I've always been really passionate about food, even on the toughest days in the office, what kept me going was the "I wonder what I'll have for lunch today 🤔" thought. Born and raised in Sydney, I learnt to appreciate the sheer variety and authenticity of cuisines we have available to us here. While I enjoy all the different types of food, my one true love (maybe due to heritage, but probably due to the huge range of flavours and ingredients) has to be Asian food.
My parents are originally from Shanghai, and many Australian born Asians can relate when I say this: "Why is every Asian parent seemingly a professional chef?". I used to watch in awe as my full time working mother churned out delicious dishes day in day out for a family of 6, all within the span of 30 to 45 minutes. I grew up thinking this was the norm, and that one day I would be able to do the same when I had my own little family.
Oh how wrong I was. I'm no shabby cook, you can ask my partner; but cooking a nice little meal for 2 from scratch is a task that takes me an hour at least, not to mention the tedious cleaning that comes afterwards. Living alone gave me a taste of what sorting out my own food on a daily basis would be like, and it just seemed impossible to make food from scratch everyday. I ordered heaps of takeout, and that ended up working for me for a while - until it started working away at my bank account.
Being in data analytics, everything revolved around automating things to save time and money; so I started thinking: "how do I enjoy good Asian food, but also account for my laziness/busyness/foodieness without spending too much?" COVID isolation gave me the opportunity to try the plethora of meal kits and ready made meals but I found myself still craving my mum's cooking the most.
Amidst the chaos of 2021-2022, I set out to find foods that reminded me of my mum’s cooking (mind you I still very regularly enjoy it) but was available at scale and didn’t require an Asian parents’ mysterious cooking skills to make. Many months later, I managed to pull together a range of dishes from well known restaurants and smaller brands alike to form the iPlate product range it is today.
iPlate was built to give Aussies that little bit of support with food prep throughout the week, especially on days that you just can’t bring yourself to cook from scratch. Take em out of the freezer, and you’ve got a quick, but delicious dinner in your hands. Of course we also want to satisfy the Asian food cravings - and help our less familiar Aussies get into Asian cuisine without needing to comprehend a 20 page menu in a foreign language. 😂
It's been an huge pleasure to see iPlate putting smiles many faces and I really hope it can continue to provide affordable, convenient happiness to many others!