Tre’dish, a new food delivery platform, launched in Riverside on Nov. 11. The launch event, which took place at Avila’s Historic 1929 in downtown Riverside, featured chefs from the platform as well as speeches from Tre’dish founders, including company president Peter Hwang.
Tre’dish is a platform that features home chefs and allows them to create a business in which they can deliver homemade meals to customers. The Tre’dish team helps chefs create their menu and pricing so they can establish their brand.
“It is a home chef-based food platform that celebrates individuals and their cultures and passions, and connects them to their community that is hungry for more opportunities,” said Matti Johnson, employee of Mind & Mill, a Tre’dish partner. “It is connecting people and their passions with the people that need to be ready to consume and celebrate that.”
Johnson said she believes it will become successful in the Riverside area and beyond because it adds custom-made variety to food options in the area. She also said that the platform is ideal for college students looking to order different food than normal, or for students who are interested in becoming a Tre’dish chef.
“This is unlocking the potential for a whole new food scene,” Johnson said. “It is a whole new opportunity for these chefs to pursue their business passions and an opportunity for us to get a taste of what they have been cooking and hiding away from us this whole time.”
Johnson said Tre’dish is especially important after the difficulties faced by many food service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it started with COVID-19, but it is so much more,” Johnson said. “It is an opportunity that is timeless and it can exist past any pandemic crisis because it is safe and it is secure. I think COVID put a lot of people out of their jobs, and this is the surface level of that. A lot of these chefs didn’t have jobs before that, didn’t have jobs they liked or didn’t have an opportunity to start it at all. I think COVID was the instigator, but more than anything it has faded away as this opportunity has been highlighted as solid regardless.”
Tre’dish can operate in Riverside due to the allowance of Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permits in Riverside County. If chefs obtain MEHKO permits, they can legally make and sell food from their homes. To ensure safety, Tre’dish has health and safety protocols such as a check-in/check-out process so that chefs abide by food service standards.
Denise Lopez, Tre’dish chef, will be selling Mexican food on Tre’dish during weekends. She said she enjoys the flexibility of the platform as she can cook while also working another job.
“My experience so far with Tre’dish has been great,” Lopez said. “They have a great team on board that has been there supporting us along the way. I decided to join Tre’dish because of the flexibility it offers. It is allowing me to have my full-time career, but I also have a passion for cooking and keeping with my traditions of cooking Mexican food. I think people are very excited to have something new, and I look forward to seeing how much it is going to grow when it goes international.”
Tre’dish takes a chef-centered approach to food production and delivery, focusing on individual chefs and their stories so they can build a personal connection with consumers. To do this, each chef has a profile and gallery highlighting their food and story, and each meal comes with a personal note from the chef to the customer.
Vincent Pileggi, Riverside entrepreneur and owner of The Brickwood, said he thinks people will support the new platform because people enjoy local, homemade, unique food options.
“I want Tre’dish to have their people come to The Brickwood and do pop-ups at our bar because this is awesome,” Pileggi said. “I love the concept of having people have their homemade businesses that we can call on. There are many options, but sometimes you get bored with those options and need to spice them up a little bit. I think Tre’dish is here at the right place at the right time.”
Tre’dish plans to expand to an international level. It also plans to launch a multimedia aspect of the platform in 2022 to incorporate video content featuring its chefs.
To order food from Tre’dish chefs and learn more about their stories, visit https://tredish.com/eat/.
