Tenchef brings new tastes to P.E.I. without new restaurants

If you've ever been walking down a street in Charlottetown smelling some unfamiliar cooking but wishing you could try it, Tenchef has got your back.

Tenchef, a new company in Charlottetown, has taken over a commercial kitchen at BioFoodTech at UPEI and is inviting amateur chefs to try out their skills at restaurant cooking. The chefs cook, and Tenchef takes care of sales and home delivery.

"Chefs, really, can be anybody. They're local community members. They might be newcomers. They might be established chefs who've had years of experience," said co-founder Vaughn Murphy.

"This opens the door for anyone to try out new recipes, to try out running a business, to try out opening a restaurant without the large upfront costs."

Tenchef is aiming to offer a wide variety of different foods from day to day, working in particular with the newcomer community.

Co-founder Wahid Choudhury said the idea came from his own neighbourhood. He and his wife Samia Mafuz are immigrants from Bangladesh, and when his wife cooks the neighbours are entranced by the smell.

"On P.E.I. we have so many newcomers and we smell the food but we never get to try it," said Choudhury.

"So that led to the idea. Hey, why don't we try getting these home chefs and this variety of cuisine into the market."

Mafuz is Tenchef's first chef, cooking up butter chicken and two varieties of tikka for the launch Friday. Mafuz said she does have thoughts about opening up her own restaurant, and this is a great opportunity to try it out.

"It's a long procedure starting your own restaurant. You have to go through a lot of steps," she said.

"With this there's not so much stress and pressure."

Just as Tenchef offers an opportunity for chefs to pilot recipes, the company is itself a pilot project. If it's a success, Tenchef will open other kitchens around Charlottetown and in other communities.

Whether the company is ultimately a success or not, Choudhury said he and Murphy believe it will come out as a win for them.

"Whatever happens," he said, "we will get to taste some really good food."

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