Your Kitchen Food Service LTD is a Namibian-registered company specializing in the design, consulting and production of high-quality food for the local tourism sector. Specifically, YK provides a comprehensive 360° service dedicated to the owners and managers of hotels and lodges in the local market.
The concept—born from the insightful idea of two of the company’s founders—originated from an analysis of the food service offered by Namibian hospitality establishments, which was generally poor and often of substandard quality.
In a context where the food experience is largely absent due to distances, small scale, and a lack of culinary culture, Your Kitchen developed a system to support the management of these establishments.
Starting with local raw materials and drawing from available culinary offerings, YK collaborates with lodge managers to design a new menu where the culinary experience takes center stage, offering Guests top-quality dishes.
In practice, YK, after defining the new gastronomic proposal, produces each dish at its facility in Windhoek. The preparation, cooking, and storage processes utilize the best technologies available on the market, following the CCR logic: Cook, Chill, and Regenerate, leading to storage in environments at -18°C.
Each hospitality establishment places orders for the necessary dishes based on their weekly occupancy, and Your Kitchen, through its logistics partner, ensures timely and efficient delivery. The lodge then simply regenerates the dish following the instructions provided during staff training and with the support of YK’s Food Inspector.
The benefits of this proposal for the Client are numerous and significant:
- The lodge/hotel transitions from a low-quality fixed menu to a high-level à la carte menu.
- Each dish, being produced in a central kitchen, is stabilized in weight, taste, and overall quality. Once the design is set, the standard remains consistent, enhancing the culinary offering.
- The ability to stock dishes allows YK to purchase raw materials at the best time and with the highest quality.
- The constant presence of Your Kitchen’s Food Inspector helps the hospitality establishment maintain the correct dish regeneration capability.
- The creation of dedicated menu helps the establishment differentiate itself from competitors, moving away from the common practice of serving the same dishes everywhere (it is quite common to find the same dishes everywhere).
- The absence of waste represents significant cost savings (transitioning from a system where raw materials are often poorly used, if not wasted, to a system where finished dishes are ordered in strictly necessary quantities).
- Reducing the need for electricity and gas at the lodges (a key factor in a context of very limited availability).
- Upselling opportunities at the establishments thanks to the food experience (better food = greater willingness to pair it, for example, with quality wine for an additional charge).
While this activity represents the core business of the company, two additional, yet complementary, action lines have been developed.The first involves creating a B2B catalog offering a wide range of dishes ready for regeneration. In this case, standardization excludes the extreme customization of the previously illustrated method; however, the catalog requires a very low level of training since regeneration is quite simple.
The second line targets B2C, introducing select dishes into the Namibian mass retail market. In this case, the offering is premium, focused on fresh products (thus, foods that are not long-lasting and without food preservatives).
YK’s development plan envisions opening a second production hub by 2027 in a different country within southern Africa or the western part of Asia. The goal is to establish a work standard on which to base the proliferation of production facilities, complemented by commercial ones, as part of the company’s expansion, always in line with its commitment to consulting for high-quality food production.
In defining its standards, Your Kitchen has chosen to be extremely mindful of waste and fully committed to reducing both emissions and waste production at every step. To this end, it has signed local agreements that allow for the recycling of materials, such as the plastic bags used to store food.
