How Long Have Ghost Kitchens Operated?
You might think ghost kitchens are a result of the global pandemic that shuttered restaurants across the country. You'd be wrong. The term was first used in a 2015 NBC New York article that was critical of ghost kitchens after an investigative team caught New York City restaurant owners listing their business under multiple different brands on delivery apps such as Seamless and GrubHub.
What Do They Mean for the Consumer?
Jorge Sanchez, a chef and culinary instructor, tells NBCLX that ghost or virtual kitchens help an existing food operation create delivery favorites without the traditional overhead. Multiple food options are sold and delivered from a single location sometimes with as few as three employees on site. "People are interested in healthier, fresher ethnic choices. And a customer would never know that this came out of an operator that is producing many other brands at the same time," Sanchez said.