
Adventures in Outsourcing: Cooking with TaskRabbit - mtlynch
https://mtlynch.io/taskrabbit-cooking/
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jtmarmon
I've been on keto for a long time. I've always been pressed for time myself
and resorted to very expensive food delivery as an alternative (on keto, food
delivery - especially in queens - means ordering sub par food in too small
portions because the portions include rice or other carbs as filler. then you
end up doubling your portion, adding delivery tip...could be a $30 shitty
dinner)

I've thought about the home cook route but all the professional ones are
absurdly expensive. This is a nice way to do it.

However I recently got a sous vide machine which seems like the answer to my
problems. It's extremely hard to screw something up when it's cooked sous vide
and it's almost always delicious. It's a worthwhile investment

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mtlynch
Yeah, I have a sous vide as well and completely agree. I like it for cooking
things like steak and chicken, but it doesn't really help me much with side
dishes or desserts.

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illumin8
Sides can be extremely easy to cook though. Broccoli only needs to be steamed
for a few minutes. I know the post of the original article is on keto, but
rice can be thrown in a rice cooker and is ready automatically ~20 minutes
later. Sweet potatoes can be thrown in an oven for 30 minutes.

Sides should be very simple and fast to create.

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nsb1
I totally understand that feeling of not having enough time, but have you
considered the side benefits of cooking your own meals? I've fallen into the
'distill every second into code' trap myself, and that way lies burnout. Take
a break for a couple of hours and cook yourself a nice dinner. Even cleaning
up after, while not 'fun' per se, is still downtime from work. Afterwards, if
you really must get more work done, then do so, and you'll do it with a
clearer mind, having had a chance to unwind. Time and time again, life has
showed me that stepping back for awhile from the task at hand ultimately
results in a faster solution to a problem than banging my head against it for
an extra hour ( or three ).

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mtlynch
That's fair. I think it depends on the person. I don't want to squeeze work
out of every last second, but I'd rather do something I enjoy when I'm not
working, like reading or emailing friends. I still cook a few times per week,
but I don't feel like I get a lot out of it, so I'd rather do leisure
activities that I enjoy.

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j88439h84
> When I order food from a restaurant, it arrives anywhere from 20 to 90
> minutes later. It’s difficult for me to be productive in the meantime
> because I can’t fully focus when I know an interruption is coming.

> With a TaskRabbit chef, I get several meals that I can freeze for the week.
> When I want these meals later, I can just eat them as soon as I’m hungry.
> This eliminates unpredictable interruptions and gives me much better control
> of my time.

Why can't you freeze meals from restaurants just like TaskRabbit meals?

Also, you can schedule meals in advance with GrubHub, etc.

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grogenaut
Why not just cook? When you get good at it it doesn't take very long and you
said you're not doing anything anyway

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dageshi
Can't speak for op, but boy do I hate cooking.

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grogenaut
what about it do you hate that you would spend $35-$50 and apparently an hour
per every meal avoiding it? Eg if you were the op.

or just answer for yourself... what do you hate about it?

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dageshi
It just seems like more work. The amount of time buying ingredients, cooking
the ingredients, washing up after cooking in order to eat a meal seems out of
wack to me. So I always end up cooking more for myself than I should because
ultimately I'm sitting there thinking "there's no point going to all this
effort for a tiny amount of food".

But realistically that's not what happens, I just end up buying a lot of store
sandwhiches and takeaways instead.

Cooking to me seems like a hobby some people really enjoy or at least
competent at, if you've got no interest in that hobby then it's easier to just
swap money for food directly instead.

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grogenaut
Is it a practice thing? My mom tricked me when I was a kid. I really liked
omlettes. She plopped the Julia book and the tools and ingredients in front of
me and I basically cooked omlettes for 2 hours till I got good at it and ate
them. She did that for several other meals letting me perfect my technique.

Since then I've always been good at cooking as it holds no fear for me and
makes sense.

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dalore
This article is quite close to home. I have been doing keto for 10 years and
my partner does jobs on task rabbit with quite a few cooking jobs. We've been
discussing creating her own service where she goes out and cooks keto for
people exactly like this guy (or any other food, but focus on ket). She is an
amazing cook. First thing she said about the pics is that the pork could use
some sauce. A nice creamy sauce would go well with it.

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xupybd
Wow, I just couldn't imagine spending that sort of money. But if you can
afford it and it makes you happy, awesome.

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jmilloy
I feel like you are missing the fact that it is ~$100 for 4 meals, not one
meal.

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nxc18
I spend $6 per meal if I _really_ go all out with meat and semi premium
ingredients. I would have to make a lot of money to justify $25 per meal on a
regular basis. On an irregular basis, I'll just go to a restaurant.

