Two Bay Area chefs, formerly The French Laundry, convinced Mark Cuban to invest more than half a million dollars in their launch on Friday’s episode of “Shark Tank.”
Oakland’s co-founders of Truffle Shuffle, Jason McKinney and Tyler Vorce, appeared in the popular ABC reality show to set up their virtual cooking classes, where people can learn to cook with celebs like Snoop Dogg. After hearing business venues, the investors of celebrities negotiate the terms, or carry through their proposal, which often leads to a bid war between investors. McKinney and Vorce entertained a bit back and forth between sharks Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec before agreeing with Mark Cuban, who offered them a $ 501,000 loan in exchange for an 18% stake in the company.
“Mark was our target shark coming in,” Vorce said on the show. “I think the future with him is very bright. He has combined the strong technological background with our cooking experience. I think we have a good game plan on the doorstep.”
Truffle Shuffle sells truffles directly to restaurants prior to the onset of the pandemic, and also leads popular online cooking classes, including meals and ingredients. The founders McKinney, Vorce and Sarah McKinney started their business in 2018, but when it came time to find out what they had to do with 20 pounds of fresh truffles, they stored up at their apartment for their young business when the world entered ‘ a shelter move. place due to the pandemic, a pitch to do a virtual cooking class instead has become a whole new direction for the business.
“It [was] a pivot of 100% and no, none of us were chef instructors, “McKinney said. We taught people how to cook in restaurants, and we applied the same principles. “
It was a smart venture that paid off, and the group expanded from its initial six-person operation that first worked out of McKinney’s 1,000-square-foot apartment, to a 46-person business that headquartered in Oakland. operated – ten times. the size of the apartment, and with four studio kitchens for live cooking classes and facilities that can pump out 10,000 meals a week.
“[Our class] really offers a level that you will never be able to reach in a restaurant kitchen, “McKinney said.” It offers a level of intimacy that you will never be able to reach in the restaurant kitchen, because like … we are If we sharing the knowledge we have spent years gathering, we see in real time how good we are at communicating with the audiences that participate in the group, and if we do good enough work with it, we do not just do it. [students] have a delicious dish, but they have a skill and a technique and a memory that will carry them with them forever. ‘