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Photo: courtesy

A homemade meal is always the best. And when you don't need to go through the hassle of making it in your kitchen, the meal becomes even more enticing. the Star takes a look at the online catering scene of the country to ease your hunt for tasty, quality, hygienic food!

While catering services have been in existence for decades, online catering is more of a recent phenomenon in our country. And the best thing about this is that you can choose from a range of options to satisfy your cravings. In the mood for pizza? Just go to the Facebook page of Pizza Guy, place your order and there you have it! Want to try some steak pie? Daily Deli is the place to go! Customised cakes, macaroons, cupcakes, pithas, khichuri, chicken jhal freezie; you'll be surprised by the range and the expertise of most online caterers and chefs.
Most of these caterers are young people, doing what they love doing with a level of proficiency and efficiency that is sure to surprise you. Some of them have taken their love for cooking a step further, first starting off on a small scale, catering from home before opening their catering services to the public online while others are trained chefs, who have studied cooking techniques in reputed schools. Whatever the story, these chefs have managed to bring about a taste of originality and variation in our somewhat dull culinary scene.
Kiki's Catering was never meant to be a big venture. Opened on Facebook early this year, with an initial capital of Tk 10,000, the owners basically wanted to offer an income source to the caretaker of their house, a widow on the lookout for some extra money. Sohana Hossain, owner of the catering service, says that as their kitchen is in Niketon, their clients for now are limited to that area but they do plan to expand their services to other places of Dhaka very soon.

Pizza Guy. Photo: courtesy

“Initially we offered complimentary packages to our friends and acquaintances just to assure everyone about the taste and quality of our food. If you can ensure these two things in your food, then your service is bound to become popular. We've been inundated with demands to expand our services to other localities and we plan to do that soon,” says Sohana.
Kiki's Catering is mostly known for their deshi meals like khichuri and curries but Sohana and her husband also experiment on their days off with various cuisines that are gradually getting more and more popular. Their food is affordable at Tk 80 for a meal and they are extremely particular about the hygiene and quality of their meals. The catering service is offering mezbani meat and halim as their Iftaar specials during Ramadan. Residents of Niketon are definitely in for a treat this Ramadan!
Anika Alam, one of the owners of Punizz Kitchen, says that she has always loved food; be it cooking for her friends and family or savouring her own creations, she and her three friends responsible for the immensely popular Facebook store have always enjoyed experimenting with different cuisines, textures and colours. They loved baking and mastered the skill by watching cooking shows on TV and reading recipe books. Inspired by other online catering services and encouraged by their friends and family, the four friends decided to open an online bakery store in 2012. Currently, the Facebook page of Punizz Kitchen has over 19,000 likes and their customer base is ever expanding.
“Only those who are passionate about baking should think of opening a bakery, even if they want to open one online. We have to sometimes spend the whole day on one cake, but we enjoy doing it and that's the reason why the end result is enjoyed so much by our customers,” says Anika.
Apart from customised cakes and cupcakes, Punizz Kitchen also has different kinds of breads and other baked goods on offer but you have to place your orders at least four days prior to the delivery date. The pick-up point of the online store is in Dhanmondi but you can get your food delivered to your doorstep for an additional charge.    
If you think that online catering services are only limited to Dhaka, then you'd be quite far off the mark. Suzana Chowdhury of Chittagong started her catering service online from April this year, and in a matter of months, her Facebook store Suzana's Kitchenette has almost 3000 likes and a dedicated fan base. Suzana did not really plan on opening an online store; initially, she had a recipe page on a social networking site where she would post her original recipes along with pictures. The pictures looked so tempting that Suzana was swamped with requests to start a store of her own. That's how her only store came into being. Be it doughnuts, puddings, tarts, prawn balls, soufflés, pizzas, Suzana's Kitchenette offers a range of goodies that you can choose from.
“I would spend hours browsing and searching for the best recipes which I could try and then post on my page online. I even took part in the Dhaka Foodies Competition, and won the first prize. That really boosted my confidence. People who followed me on Facebook requested me to take orders but I wasn't ready for such a big move but then I changed my decision when I called over a few friends to a party I named Suzana's Kitchenette Taste Off. They were practically fighting for the last piece of food and that made me feel like I was on top of the world! So that's when I decided to open an online store,” says Suzana with a smile.
Suzana says that even though the pressure was a bit too much to take in the beginning - she had big orders from three to four clients on the same day – she now enjoys the challenge of delivering the food on time as promised. She is even being requested to start cooking classes but says that she still has to make up her mind about that. She is planning to offer a special Iftar menu for Ramadan, which will include items like chicken twisters, rolls, pizzas and much more!  

