then held at 4°C or colder, or frozen at −18°C or colder. The cook checks the temperature at handoff and won't release a meal that's missed it. Nothing is handed over hot.
Checked again, regularly
Active cooks retake food-safety checks as they go. A failed check pauses their sales until they retrain and pass. A safety complaint or a missed requirement can pause them too.
Every order is traceable
We keep a record of who cooked what, from which batch, and who picked it up. If something goes wrong, we can reach every affected buyer and stop further sales.
Foods you won’t find here
Some foods are too risky for a home kitchen, so they aren’t allowed in any meal:
- Raw or undercooked meat, poultry, or fish, including sushi, sashimi and ceviche
- Raw or undercooked eggs, including homemade mayonnaise, raw cookie dough, and homemade eggnog
- Unpasteurised dairy or juice
- Raw sprouts
- Home-canned or home-fermented foods, like pickles or preserves
Trust built one review at a time
Every order gets rated on five specific things, plus whatever the buyer wrote in their own words. And if you have a food-safety concern, you can report it to us directly, with or without a review, and we’ll look into it.
These are Porchfare’s own standards. Our review of a cook’s kitchen photos is not a health-authority inspection, and we won’t present it as one.
Questions
Have other questions?
Why do I need an invitation?
Because Porchfare is a private marketplace, not a public one. Each cook decides who they cook for, which keeps their circle small, keeps their home address private, and means every order is between people who've chosen each other. Anyone can browse profiles and ask a cook for access; the cook can say yes, no, or not right now.
I don't know any cooks. How do I get in?
Browse the profiles near you and request access from the cooks you like the look of. A friend's referral can get you onto Porchfare, but it won't unlock anyone's menu: each cook still approves you themselves.
When does it start?
We're running a small pilot right now, and it grows as soon as we have enough cooks and buyers in one pocket of Vancouver. Join the list and we'll email you when cooks near you are taking new buyers. If it isn't for you, ignore it.
What kind of meals?
Full meals rather than snacks or sides: a curry with rice, a braise with vegetables, a tray of pasta, whatever that cook makes well and often. Home cooks bring a lot of range, so expect dishes you won't always find on a delivery app. Every meal comes chilled or frozen, sealed, and labelled with what's in it and how to heat it.
How can this be cheaper than takeout?
There's no restaurant markup, no delivery driver, no delivery fee and no commercial kitchen rent. One cook makes a big batch of one dinner instead of twenty different orders, and you collect it yourself.
How does pickup work?
When you order, you book a pickup time with the cook, and only approved buyers ever see where that is. The cook checks your meal is still properly cold and hands it over, and you heat it whenever you're ready. No porch, box or yard needed on either side, so it works just as well in an apartment.
What about allergies and dietary needs?
Every meal lists its ingredients and allergens, and we check those before a meal goes live. These are family kitchens, though, not allergen-controlled facilities. If a trace of something sends you to hospital, this isn't the right way to buy dinner, and we'd rather say so plainly.
Which neighbourhoods?
We start with whichever pocket of the city fills up first, which is exactly what your postal code tells us. East Van, the West Side, the North Shore, Burnaby border. Put yours down and it counts toward your neighbourhood going first.
What happens to my email address?
It's used to contact you about Porchfare in your neighbourhood, and nothing else. We won't sell it or share it, and you won't get a newsletter you didn't ask for. Reply to any email asking to be removed and you're removed.
Get on the list for the first invitations.
Porchfare opens one neighbourhood at a time, and the list decides which one goes first. Put your name down and you’ll hear as soon as cooks near you start taking new buyers.