Perhaps you feel like Nigerian jollof rice tonight, but your spouse feels more like chicken parmigiana. Meanwhile, the kids are on a vegan kick. Too bad you don’t all have a personal chef, right? Din Din, a business that debuted in August, solves this problem with a Lorton ghost kitchen staffed by eight chefs as well as two chefs in College Park, Maryland. In one delivery, each family member can get a dinner prepared by a different chef, or everyone can eat the same thing in the form of an extra-large family meal.
Din Din is the brainchild of creative consultant John Aggrey, who wanted to help when he saw friends in the restaurant industry struggling due to COVID restrictions. “John and a couple others said, ‘How can we support this industry and allow talented people to cook in a different way?'” explains Amanda Everett, vice president of the Food Accelerators Culinary Experience Program (FACEx) + finance. “We also have tons of families and single people and elderly people who can’t get out like we used to. It was to support an industry that is really struggling because of COVID.” Aggrey partnered with cofounders Bobby Steinbach and Andrew Nasrinpay, and connected with Frontier Kitchen in Lorton, then La Prima Catering in College Park. Reston Limousine delivers food anywhere within 50 miles of the kitchens.
Din Din added a mobile app last month, which makes it easier for customers to connect with the company. Everett says that Din Din now has about 400 user accounts. What are they getting? SourDog Concepts prepares vegan eats, including taco bowls, harissa sweet potato salad and chia pudding. Nigerian and Indian classics come from chefs Chinwendu Ukoha and Hemant Mathur, respectively. But most of the chefs cook dishes from around the world, everything from Korean galbi to Trinidadian chicken curry to all-American steak and chicken dishes. Deliveries are on Sunday and Wednesday and must be ordered 48 hours in advance because each is made to order. They’re delivered on ice packs, ready to be heated. In a world where most of our eating takes place at home, varied options are always welcome.
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