The options for people who have no time to cook and don’t want to go out to eat every night can be disappointing. A group of entrepreneurs, including David Chang of the Momofuku restaurants, is starting a company that plans to make high-quality restaurant food that it expects to deliver in as little as 15 minutes.
The secret, the group says, is technology.

The partners, along with Mr. Chang, are Caleb Merkl, Akshay Navle and William Gaybrick, all of whom have experience in delivery, mobile technology and finance. Their company, called Maple, is intended to be in operation next year.

Mr. Merkl said he and Mr. Navle came up with the idea out of frustration with existing food delivery systems. “Restaurants don’t focus on home delivery,” he said.

With Maple, they plan to create smarter routing systems and better packaging and choices of dishes, issues that restaurants do not necessarily address when it comes to delivery. Algorithms that efficiently work out who orders what and where, and how to fulfill the orders, will be part of the system.
Mr. Merkl said that Mr. Chang was enthusiastic from the beginning and that Momofuku became one of the investors. Maple’s initial funding is $4 million.

Mr. Chang is the chief culinary officer, and he will enlist the expertise of other New York chefs, along with food suppliers like farmers, to create the menus. Maple’s menus will change daily. A typical dish may run $12 to $15, including tax, tip and delivery.

Customers will place orders using an app. Food from a commissary kitchen will, according to the plans, arrive on their doorsteps fast, fresh and hot. “Our goal is 15 minutes,” Mr. Merkl said. That sounds like a pipe dream in Manhattan, where 15 minutes may get you from Midtown to 14th Street without traffic. “Our delivery area will be incredibly tight,” he said.

Depending on the response from potential customers, they will decide where to locate their kitchens, which could number from 15 to 30.

Consumers who are interested in using the service can sign up at trymaple.com.

沒時間在家烹飪又不想天天晚上出門吃飯的人可能沒有多少選擇。于是Momofuku餐館的大衛·張(David Chang)等幾位創業者籌劃開辦一家公司，提供高質量的15分鐘餐館外賣。

他們說，秘密在于技術。

除了張先生，其他合作伙伴還有卡勒布·默克爾(Caleb Merkl)、阿克謝·納維爾(Akshay Navle)和威廉·蓋布里克(William Gaybrick)，他們有物流、移動技術和金融領域的工作經驗。公司名叫“梅普爾”(Maple)，計劃于明年開業。

默克爾說，他和納維爾對目前的食品外賣系統感到不滿，于是就想出了這個主意。“餐館不重視家庭外賣，”他說。

他們計劃通過梅普爾建立更加智能的外送路線系統，以及更好的包裝和更多食品選擇，這些問題都是其他餐館外賣并不需要特別考慮的。系統使用算法高效地處理顧客點了什么，送到哪里，以及如何滿足訂單等問題。

張是公司的廚藝執行官，他將列出紐約其他廚師的專長，還有農場等食品供應商的信息，在此基礎上創立菜譜。梅普爾的菜譜會每天更換。一般一道菜大概在12到15美元，含稅、小費和外送費。

顧客可以使用app點菜。來自相關供應廚房的食品可以根據制定好的計劃，盡快到達顧客家中，并保持新鮮和溫度。“我們的目標是15分鐘送達，”默克爾說。這聽上去有點像一個曼哈頓白日夢。要知道，沒有交通堵塞的情況下，15分鐘內也只能從中心城趕到14街。“我們的外送區非常嚴密，”他說。

他們將根據潛在客戶的回饋調整廚房的地址，計劃開辦15-30家。

對此服務感興趣的客戶可以登陸trymaple.com。