TikTok has announced that it’s breaking into the food delivery industry, teaming up with a company to open ghost kitchens that will deliver trending meals to users’ doors. TikTok is an endless source for creative, viral recipes. While the best TikTok recipes always look deceptively easy to cook, wouldn’t you rather just order one after watching it be made? Well, in 2022 you’ll get to do just that.
Simplemost reports that TikTok and Virtual Dining Concepts recently announced a partnership to create TikTok Kitchen, according to Virtual Dining Concepts co-founder Robert Earl. TikTok Kitchen will be a delivery-only restaurant that launches with 300 locations starting in March 2022. By the end of the year, Earl told Verdict Food Service that up to 1,000 locations could be ready to serve up trending dishes.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Earl said TikTok’s built-in customer base of users who are regularly engaged on the social media app makes for a great restaurant opportunity. “Look, you have a platform with a billion viewers monthly who are constantly engaged, as the numbers show,” Earl told Bloomberg. “It’s the first time there’s a brand like this out there — an audience of hundreds of millions of people.”
Earl shared a few details on how the TikTok Kitchen concept will work:
Users Will Drive The Menu
TikTok Kitchen menu items will come from what’s trending on TikTok, according to Earl. While the overall menu will change quarterly, Earl told Nation’s Restaurant News that if a recipe really resonates with the TikTok audience over time, it would likely remain on the menu.
“Obviously, if there’s certain dishes, whether it’s the baked feta or the Smashburger … that just keeping selling, then I think we’ll just build the repertoire and still keep some of the oldies but goodies on like, everyone loves the whipped coffee and the whipped lemonade,” said Earl.
Who Makes And Delivers The Food?
Many of the dishes for the TikTok Kitchen meals will be done in restaurant chains across the country, including places such as Bucca di Beppo and Bertucci’s (which Earl owns, according to Bloomberg.) After you place your order with one of the many TikTok Kitchen locations, GrubHub will handle the delivery side of the enterprise.
Virtual Dining Concepts is currently taking applications from restaurant owners who want to be part of TikTok Kitchen. Click here to apply online.
Do The Recipe Creators Get A Cut?
In case you wondered about the creative cooks who come up with the viral recipes that will be used by this new venture, they will allegedly be taken care of. TikTok confirmed to TechCrunch that the popular food innovators will get credit (and money) as part of the new TikTok Kitchen program.
“Proceeds from TikTok Kitchen sales will go to both support the creators who inspired the menu item and to encourage and assist other creators to express themselves on the platform in keeping with TikTok’s mission to inspire creativity and bring joy to its users,” TikTok told TechCrunch.
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