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Individuals weren't allowed to run unlicensed hotels or operate unlicensed taxis. I've never gotten sick from home cooking but have from restaurants. I always

by acover 8y ago

Individuals weren't allowed to run unlicensed hotels or operate unlicensed taxis. I've never gotten sick from home cooking but have from restaurants. I always hear horror stories about the conditions of restaurants. Does anyone know why the risk rate of food production in a home kitchen thought to be higher? Can that be mitigated somehow?

kevin_b_er 8y ago
Your "home cooking" wasn't required to make profit. This perverts the incentive from "good food" to "profit". Also your home cooking has a reputation issue. Uber Eats will not have a reputation issue. Any given "restaurant" can be a facade easily recycled into a new brand name. Any problems Uber can pawn off as a problem with that restaurant and not a fundamental problem of Uber operating above the law and not having safety regulations on its "independent contractors". As Uber has repeatedly shown a disregard for laws, we can expect it will continue to show a similar disdain for safety, including food safety.
jaequery 8y ago
I guess there too many variables. But most important is. Depends on the cleanliness of the home and willingness of the chef to properly handle food
crazygringo 8y ago
> I've never gotten sick from home cooking Well then you and your family and friends happen to follow good hygiene standards... but plenty of people don't, and are even more incentivized not to if there's a buck or two in it. ("I think I can still use this meat..." "I'll just wash off this mold...") I don't know why you'd trust random strangers cooking out of their homes with zero food safety training whom you haven't personally vetted at all. It's not to say commercial kitchens are perfect, but there are verifiable processes in place to try to hold them to certain standards and ultimately shut them down if they don't, which simply aren't scalable to apply to home kitchens.
- acover 8y ago
  Most restaurant food is expensive and terrible for you. It all depends on the risk rate but I suspect for people with a good reputation the risk rate of home cooked food is low.
- Guest9812398 8y ago
  I wouldn't have a trust issue assuming there is a rating system. If people are getting sick from someone's kitchen, they're going to leave a bad review. Think about taxi drivers compared to Uber drivers. Uber drivers know a few bad ratings can be detrimental to their income, so they typically try to put their best foot forward. They push hard for perfect reviews, offer bottles of water, try to be extra considerate with the choice of music, air temperature, etc. Taxi drivers don't have the same incentives. They're not going to be fired if a few passengers feel it's too cold in their car. I imagine the same would apply to home chefs. They know one batch of food that gets customers sick could leave them out of work, and cost them their entire reputation. A few bad ratings and they're dropping down the recommendation list and watching 80% of their business disappear. I could see home chefs trying to go above and beyond like Uber drivers to secure better reviews. Did you order 6 cookies? Well, they're going to give you 7, and a little note that says thanks, here's a free cookie just for you. It could actually be a great business for more elderly people. We all love our grandmother's specialties, right? Imagine a grandparent that could prepare big lasagnas, soups, and chilis at home, and a driver could come pick up portions to deliver to people around the neighborhood. Feel like takeout tonight? Instead of Dominos, you can see Ruth down the street prepared homemade cabbage rolls that you can get delivered. I wouldn't mind supporting that type of business.
  - crazygringo 8y ago
    > I wouldn't have a trust issue assuming there is a rating system. That was the original free-market rationale for not having food or medical regulation at all: reputation will take care of it! Unfortunately, unsafely prepared food can literally kill you. So the country wised up and requires food safety certification. Ratings are great for pushing up average quality. They're a non-starter when it comes to guaranteeing minimum quality, i.e. the product won't make you sick or kill you. Honestly, I don't trust someone's grandmother who thinks it's fine to cut the cooked chicken with the knife she used when it was raw, because she was never certified in a food safety course, even if it only happens 1% of the time. It's not fair to make people get sick so enough of them leave 1-star reviews. Because again, there's a world of difference between an Uber driver who doesn't know the route (minor inconvenience), and food that makes me ill for days.
user5994461 8y ago
That's not a good comparison. The rental market always had a big part of black market through local listings, mouth to mouth or sites like craiglist/gumtree. The regulator/IRS could go through some residential blocks in popular cities and find undeclared tenants in almost every house. AirBnB makes it worse and shorter term but it didn't invent any of that. It just makes it more visible. In comparison, restaurants are rarely undeclared or illegal operations.
- djur 8y ago
  Also, unlike AirBnB, even a conscientiously-run underground restaurant would have trouble not attracting attention from my neighbors. If the house down the street has a different car in front of it every week I would never notice. If there's a constant stream of people visiting (parking on the street, etc.) I'd notice and probably be inclined to figure out what's going on. That pattern of behavior is also likely to get the cops called on suspicion of drug dealing. I think a very, very cautious person who carefully screened their clientele could get away with having one, maybe two small groups dine at their house a night. Probably not even every day a week. Suffice it to say that we're talking about a market so small it might as well be said not to exist, and by that point you might as well just call it catering or a private chef, not a restaurant.

