Transforming a love of home-cooked food into a successful online delivery service with Chi You - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Transforming a love of home-cooked food into a successful online delivery service with Chi You

In Partnership with Squarespace
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Self-taught cook and culinary entrepreneur, Chi You shares how she built her online presence so she could continue focusing on the parts of the business she loved the most.

Chi You is an innovative and passionate cook who turned her interest and love of food into a thriving business. Chi recognized the need for a home-cooked food delivery service in 2020 and thought of a way she could meet that demand. She is now the proud founder of Personal Chef Berlin, a weekly meal-prep service focused on delivering healthy, sustainable, and nourishing food. Two years after launching her company, she reflects on her creative relationship with food and shares her influences, the philosophy driving her business, and the tools that led to her success.

This feature is part of  “Three Creative Paths,” an editorial series produced in collaboration with Squarespace, the all-in-one website and commerce building platform. In dialogue with a diverse group of creative entrepreneurs, the series dives into three unique experiences and explores the importance of a strong online presence for turning a passion project into a successful career.

A self-taught chef originally from South Korea, Chi has lived in Seoul, Chicago, Ibiza, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Berlin. In each city, food has been a consistent source of comfort and always helped her to feel at home. Her passion for cooking comes from her mom, who she describes as being “an amazing cook who taught me how to make food taste like it’s been carefully and lovingly prepared.” She describes, “moving around so much, and my background has really shaped the way I cook and think about food. I don’t think I would be the chef I am today without these experiences.” The two years Chi lived in Barcelona were especially influential for her, partly due to the variety of fresh produce available at the markets in her neighborhood and partly due to the wide-range of restaurants she frequented. “I think that’s when my interest in gourmet food really began. Going out to eat there was an unbelievable experience for me and I loved selecting produce and buying seasonal ingredients to cook with at home.” Her skills as a chef, combined with her recent experience as a marketing manager for a restaurant group in Berlin, contribute to her mix of talent, passion, practical skills, and expertise. When the lockdown began, and restaurants and communal dining paused, she immediately noticed a gap in the much-needed service of cooking and delivering food to individuals and families. What people wanted wasn’t just take-out from the restaurants they loved, but the home-cooked meals they missed. She describes it as, “that feeling when you visit your parents’ house, and before you return home, your mom packs you tupperware of food. That is the concept behind Personal Chef Berlin.” She considers cooking for her clients similar to cooking for her family and it is that care and love that sets her business apart

In her Berlin home, Chi is able to use Squarespace tools to represent all aspects of her business.

“I think the ease of not having to think about coding was really nice. The only thing I needed to do was take beautiful photos and write good content. It has been a huge help as a solo entrepreneur.”

Chi uses her culinary expertise to source the best of local produce.

Once her business started picking up, Chi realized that the mix of separate payment tools was not going to be a sustainable solution. To improve the process, she decided to build a website that would help her manage weekly subscriptions and payments—and tailored the homepage to answer questions for those curious to sign up. She chose Squarespace because of the functionality of its subscription tool, which also enabled her to focus more on recipe development, sourcing ingredients, and cooking—the parts of the business that she loved most. She reflects, “I think the ease of not having to think about coding was really nice. The only thing I needed to do was take beautiful photos and write good content. It has been a huge help as a solo entrepreneur.” Given how much the website has allowed her to automate the administrative side of her business, she is now free to get her new kitchen up and running and dream of longer-term projects such as expanding into more cities, perhaps Munich or Hamburg. Another hope is that through cooking, she is building community, “I want to invite my clients to have meals together in this new space because I never get to enjoy meals with them. I think my clients have similar interests and I think they have similar values. I would love to have them meet and build community through food.”

Chi infuses her ingredients with passion and love to create wholesome, nourishing meals.
Chi’s approach to cooking is rooted in empathy and inspired by the act of cooking for a family member.

“It’s that feeling when you visit your parents’ house, and before you return home, your mom packs you a Tupperware with food for your next meal. That is the concept behind Personal Chef Berlin.”