I do somewhat enjoy cooking though so that may be the big difference. I also
am trying to live a more balanced life after 4 years of college all nighters.

~~~
dalore
But also look at this way, if his hourly rate is $100 an hour, he just earned
$200/hour. His 4 meals cost him $100 so he is $100 up. If he made the meals
himself, he might have taken longer to make, for a product that wasn't as good
and with a lost opportunity cost. Also he couldn't really make the keto dishes
himself.

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slothtrop
You're conflating hours actually worked with bankable hours per day, typically
8. If he gets paid for the finished product rather than his time at a desk,
then and only then does it make sense.

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dalore
Seeing as he is running his own projects, I would say he isn't limited to 8
bankable hours a day.

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krmmalik
I did something very very similar to this two years ago. I was put on a
particular diet by my nutritionist and so had the same pains as this man and
went through a very similar process. Had to do the shopping myself but made it
clear in the task that i wanted the tasker to give me the shopping list of
what i need. It all went really well. She made me great tasting food that
lasted me a whole week, cleaned up the kitchen after she was done and made
sure the food was as per my dietary requirements. I was really happy. It cost
me £65 for the whole thing. Unfortunately, I can't afford to spend that kind
of money every week at the moment, otherwise I would because i really hate
cooking. But this post has re-ignited the idea at least

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Swizec
This is amazing! Solves exactly the problem I have with eating out or ordering
regularly: Can't track what you're eating.

This could be great for making my weekly mealprep. One less weekends chore.

I love cooking, but it's really not fun when you're pressed for time.

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mtlynch
Thanks for reading! Yeah, I've appreciated that it gives me more control over
what I'm eating without imposing the time commitment that kind of control
would usually require.

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randycupertino
Why not just do a healthy meal delivery service? Zone Diets or Munchery will
deliver something already cooked and within nutritional parameters for far
less than your daily budget.

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wyc
I don't think I'd outsource my cooking because I enjoy it. However, I think it
makes perfect sense for someone who doesn't like cooking to do so, such as the
author. It was certainly an interesting read.

It took me a while to realize that there are things that could be done more
cheaply by someone or something else, but add real value to my life in ways
other than monetary.

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grogenaut
So why not have the task rabbit teach you to cook?

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seanwilson
Interesting writeup! Can you cook? How much time did you you spend arranging a
cook and preparing for their arrival?

I would have thought cooking in bulk with simpler recipes would save more time
overall than arranging someone to turn up to cook for you unless it was a
regular thing or simpler recipes aren't good enough.

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mtlynch
Thanks for reading!

>Can you cook?

I can cook basic meals, and I still do for a few meals per week. Things like
scrambled eggs, steak, burgers, and chicken.

>How much time did you you spend arranging a cook and preparing for their
arrival?

I think that's one of the main weaknesses because I'm still spending about one
hour per visit searching recipes, checking which ingredients I have available,
ordering new ingredients from FreshDirect, and making sure the kitchen is
ready.

>I would have thought cooking in bulk with simpler recipes would save more
time overall than arranging someone to turn up to cook for you unless it was a
regular thing or simpler recipes aren't good enough.

A big motivating factor is desserts/snacks. If I wasn't outsourcing it, I
wouldn't have the motivation to cook myself desserts. So I'd just end up
eating less healthy snacks and not being able to keep up the diet.

~~~
seanwilson
> I can cook basic meals, and I still do for a few meals per week. Things like
> scrambled eggs, steak, burgers, and chicken.

So things like chilli, roasts, lasagne and burritos are classics for bulk
cooking and aren't that difficult.

> A big motivating factor is desserts/snacks. If I wasn't outsourcing it, I
> wouldn't have the motivation to cook myself desserts. So I'd just end up
> eating less healthy snacks and not being able to keep up the diet.

Haha, surely you should be avoiding dessert completely if you want to be
healthy? What's wrong with store bought desserts?

Not knocking whatever your preferences are by the way, I'm just genuinely
curious about business models such as this and things like Blue Apron.
Spending money to free up time for what you want to do makes complete sense to
me.

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dalore
Keto desserts are usually fat bombs which haven't become popular as a store
bought dessert (yet). They usually consist of a serving of fat (like cream
cheese) and some sort of artificial sweetener like stevia. They fill you up
but have no carbs and so are actually healthy for you in keto.

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atom-morgan
They're coming:
[https://caveshake.myshopify.com/](https://caveshake.myshopify.com/)

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davidjnelson
Cool post. What about finding someone on craigslist instead? Would that save
money?

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mtlynch
I am experimenting with that now. I hired someone for $175 per delivery of an
entree, side, and snack similar in portion to what I described in the article.
The fee covers the cost of ingredients, cooking, and delivery. It's more
expensive, but it saves me more time.

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tzakrajs
This is so cringe, the notion they are pursuing keto with so much animal
products is just gross. They probably think they've found their body's best
way to diet. Ugh.

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CupOfJava
It was only mentioned twice, and in two paragraphs in the whole article. It
established the motivation for his experiment. You might draw from different
motivations for trying TaskRabbit.

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gregjw
It costs $100 to order delivery?!

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wingerlang
4 times. Since the cooking is 4 servings.

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shalmanese
But if he's eating reheated food, he could just order 4 servings worth at
once.

Also, if he's ordering in bulk, a lot of restaurants also have catering arms
where you can order food by the tray for much cheaper. Catering orders are
also much more keto friendly as they generally decouple the starch from the
mains and you can just order meat/veggies.

For $100, you can get a lot of catering food.

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jlebrech
surely there are services where you can order multi meal prep boxes for the
week?

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andrewfromx
"Each TaskRabbit worker chooses their own rate for the services they offer, so
it doesn’t make sense to add a tip on top of that." yeah I'm sure they love
not getting tips.

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Mtinie
Do you receive tips for the work you voluntarily do on a daily basis?

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treehau5
Do you not like receiving extra appreciation in the form of compensation when
doing an exceptional job at your work?

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Swizec
I'd feel weird if my boss or my consulting clients tipped me.

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thanatropism
Many organizations have variable, basically unpredictable, often big year-end
bonuses tied to your whole team's $$ performance.

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burntrelish1273
Just hire a part-time personal cook/housekeeper. They're often willing to do
more and don't charge an arm and both legs. TaskRabbit seem like no rapport,
no stability, disposable relationships. Find someone good and stick with them.

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exolymph
If you read the post, he's been consistently using the same TaskRabbit and has
developed a rapport with her.

