Two Recent Harvard Grads Build Platform To Help Furloughed Chefs During COVID-19

As COVID-19 spread coast to coast, closing restaurants indefinitely, hundreds of talented chefs and bartenders were furloughed or laid off. In parallel, the demand for virtual social experiences and opportunities to stay connected with friends and co-workers continues to rise. With home cooking becoming more popular than ever, two recent Harvard graduates saw the perfect opportunity to build a platform to connect furloughed chefs to customers around the country looking to gain inspiration and tips in the kitchen. 

Kookoo Club was founded in April by Harvard ‘18 graduates, Aditya Agrawal and

Chu Zhou, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a mission-focused platform to help chefs from their favorite restaurants continue to monetize their passion from their home kitchens. Kookoo Club provides live, virtual classes, hosted on Zoom, for both individuals and corporate teams led by Michelin-starred chefs and mixologists who have worked at top restaurants like Momofuku and Eleven Madison Park. The Kookoo Club team takes care of class scheduling, logistics, and marketing so chefs can focus exclusively on teaching the classes. “People often think about celebrity chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, but there’s a whole army of incredibly talented and well-trained chefs, mixologists and sommeliers at these top restaurants that go under-appreciated,” Aditya said. “We saw a lot of value in bringing a lot of these top chefs from different restaurants teaching classes together on one platform and the resulting cross-pollination benefits,” Chu added. 

In the first three weeks of launching, Kookoo hosted 400+ participants across 20 unique classes and 6 corporate events. “We’ve been incredibly inspired by early feedback of the platform,” says Chu, “so far, our attendees have given us a 90% positive review and we are seeing more and more people return for a second or third class!”

 This past Sunday I was fortunate enough to attend a class led by Kia Damon, former Executive chef at Lalito NYC and New York Times’ 16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America. The class was filled to capacity with over 20 participants eager to learn how to whip up a coconut fish curry. Throughout the class, Kia provided personalized feedback and answered questions from each participant, it almost felt like we were in the kitchen directly alongside her. The experience was incredibly unique and truly made me feel like I was in a private cooking class. 

While building the platform, Aditya and Chu intentionally focused their outreach to create a diverse and robust slate of chefs. “We are proud of the fact that our chefs and mixologists are >50% women, >70% People of Color and >75% Michelin-star trained with experiences at top restaurants like Gabriel Kreuther and Del Posto,” Aditya said. “The food industry, like many others, is dominated by white males and we wanted to make sure a diverse range of chefs benefited.” Chetan Shetty, one of the chefs offering classes on Kookoo Club, is also the Head Chef of Indian Accent New York, one of the world’s best Indian restaurants. “This is such a timely initiative and we really needed something like this. Not only do I get to monetize my skills and get some extra income from this project, but I also get to gain new fans.”

After an overwhelmingly successful launch, the Kookoo Club team is excited to diversify their current offerings by launching a series for both beginner cooks and for more experienced food enthusiasts to become experts within specific cuisines. Starting in August, Kookoo Club members can sign up for ‘Become an Expert Indian Chef in 5 Weeks’ with the Head Chef of one of the world’s top Indian restaurants or ‘Become an Expert Chinese Chef in 5 Weeks’ with the founder of one of New York’s top Chinese establishments. Participants in these series will start from scratch and progressively cook more complex dishes, culminating in a live virtual ‘Cook-off’.

This week Kookoo Club is offering classes for $15 and Forbes readers can get 30% off any class using the code FORBES30. Upcoming classes this week include “Shrimp and Mushroom Dumplings” with the former chef of 2-Michelin starred Momofuku Ko and “Mascarpone Doughnuts” with the Executive Pastry Chef of Michelin starred Del Posto.

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