Sabah Drabu, CEO of Cookin Genie

Sabah Drabu is a foodie, an engineer, and the Cofounder & CEO of CookinGenie – a platform that connects local chefs with at-home diners.

She started CookinGenie in 2019 to make hiring personal chefs more accessible and make it mainstream. Sabah’s idea has since grown into a service that’s used by people to entertain friends, spice up their vacation rentals, and host intimate family get-togethers.

The platform she created also helps local chefs better manage their personal chef business, leaving them free to do what they love – cook amazing food.

Sabah was born and raised in Mumbai, India and calls Ohio home since 2000. She is also a wife and a mom.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to the podcast about the businessof running a business. This is iHeartRadio
Cleveland's CEOs you should know, andI'm Keith Tonskriz. You might have thought
that a personal chief is something onlyfor the lifestyles of a rich and famous,
but in many areas of the world, including China and India, it's
actually quite common for professional chefs tocome to your home and cook for your

(00:21):
family. That's why Saba Drabu,a cook Engenie, started that business pre
covid here in Cleveland, and wefound out today how things are going.
So tell me a little bit abouthow cook Engenie works. Oh that's the
fun part. Yeah, So CookingGenie. Just go to the website cooking
Genie dot com, put your zipgood and the chefs will pop up the

(00:42):
ones which are in your service area. Really, menus are right there with
the dishes. The cuisines are listed, the prizing so number of portions.
So if you're having just your mealfor your family or meal for a dinner
party, you can do it rightthere. It's just pick your dishes,
add to the car. I putin your date and address right hey,

(01:06):
and you're done it. They showup with all the food with all the
grocery, all the grocery. Nowthat you have to provide plots and pants
and yes, your home, yourkitchen, our grocery, our chefs,
they come cook, clean up afterthemselves, they do dishes. Wow,
I think that's the most valuable partof the service. That's my last favorite

(01:26):
part. Right, that does excitesome people. Yeah, of course.
So how did this concept start foryou? So I am a friend,
my co founder. We were justyou know, discussing, you know,
be our busy family. So wewere just discussing how to solve this one
problem about providing fresh food for afamily. And this is uh, this

(01:46):
was always like jobs and kids andyou know, takeout is not the best.
You know, you do it.I'm not saying you don't, you
do it, but that's not yourbest option. So home cooking is considered
is always the best option. Andto tackle this, people are like,
hey, you know, back inthat country, we have this, We
have people coming over cooking for us. Why not here? Why not make

(02:07):
this whole you know, personal chefconcept more mainstream, right because personal chefs
you normally think of as like celebritylike Jennifer Aniston has a personal chef,
so I shouldn't have one eggs,But you're telling me that in outside the
US that's more common some countries.Yes, yeah, yes, So we
were thinking how do we make itmainstream? And then when we went into

(02:27):
math and you know, we're tryingto figure it out, we're like,
Okay, we don't have a fancyrestaurant, we don't have the overhead.
We can do this, we canpull it off. You know, we
have a chef bring he brings thegrocery. He or she brings the groceries
to your home cooks. So it'sreally the groceries, the labor that the
chef puts in. Yeah, andyou know that's it. Really, it's
not going to be it's I wasbumbling around on the website and I noticed

(02:51):
some really reasonable prices for a fourcourse home cooked meal that you don't have
to really lift a finger for.How far in advanced do you recommend people?
Like if would I be able todo it tomorrow night? Or are
we a little bit further out twonights if you're planning it for say weekend?
Perfect? Yeah, so like Fridaynight, Saturday night. Yes,

(03:13):
that's so amazing. And then obviouslydid you start in Cleveland and then expanded
and then Columbus and now Cincinna No, since Nadi and then Hacking Hills.
Oh wow, Yeah, I wentto ou so Hocking Hills is very near
and n oh great? Okay,Now would they be able to come to
one of those luxury cabins at theHocking Wow? Is that? Now you're

(03:38):
talking? Now You've got me reallyexcited. Right, And I have my
wife and I both work. Wehave two young children who I don't think
eat very well, partly because wedon't cook very well, you know,
I mean you can only microwave chickennuggets so many nights a week. Right,
Um? What was your other Whatwas your life before cooking? Genie?
What was it? How did youcome into this world? So?

