SORTEDfood: From Recipes Scribbled at on Beer Mats at Uni to the World’s Largest Online Food Community
Student Friendly Recipes for Freshers on a Budget
SORTEDfood is a social media movement dedicated to cooking, and the perfect option for students in search of tasty, easy to cook meals on a budget. Founded with the mission to empower people with the passion, knowledge, skills and tools so that they can confidently cook with whatever they have available (whilst having fun along the way!), SORTEDfood was started by four school friends while they were in their first year at university in 2010. After heading off to university three of the founders realised they couldn’t cook, fortunately the fourth was training to be a chef and helped by sharing recipes with the group, first on the back of beer mats and then via social media. Interest from other friends soon began to grow and the group started uploading videos to YouTube showcasing their cooking exploits - it has grown to be the world’s largest online food community with over 2.5 million YouTube subscribers and a Meal Packs App membership from which 200,000 meals are cooked every month.
Perfect for students in search of mealtime inspiration and support, the Meal Packs App (£4.99 per month) gives members access to tools designed to help them cook better and spend less. The cleverly designed App takes the stress out of cooking, through smartly designed menus of recipes that use common ingredients to save money, time, and reduce food waste. After selecting your choice of recipes for the week ahead, users are given a shopping list and a guide to the equipment they need. It’s then time to get cooking by following the simple written and audio step-by-step guides. The recipes are updated every week with options including meat/fish or veggie and cuisines from every corner of the world. The first month is free so users so can give it a go and see how much money they save whilst enjoying some great food!
Jamie Spafford, Co-Founder comments, “SORTEDfood is a true story of friendship that began over 20 years ago. What started as a bit of fun to help each other avoid living off microwave meals and takeaways while we were at university has become a global movement of millions of foodies all around the world who love to cook, eat and be part of our adventures. We know how it feels to be at Uni trying to survive off not-so-healthy food, a distinct lack of cooking skills and a dwindling bank balance - the Meal Packs App is a great option for students who want to eat easy to make yet tasty food - and not break the bank.”
Central to the SORTEDfood community is the YouTube channel that has had over 700 million views, two new videos uploaded each week – from learning basic cooking techniques to investigating new food trends and taking on ultimate cooking challenges. SORTEDfood’s paid membership trebled during 2020, and the community spans continents with active members and subscribers around the world, being most popular in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Germany. The team have also amassed an enormous social media following with over 270k Instagram followers, 180k on Twitter, and are often seen at the forefront of debate around the latest food trends, from their controversial paella-filled burrito to trialling the latest TikTok recipe crazes.
Jamie continues, “In essence, nothing has changed from those early days round a pub table - it’s still a group of friends having fun and supporting each other through their food needs. It's just that the table now reaches around the world and we're able to tackle a lot more! We know that for many students managing tight budgets and easy to cook recipes are key, and these are at the heart of what we do.”
SORTEDfood: https://sorted.club £49.99 per year/£4.99 per month