Suzana's Kitchenette . Photo: courtesy

The Flourist is one of the pioneer online bakeries in the country. Saria Tasnim Ahmed, owner of the popular online bakery, earned a diploma in patisserie from the Le Cordon Bleu in London, and is thus a certified chef. It's little wonder that you can see the expert's touch in everything offered at The Flourist. Saria herself makes the fondant for her cakes and often needs to import ingredients, thus making her cakes a bit pricier than regular when her clients order fondant covered cakes. But the higher charge does not seem to deter the loyalists of this online bakery who fawn over Saria's hand painted customised cakes.
“After coming back to Dhaka in October 2012, I started The Flourist as a food blog. People tried to coax me into opening a shop and I finally gave in. I converted The Flourist into an online dessert kitchen starting February 14, 2013. And it's been running through Facebook ever since,” says Saria.
With an assortment of treats like cake pops, macaroons, tarts, cupcakes, cheesecakes and even cakes for diabetics, The Flourist has earned a reputation for offering variety, quality and taste. Some of the unique flavours offered at the online bakery include chai cake, which is a light chocolate cake flavoured with black tea, and Banofee, a banana cake with caramel sauce. The store does not deliver but you can place your orders some days prior to delivery and collect it from their pick up point in Uttara.
When Shaila Alam was on the lookout for a bakery that would take orders for custom cakes for her child's second birthday, she was shocked by the price quoted. She did not have any professional training in baking but would always experiment with cakes and other baked items to the delight of her friends and family members. They pushed her to open her own online bakery. The goal of Baked Bites, her online store, is simple; offer the best taste at an affordable rate.
“Baked Bites is a one woman show. At the moment, the bakery offers cakes and bakery items, but I do intend to expand the menu to include savoury foods as well. I try to follow certain rules to keep costs low. For example, even though I take orders for customised cakes, I don't do fondants as that would increase the price and that would beat my purpose of starting this online bakery store,” says Shaila.
Baked Bites don't do deliveries, so if you are interested in ordering from this affordable, quality online bakery, you might have to go to their pick up point in Gulshan-2.  
If you are looking for something a bit more on the deshi side for Iftaar, you should definitely check out Gharkonna on Facebook. Afisa Hossain, owner of the online store, has been cooking professionally for over a decade now, supplying to supermarkets, and catering from her house before finally opening an online store in 2013. Gharkonna specialises in deshi food items like pitha puli, ilish chitoi, samosas, pulao, khichuri and halwa, among others.
“I've been in this business for a long time now but have only recently opened a store on Facebook. Having a virtual platform obviously helps but I also think that you need to be active in the physical market as well if you want a loyal client base,” says Afisa.
Even though Ghorkonna's kitchen is in Moghbazar, they cater to areas all over Dhaka. However, if you want to order food on a large scale, you will have to place the order some days in advance.
If you had read the books of Enid Blyton during your childhood, you surely remember how your tummies would rumble at the mention of the different kinds of pies. But where would you get pies in Dhaka? At Daily Deli, that's where. Nisha Selim, the owner of the online catering store that specialises in pies, while also offering a range of soups and sandwiches, was born and brought up in England, and thus is very familiar with English cuisine.
“I don't use any preservatives in my food, as I prefer to use fresh ingredients. I guess this is what sets Daily Deli apart, aside from the fact that we are probably the only catering service that specialises in English food items like shepherd's pie, steak and kidney pie and caramel crumble, to name a few,” says Nisha.
Pizza, it never gets old! Instead of gorging on the unhealthier, deep fried options, why not go for this age old favourite if you are in the mood for something greasy? The Bashundhara based Pizza Guy has already made its mark amongst locals of the area with their original, gourmet meat pizzas. The owners actually went on a “pizza trip” to Italy to know how to make the perfect pizza. They take special pride in their pizza crust which is an original Napolitano recipe.
“I took cooking courses in Italy and even studied under Tommy Miah before joining the Radisson for further training” says Navid Rubaiyat Hasan, one of the owners of the store. “Thus we can honestly claim to be a genuine pizza store that takes pride in offering the best pizzas in town to its customers,” Pizza Guy's pick up point is a small kitchen in Bashundhara but you can also get the delivery service Hungry Naki to deliver their pizzas to your house.  
Even though Sanjida Sayeed does not have any Facebook page, she is quite well-known as a quality caterer who spares no effort in providing the best food to her dedicated client base, mostly in Gulshan and Banani. She has been catering bakery items for over two years, taking orders over the phone or through email. Unlike other online caterers, she does not mind taking orders on a short notice, as she is unwilling to let her customers go unsatisfied.
“There is a strong chance of ideas getting stolen if you have a page on Facebook and that's the main reason why I haven't yet opened an online store,” says Sanjida.
She caters to individual clients and also supplies to some restaurants in Gulshan and Banani that don't have a specialised bakery chef.

While opening an online catering service might seem like an easy option, it is not without its share of challenges. “There are days when I have to deliver twelve different kinds of food to my customers and then there are days when I have no orders to speak of. That's the disadvantage of online catering stores,” says Nisha Selim of Daily Deli.
Suzana Chowdhury says that most online caterers are self-employed, and thus they do most of the work on their own. “All the food has to be made after the order is placed and it has to be fresh. Also, as there is usually a variety of items in the menu, it sometimes becomes quite difficult to meet customer demands for different food items on the same day,” she adds.
“There is also a risk of miscommunication with clients and thus you need to be an expert at customer management when you run an online page, says Anika Alam of Punizz Kitchen. “You need a lot of patience and you need to be ready to learn and experiment if you wish to stay ahead of others,” she says.
However, despite the challenges, all of these caterers say that every hardship is worth it when they are heaped with praises and gratitude by a satisfied customer. “That feeling that you've made someone's day with the food that you cooked is worth all the trouble,” says Shaila Alam of Baked Bites.

All this talk about food is creating pangs of hunger in us that is becoming harder and harder to ignore. If it's the same with you, we'd recommend you to give some of these online caterers a try this Ramadan to see whether they are worth your time and your taste buds.