The global health crisis has at least done something positive for the restaurant business — it has challenged entrepreneurial minds to come up with innovative ways to keep chefs busy and deliver food to clients in a safe and cost-effective way. A Brooklyn-based company by the name of CookUnity offers a wide selection of quality meals by independent culinary artists.

CookUnity’s Unusual Business Model

The motto of CookUnity’s founders is pretty straightforward; be to food delivery what Spotify is to music – offer an infinite variety of meals from a number of talented culinary artists. The meal subscription service currently offers meals from 32 independent chefs. So, how does it work? CookUnity provides chefs with shared kitchens, ingredients, and support services like delivery and dishwashing. Subscribers to the service pay between $10.50 to $13.50 per meal, depending on their weekly plan. Chefs earn about a 20%-25% cut of each order.

The goal of CookUnity is to help busy individuals eat more healthily by sparing them the time to research, buy, and cook their food. The platform pledges to only using wholesome ingredients from local farms, where products are free of artificial flavors and GMO. Everything is humanely raised and organic when possible.

A Widely Customizable Subscription Service

Much like Spotify, CookUnity is incredibly easy to use and customize. You can update your meal preferences, rate meals and chefs, get auto-pilot deliveries, adjust recipes, and basically create and adapt your own menu.

Is this the future of food delivery? Who knows. What matters is that platforms like CookUnity make it possible for chefs like 53-year-old Chris Ratel to do what he loves while saving up to open his own restaurant. Ratel’s classic American comfort food is one of the top sellers in the meal-delivery service. It may have all started in Brooklyn, but judging by the company’s success, it’s only a matter of time until it branches out.

If you’re the kind of person that loves coffee but hates drinking scalding hot drinks, then you’ve probably become pretty obsessed with iced coffee over the years. While there’s no doubt about the fact that it’s super easy to head to your nearest coffee shop for the ultimate cold brew, more and more people are now making their own batches and keeping them in the refrigerator. You may have even made your own cold brew yourself, but did you know that Japanese Iced Coffee is much quicker? Some would say it also tastes better…

Storing In The Fridge

One of the best things about making your own cold brew at home is that this stuff can last in the refrigerator for about two weeks. This means that you can make a large batch of the coffee and then add in the ice, water, milk, sugar, and whatever else you like to put in your cold brew. However, there’s no doubt about the fact that this takes time – and once you’ve run out, you need to spend hours making another batch. So, it might be time to jump on the Japanese Iced Coffee bandwagon instead.

Diluting It Down

If you’re not familiar with Japanese Iced Coffee, the idea behind this cup o’ cold Joe is that you flash-brew your coffee and then pour directly over ice to dilute it. This ensures that it’s the perfect strength almost immediately, and it takes 10 minutes at most. The best coffee to water ratio for this coffee is around 1:16 – but you can change this up if you prefer something stronger or weaker. As you heat up your water, ground the coffee beans to a medium-fine ground and place in the filter above a cup of ice. Then, pour the water over the grounds and let the fresh coffee filter through onto the ice below.

Then, all you have to do is enjoy.