Automating the administrative side of her business, allows Chi to focus more on recipe development.
Weekly changes to the menu are an opportunity to reflect seasonal changes and experiment with new ingredients.

“It’s never been so easy to test your ideas. If you have an idea, I think it’s important to give it a try.”

The success of Chi’s delivery service has allowed to set up a new kitchen—a place she looks forward to sharing with her community and clients.

When she founded her meal delivery company, she used her website as a place to outline her values as a business owner. She states her mission is, “to connect people with real, wholesome food and inspire a healthier community.” In every meal, she prepares she “tries to make sure to have different colors so that the meal contains a rainbow of ingredients. This is a great way to make sure there is a balance of different nutrients.” Chi also feels a sense of environmental responsibility, especially given how wasteful packaged food and take-out meals tend to be. Whenever possible, she opts for reusable packaging such as glass jars, tupperware, and traditional Korean wrapping cloth called bojagi. Clients can also return containers when receiving the following week’s meals. When she shops for ingredients, Chi also prioritizes supporting suppliers and farmers who value quality and grow food locally. Her perspective is simple, “ingredients make the dish” and her dream is to have a garden of her own.

It’s clear within minutes of hearing Chi talk about her business that her approach to cooking and delivering food is rooted in empathy—she understands the ways in which busy schedules or juggling family life can get in the way of nourishing oneself and she has a strong desire to care for others. The care she takes in tailoring a menu, recipe preparation, selecting ingredients, and delivering meals make her stand out as both a chef and a passionate entrepreneur. She has also set up weekly routines to streamline her process: “On Tuesday mornings and Saturdays I go to the market. On Tuesday afternoons and Sundays, I prepare each meal. I cook on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I reserve Thursdays and Fridays for developing and planning recipes, and responding to customer inquiries.” Aside from her favorite dish, Chicken Ruby Curry, Chi rarely repeats a menu. “There is a restaurant in London called Dishoom. I have their cookbook, and I make their Chicken Ruby. It’s basically butter chicken, and it’s so delicious. I get so many messages and emails about how good it is. So every six months, or even more like four months, I do a Dishoom special.” Aside from favorites like Chicken Ruby, Chi sees the value in changing her menus and works to keep her clients surprised and delighted by the variety. 


Chi shoots and edits all of her food by herself for upload to her website.
The Squarespace app allows Chi to manage her business at home and on the go.
Curating her website and representing her brand authentically helped Chi’s business to succeed.

When asked about advice for those attempting to start their own businesses, Chi notes, “It’s never been so easy to test your ideas. If you have an idea, I think it’s important to give it a try.” She knew the need for delicious and healthy food was prevalent when she heard from her clients that, “because of my service, they have more time to invest in important things like spending time with their families, or now they can take a walk during their lunchtime instead of trying to think of what they want to cook. That is more than food, that is helping to support the quality of someone’s life.” Within two years, Chi You has taken her love of food and, through her Squarespace site, launched a business that has proven successful in making others passionate about her cooking. Her remarkable vision has done more than create a full-time job for herself, she has also helped those around her live balanced and healthy lives.

Chi You is a self-taught chef with a passion for home-cooked meals. Her love of food has led her to found Personal Chef Berlin, a meal-prep-service rooted in wholesome recipes and local suppliers. By investing in a clever online presence for her service, Chi is able to focus on the parts of the business she loved the most—cooking and nurturing her community. 

This feature is part of “Three Creative Paths,” an editorial series produced in collaboration with Squarespace, the all-in-one website and commerce building platform. In dialogue with a diverse group of creative entrepreneurs, the series dives into three unique experiences and explores the importance of a strong online presence for turning a passion project into a successful career.

Along with Chi You, this series features the founders of The Journal Collective, an online platform dedicated to women and nonbinary photographers, as well as Mary Scherpe the creative force behind the legendary blog Stil in Berlin

Text: Amelia Lang
Photography: Lena Giovanazzi

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