What's It Actually Like to Cook for I Hate Cooking?

When I Hate Cooking started back in 2017, the idea was pretty simple.

There were plenty of people who hated cooking.

There were also plenty of people who were really good at it.

Surely we could introduce them.

Turns out we could.

And over the years, the thing we're probably most proud of isn't just how much the business has grown.

It's how many of our cooks have grown with us.

We have people on our team who have been cooking with us for years. They know their regular clients, they know our recipes, they know how the whole thing works and, thankfully, many of them seem quite happy to stick around.

Which we take as a reasonably good sign. 😂

It's not a restaurant job

This is probably the first thing to understand.

Cooking for I Hate Cooking is very different from working in a commercial kitchen.

You're not standing on a line doing 200 covers while somebody yells that table seven is waiting.

You're generally walking into one person's home and spending a few hours making their week easier.

You might cook meals for a busy family who hasn't had to think about dinner all week because you've already sorted it.

You might be cooking for someone recovering from an injury.

You might be helping an older person stay living independently.

You might be supporting someone with disability who finds planning, shopping or preparing food difficult.

And sometimes you'll be working alongside someone who wants to learn to cook more independently themselves.

At the end of the session, there's a fridge full of food that wasn't there when you arrived.

It is very tangible work.

You can actually see what you've achieved.

And yes, it can be incredibly rewarding

We probably don't talk about this enough.

Our cooks become a regular part of people's lives.

For some clients, you're simply the lovely person who turns up and fills the fridge every fortnight.

For others, the service can make a genuinely significant difference to how independently they can live or how manageable their week feels.

You see the relief when the cooking is done.

You see families stop relying quite so heavily on takeaway.

You see people discover meals that work for them.

And over time, regular cooks and clients get to know each other.

You're still there to do a job, obviously.

But it's a pretty nice job to have.

We've changed a LOT since 2017

One of the benefits of having cooks stay with us for a long time is that they have had plenty of opportunity to tell us when something is annoying.

And they do. 😂

The way our cooks work now isn't the same as it was when we started.

Over the years we've changed systems, recipes, training, booking processes and support based on what actually happens out in people's kitchens.

Because something that looks fabulous from an office can turn out to be completely ridiculous when you're trying to cook five dishes in someone's house.

Our cooks are the people who find that stuff.

So we listen.

Training has become a much bigger part of what we do

Early on, training was naturally much simpler.

As the business grew, so did the range of clients we work with.

Today our cooks may work with busy families, NDIS participants, aged-care clients, insurance clients and people with a huge range of dietary needs.

So our training has grown with the business.

We cover the practical stuff - how our cooks work, how bookings run and how to cook efficiently in somebody else's kitchen.

But we've also developed training around dietary requirements, allergies, disability support, food safety, different appliances and the situations cooks are likely to come across when they're working on their own.

The aim isn't to dump a giant manual on someone and say, “Good luck.”

It's to give cooks somewhere to find the answer when something comes up.

Because something always comes up.

We've also worked hard on the boring stuff

This isn't particularly glamorous, but it matters.

Over the years we've spent a ridiculous amount of time improving the systems sitting behind each booking.

How cooks get their information.

How menus are organised.

How recipes are accessed.

How bookings are managed.

How questions are answered.

How additional services are handled.

How training is delivered.

How paperwork is completed.

Nobody joins a cooking business because they're passionate about administration.

So whenever we can remove unnecessary admin or make something easier to understand, we try to.

Are we finished?

Absolutely not.

There will forever be another thing we decide could work better.

But that's kind of the point.

We don't expect everyone to work exactly the same way

Some of our cooks want plenty of bookings.

Others want to work around school hours, another job, family responsibilities or their existing business.

Some love working with regular family clients.

Some particularly enjoy disability or aged-care work.

Some are brilliant at structured batch cooking.

Others really shine when they're teaching somebody to cook.

Having a large team means there doesn't need to be one perfect I Hate Cooking cook.

We're much more interested in finding good people and working out where they fit.

You do need to be organised

This is one thing we won't sugarcoat.

Being a good cook helps.

Being an organised cook helps even more.

You're walking into someone else's kitchen and producing multiple dishes in a relatively short amount of time.

You need to read the booking properly.

Know what you're making.

Have a plan.

Keep an eye on several things at once.

Clean as you go.

And preferably not discover 45 minutes into the booking that you needed the oven preheated.

The cooks who really get into a rhythm with the service become incredibly efficient.

That's when it becomes good work.

Our cooks aren't invisible

One thing we've tried hard to maintain as we've grown is the feeling that there's still a real team behind the business.

There are people at head office who know what's going on as they have all been cooks themselves.

There are other cooks who have almost certainly dealt with the same weird situation you're currently dealing with.

And if something isn't working, we want to know.

We've also learnt that a good cook experience depends on having good client relationships. We're not afraid to step in when a booking isn't working, set boundaries, or occasionally use the ban button when someone is consistently disrespectful to our team. Our cooks are there to provide a professional service, not to be treated poorly.

Some of the best changes we've made to I Hate Cooking have come directly from somebody saying:

“There has to be an easier way to do this.”

Often, they're right.

Why do our cooks stay?

You'd probably need to ask them. 😂

But we think there are a few reasons.

The work is flexible.

It's practical.

Every day isn't exactly the same.

You get to cook without the pressure of a restaurant kitchen.

You build relationships with regular clients.

And when you leave a booking, you've actually done something useful for somebody.

There's also room to get very good at it.

Once you've developed your own rhythm, know the recipes and understand how to manage a session, there's something quite satisfying about walking into a kitchen, getting stuck in and leaving a few hours later with 15 or 25 serves neatly packed away.

Job done.

We've grown, but we still want it to feel human

This matters to us.

I Hate Cooking is much bigger than it was when we started.

We have cooks working in communities all around Australia, different types of clients and considerably more systems than we ever imagined needing.

But ultimately, the whole business is still based on something pretty simple.

One person walks into another person's kitchen and makes their life a little easier.

Everything else exists to support that.

Would you suit I Hate Cooking?

Possibly.

You don't need to want to open a restaurant.

You don't need to dream about appearing on MasterChef.

And you definitely don't need to plate every casserole with micro herbs and a smear of something underneath it.

You do need to enjoy cooking.

You need to be comfortable working independently.

You need to like people.

You need to be organised enough to juggle several dishes at once.

And you need to understand that when you're cooking in somebody's home, you're stepping into their space.

For the right person, it's a pretty unusual little job.

You cook.

You meet some great people.

You make their week considerably easier.

And then you go home without having to clean a restaurant kitchen at midnight.

We think that's a pretty good deal.

If that sounds like your kind of work, have a look at what's involved in joining us.