Cooking as a service: Homemade food for everyone – the idea behind Joy and Meal
In a world where time is scarce and healthy eating is often neglected, Joy and Meal offers a solution that goes far beyond traditional cooking services. "Company teams and families can book personalized cooking services in just a few clicks: Cooking classes, meal prep for the week or private chefs for casual events," explains founder Noelia Gonzalez Vila.
Through her platform, she wants to help people eat better, save time and do something good for the environment at the same time. "The current offer is inadequate, outdated and slow, and we want to improve this with our platform with various chefs from all over the world."
The idea: cooking as a service
The inspiration for “Cooking as a Service” came from Noelia’s own experience: “I grew up in Spain and had the luxury of eating home-cooked food every day. A little bit about my background: I come from a region, Galicia, with 2.7 million inhabitants and 92 gastronomic festivals a year… so we really know what good food is. When I was working in Munich, I didn’t have enough time to cook myself something good. So I came up with the idea of using the cooking skills of talented people from all over the world who live in the city via a platform.” This was how the idea for Joy and Meal was born. “If you don’t have time to cook, you can “outsource” cooking at home with a private chef for everyday life; we want to democratize this service. With the cooking courses, especially for company teams, we want to motivate people to cook more themselves at home,” explains Noelia.
A path with many learnings
The first few months after founding the company were characterized by uncertainty and bureaucratic hurdles. “I often had doubts as to whether it would all work out. During this time, it helped me a lot to talk to other founders who had exactly the same doubts but went ahead anyway,” Noelia reports. At the same time, she found the bureaucracy in Germany to be a particular challenge: “You basically haven’t even started and have already paid thousands of euros for purely bureaucratic issues that don’t add much value. I’m actually very proud of the fact that I’ve managed it all so well so far as a non-native speaker in Germany.”
Despite these challenges, Noelia has achieved some remarkable milestones: “I am very proud of the EU funding in 2024. Joy and Meal was one of the 28 start-ups selected for the NEB Catalyse program.” The bookings for team cooking from Amazon, Universal Pictures, CHECK24 and the World Bank were also very special moments. “As a small startup, it is particularly important for us to have such well-known customers who trust us.” A team cooking event in Munich was a special moment. Another highlight was a TV report on Bayerischer Rundfunk about her start-up journey.
Meal-prep services for employees as a trend for the future
Noelia sees cooking as more than just an everyday activity: “With Joy and Meal, I want to help make home-cooked food the first choice for many people again.” Her aim is to reduce food waste and promote sustainable consumption patterns through better cooking skills and meal prep services. The corporate team-building cooking classes they already offer are a great opportunity to introduce home-cooked food and cooking skills to people who rarely cook, inspiring/motivating them to cook more at home. She also plans to offer home cooking services through companies as an employee benefit: “This creates an easy way to boost employee productivity and improve corporate ESG engagement at the same time.”
Networks and support: a key to success
Networks were an important source of support for Noelia right from the start: “One of my first ports of call was the Impact Hub Munich. I not only used the coworking space there, but also met lots of inspiring people.” Funding programs such as “Start?Zuschuss!” from Bavaria or the EU’s NEB Catalyse program also helped her to obtain financial and non-material support.
The wish for the Female Founders ecosystem
Noelia has clear advice for aspiring female founders: “Building a startup is hard, really hard. I think having a good support network of family and friends is very important.” She also emphasizes the importance of a good founders’ agreement before going to the notary and recommends getting in touch with real customers as early as possible: “The most important thing is always the paying customers, for whom you create a solution.”
For the future of the female founders ecosystem, Noelia would like to see more business angels and investors who believe in female founders, as well as more female founders with highly scalable business ideas.
A look into the future
For Noelia, success is closely linked to freedom and meaningfulness: “For me, success is when I can really decide freely how I spend my time and when what I do has a real meaning and impact.”
In the long term, she would like to expand Joy and Meal across Europe and one day support the next generation of founders as a business angel.
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