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How do you get consumers to pick one subscription food-delivery service over another? Perhaps by serving up something a little different on the marketing front.
CookUnity launched in 2016, with the premise of tweaking
the recipe in the increasingly crowded business of serving meals to harried consumers who have little time to cook or prepare dinner. The independent company offers meals designed by top chefs such as Esther Choi, Jose Garces, and Marcus Samuelsson.
Its latest promotional effort aims to burnish its offerings to every New Yorker. On Thursday eight chefs set up shop – literally – at five local bodegas, delis or corner stores, serving up signature dishes for free to anyone who might walk in. John DeLucie, for example, grilled up rack of lamb, while Andrew Rea, also known as Babish, offered spicy chili-garlic noodles and Guinness shepherd’s pie.
“There are a lot of other providers of meals and subscription programs throughout the country,” acknowledges Michael Baruch, CookUnity’s head of brand. But the company believes it has a notable distinction that puts high quality dishes from celebrated chiefs in the hands of people who might ordinarily might not be able to sample them. “We don’t make any food. What we do is partner with the best chefs in the world,” he says, who take part because CookUnity’s distribution allows them to forge connections with customers not in the immediate vicinity of their restaurants.
“Bodegas and delis and corner stores are part fo the cultural fabric of New York,” Baruch adds. Putting the chefs in these well-visited locations “provides access to individuals and communication with the chefs at a level people wouldn’t ordinarily have access to.”
The global food subscription market size was valued at $6.19 billion in 2025, according to Fortune Business Insights, and is projected to grow to $14.4 billion in 2032, up from $6.74 billion in 2026. North American consumers create the biggest demand for such services.
Chefs will also be handing out complete meals under seal that people can take home and eat later and offer “little bites” at the bodegas that can be sampled. Guests can also scratch a bodega-style lottery ticket for a chance to win free CookUnity meals for a year and additional prizes including special dining experiences at participating chefs’ restaurants.
The promotion will, hopefully “give bodega owners a day off,” says Baruch, and “create some energy in these stores” that will get consumers to sample new foods and forge different connections with chefs. They will also promote appearances, he says, on their own social channels.
