TrulyServd started with a simple frustration: good, simple food has become hard to find.
Simple food is rare
So much of what people in the US and Canada eat every day is mass-produced. It comes with long ingredient lists and additives, and it's made to last on a shelf. Bread that's just flour, water and salt, or a stew made from things you can name, has become surprisingly hard to buy.
Travelling through Italy was a reminder of how normal good food can be: made fresh, from a handful of ingredients, by people who have made it the same way for years. It doesn't have to be rare here either.
The food people grew up with
The US and Canada are lands of immigrants. Millions of people here miss the food they grew up with, cooked the way a mother, an aunt or a neighbour made it.
Restaurants adapt recipes so they suit everyone. Home food doesn't have to. Very often, someone a few streets away still cooks it exactly the way you remember.
The people who make it don't fit a storefront
Those cooks are everywhere: home cooks, bakers, the people you meet at farmers' markets. But most of them don't fit a brick-and-mortar model. You can't open a restaurant to sell a few dozen loaves or a weekend batch of your family's dumplings.
So they sell through DMs, Facebook groups, Kijiji and word of mouth. The market is real, but it's scattered, and unless you already know someone, it's almost impossible to find.
What TrulyServd does
TrulyServd brings that market together in one place:
- Find them. Search by dish and city, or browse by cuisine, category and dietary needs.
- See exactly what they make and when. Every dish shows its price, photos, ingredients, allergens and the next time you can pick it up.
- Order ahead. Choose a pickup day and a time slot. If the cook has planned that day, your order is confirmed right away; otherwise it's a pre-order the cook confirms.
- Pick it up from the person who made it, and pay them directly with cash or Interac e-Transfer. TrulyServd never handles the money.
Every kitchen is reviewed before it goes live, including a check of the cook's identity.
It isn't a restaurant and it isn't a delivery app. It's the person who made the food, and a simple way to order from them.
Read the longer version on our About page. If you cook or bake, here's how selling works. If you're hungry, see what's near you.