For food industry startups, opening up a brick-and-mortar location can be a difficult, daunting task.
To help entrepreneurs get it done, Grubhub and Chicago’s The Hatchery, a nonprofit incubator dedicated to fostering successful F&B businesses, teamed up to host a pitch competition, awarding the winner one year of free access to a private kitchen in the space.
The competition, held earlier this month, featured four local businesses, sharing plans on how they will grow their concepts, while also showcasing samples of their food.
While all finalists brought unique concepts to the table, it was Seth Bradley and Ryan Van Voorhis, co-founders of Nude Dude Food, who took home the grand prize.
Nude Dude Food Co-Founders Seth Bradley and Ryan Van Voorhis.
The idea for Nude Dude Food came about when the two best friends since high school and roommates of over 10 years would cook for friends and family hosting dinner parties, utilizing locally sourced foods from farmers markets. Realizing this was their passion, the duo left their careers and launched Nude Dude Food in 2016, a catering business specializing in farm-to-table ingredients.
Since its fruition, Bradley and Van Voorhis have travelled to nearly 25 states, cooking meals in clients’ homes for various occasions from birthdays, bachelorette parties, to business events. Their uniform (shirtless with aprons, hence the name) is common for events, but the duo relays they are more than happy to come prepared with chef coats as well.
As the business looks to scale, landing the free year at The Hatchery fit right in with plans for the future. This includes having an outlet to sell their sourdough pizza product, which they served at the pitch competition, as well as having an opportunity to consolidate their operations under one roof, from the private dining sector to the corporate dining side of the business.
“It really makes the next step for businesses that are in our position much more reasonable and takes that capital lift off our shoulders,” said Bradley. “But also having that nice facility, there’s ample room for us to not only get in there but to grow out of.”
The catering company serves various occasions with farm-to-table ingredients.
The entrepreneurs said that the biggest outlook scalability-wise is their pizza as “that’s a product we strongly believe in.”
“Once the pizzas are a little more on the map, we would like to have our own space to serve pizza, do private dinners…a brick-and-mortar to expand operations locally and hopefully in other cities as well,” said Van Voorhis.
The pair added they also appreciate the entrepreneurial support through Grubhub and The Hatchery.
“The support thus far has been amazing, and that’s really important for us, having the community aspect when it comes to food and that outlet,” said Bradley.
Additionally, to the other contestant’s surprise, Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal also awarded the three other finalists six months of free access to a private kitchen within The Hatchery. This includes Anwar Jebran of Honeydoe Authentic Mediterranean, Earl Moore of Uncle Earl’s BBQ and Valerie Vedral of The Vulgar Vegan.
Nude Dude Food’s sourdough pizza.
All four-pitch competition finalists will move into their private kitchens in early 2024—as well as receive wraparound support from The Hatchery and Grubhub, including access to schedule a professional food photoshoot, business review check-ins with the Grubhub team, and more.