by acover 8y ago

kevin_b_er 8y ago

Your "home cooking" wasn't required to make profit. This perverts the incentive from "good food" to "profit". Also your home cooking has a reputation issue. Uber Eats will not have a reputation issue. Any given "restaurant" can be a facade easily recycled into a new brand name. Any problems Uber can pawn off as a problem with that restaurant and not a fundamental problem of Uber operating above the law and not having safety regulations on its "independent contractors". As Uber has repeatedly shown a disregard for laws, we can expect it will continue to show a similar disdain for safety, including food safety.

jaequery 8y ago

I guess there too many variables. But most important is. Depends on the cleanliness of the home and willingness of the chef to properly handle food

crazygringo 8y ago

> I've never gotten sick from home cooking Well then you and your family and friends happen to follow good hygiene standards... but plenty of people don't, and are even more incentivized not to if there's a buck or two in it. ("I think I can still use this meat..." "I'll just wash off this mold...") I don't know why you'd trust random strangers cooking out of their homes with zero food safety training whom you haven't personally vetted at all. It's not to say commercial kitchens are perfect, but there are verifiable processes in place to try to hold them to certain standards and ultimately shut them down if they don't, which simply aren't scalable to apply to home kitchens.

acover 8y ago
Most restaurant food is expensive and terrible for you. It all depends on the risk rate but I suspect for people with a good reputation the risk rate of home cooked food is low.
Guest9812398 8y ago
I wouldn't have a trust issue assuming there is a rating system. If people are getting sick from someone's kitchen, they're going to leave a bad review. Think about taxi drivers compared to Uber drivers. Uber drivers know a few bad ratings can be detrimental to their income, so they typically try to put their best foot forward. They push hard for perfect reviews, offer bottles of water, try to be extra considerate with the choice of music, air temperature, etc. Taxi drivers don't have the same incentives. They're not going to be fired if a few passengers feel it's too cold in their car. I imagine the same would apply to home chefs. They know one batch of food that gets customers sick could leave them out of work, and cost them their entire reputation. A few bad ratings and they're dropping down the recommendation list and watching 80% of their business disappear. I could see home chefs trying to go above and beyond like Uber drivers to secure better reviews. Did you order 6 cookies? Well, they're going to give you 7, and a little note that says thanks, here's a free cookie just for you. It could actually be a great business for more elderly people. We all love our grandmother's specialties, right? Imagine a grandparent that could prepare big lasagnas, soups, and chilis at home, and a driver could come pick up portions to deliver to people around the neighborhood. Feel like takeout tonight? Instead of Dominos, you can see Ruth down the street prepared homemade cabbage rolls that you can get delivered. I wouldn't mind supporting that type of business.
- crazygringo 8y ago
  > I wouldn't have a trust issue assuming there is a rating system. That was the original free-market rationale for not having food or medical regulation at all: reputation will take care of it! Unfortunately, unsafely prepared food can literally kill you. So the country wised up and requires food safety certification. Ratings are great for pushing up average quality. They're a non-starter when it comes to guaranteeing minimum quality, i.e. the product won't make you sick or kill you. Honestly, I don't trust someone's grandmother who thinks it's fine to cut the cooked chicken with the knife she used when it was raw, because she was never certified in a food safety course, even if it only happens 1% of the time. It's not fair to make people get sick so enough of them leave 1-star reviews. Because again, there's a world of difference between an Uber driver who doesn't know the route (minor inconvenience), and food that makes me ill for days.

user5994461 8y ago

That's not a good comparison. The rental market always had a big part of black market through local listings, mouth to mouth or sites like craiglist/gumtree. The regulator/IRS could go through some residential blocks in popular cities and find undeclared tenants in almost every house. AirBnB makes it worse and shorter term but it didn't invent any of that. It just makes it more visible. In comparison, restaurants are rarely undeclared or illegal operations.

djur 8y ago
Also, unlike AirBnB, even a conscientiously-run underground restaurant would have trouble not attracting attention from my neighbors. If the house down the street has a different car in front of it every week I would never notice. If there's a constant stream of people visiting (parking on the street, etc.) I'd notice and probably be inclined to figure out what's going on. That pattern of behavior is also likely to get the cops called on suspicion of drug dealing. I think a very, very cautious person who carefully screened their clientele could get away with having one, maybe two small groups dine at their house a night. Probably not even every day a week. Suffice it to say that we're talking about a market so small it might as well be said not to exist, and by that point you might as well just call it catering or a private chef, not a restaurant.