(04:00):
Before this, I actually, rightbefore starting cooking, Jeanie, I was
actually involved in a startup in Cleveland. It was a female founder and it
was great working for her. SoI just got a start of you know,
a startup life. You know,I got a taste of startup life,
sorry, taste of startup life.So that was fantastic to experience that.
And of course, you know myfamily, my parents, they are

(04:24):
in business my husband has a business, So it's I guess it comes People
say it comes naturally to me.I don't think. So it's a struggle
every day. Well, I cantell that. You know, you're very
gregarious and energetic, so obviously you'reputting a lot of hard work into this
company. Right, tell me alittle bit about we're talking with Sabra Drabu,
the founder of Cooking Jeanie. Tellme a little bit about. You

(04:46):
know, you started this in twentynineteen. Then obviously COVID hit. Yes,
was that for some businesses, COVIDwas a boom, But I'm not
so sure for you, right,people didn't watch no quote unquote strangers coming
into their parents their house. Yes, yes, okay, now, yes,
So this was very tricky for us. But we did get to work

(05:06):
on our technology bit, so itwas not all like, you know,
thumbs down. It was actually like, you know, the little we kind
of got a sliver of light,you know, sunshine. We're like,
okay, let's work on this aspectof the business. Let's get the technology
going, let's you know, addmore features. So we started working on
our apps. So we have ourgenie. You know, we call our

(05:28):
chefs Genie. So we have ourGenie app rolled out last year, so
we worked on that and now weare in the process of launching our customer
app. So we did work onour technology, strengthened the added features and
so that was good. And thentowards the end of the first year of
COVID, we realized that people,you know, how how long can you
be boxed in in our house?People do want to celebrate big events in

(05:50):
their lives, parents, anniversary,things that you know, you cannot really
that time, you couldn't go toa restaurant. So we did see small,
you know, trickle of customers comingin for these special events, and
that's how actually a business evolved.We were thinking, you know, fresh
food for our family, you know, meal prep all that good stuff,
and then it evolved to events,anniversaries, bridal showers. All right,

(06:13):
I mean we're having a family reunionfor twenty two people and like July it's
perfect, right, yep, Sowe're talking about personal chefs for really for
everyone. Yes, that's kind ofthis your inspiration here and it's been obviously
successful and you've kind of come outof COVID. What's been your most satisfying
moment in as you started this business. Of course, the satisfying moment is

(06:36):
when your customers do tell you like, hey, I could celebrate this,
you know, you know, noStreuss, no Vody, I could be
a part of the party. Thatis great, But we are a marketplace.
Cooking Gene is a marketplace. Youknow. It's like our customers on
one side and our chefs on theother side. And I think one of
my most satisfying moment would, handsdown be during COVID months when the restaurants

(06:57):
were shut down and the chefs wereout of work. And I think one
of the chefs he did get ajob eventually when the restaurant started opening up,
but then I remember him texting ussaying that, hey, I got
a full time job, but Ijust wanted to let you know that,
you know, cooking Genee gigs oneor two whatever, you know, just
a few a month got him throughthat. You're a lifeline, right,

(07:18):
I guess, yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, so that was very satistic.
It has to be rewarding, right, I mean, you're you're helping
folks work on their own schedule.I mean you're seeing a lot of that
now. The being ability to workon their own schedule. I often tell
people it's not that no, peopledon't quote want to work anymore, it's
that they don't want to work.Yeah, they have options to work whenever

(07:39):
they feel like. Yeah, youcan deliver Amazon packages on a Sunday night.
You don't have to be tied downto store hours, no, those
kind of things. So I thinkthat that's part of the appeal, and
that's probably part of the appeal ofyour service. How can we learn more
the listeners of the podcast, howcan they find out more about booking a
personal chef for themselves? Super easycooking genie dot com and just enter your

(08:01):
address, your zip code and thechefs will pop up. You just look
through the menu whatever cuisines you like. Click. I'll tell you really was
I almost booked it because I waslike, it takes like twelve seconds,
right, you know. So congratulationson the Universe user interface being really easy
to use. So after Ohio,where you're conquering? Next? Where's the

(08:22):
next thing? We did get ona couple more chefs in Lexington, Kentucky,
So I guess we are going tobe there next. All right,
Well, it sounds like you're readyfor worldwide domination and quite honestly, maybe
us we'll start with it. Yeah, let's start national. Um. Congratulations
on being a Cleveland success story.And this has been a great conversation.

(08:45):
Saba Drabu, CEO and founder ofCooking Genie. That's c O K I
N Genie dot com and you listeningright now could have a personal chef in
the next couple of days and it'sa really affordable thing. So thank you
so much, Sabo. Congratulations,thanks for being on today. Thank you
Keith for having me on your show. And this has been i our radio

(09:05):
CEOs. You should know. Today'sshow was produced by Bob Coats and I'm
Keith Hotchkiss. Let's see you nexttime.