Cook your way through the food metaverse

Bringing together elements of food, gaming and NFTs, ‘Foodverse’ by start-up OneRare invites food lovers to experience the metaverse

If you haven’t been able to digest the word ‘metaverse’ yet, fret not. An easier, perhaps even tastier, pill is in the making. To make the blockchain world accessible to a larger audience, Supreet Raju and Gaurav Gupta have taken a very familiar, comforting approach–that of food. The husband-wife duo co-founded the New Delhi-based start-up OneRare, and are building the world’s first food metaverse or ‘Foodverse,’ which brings together the elements of NFTs, food and gaming on the blockchain ecosystem. They began working on it in 2021.

“Cooking, or anything to do with food, is a creative outlet and people have taken to cooking during the pandemic like never before. They have also binge-watched television shows about food. We wanted to use the idea of food to make this tech experience easier for people,” says Raju, a design graduate from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). Gupta, on the other hand, is an engineer.

Decoding Foodverse

The concept of Foodverse offers a global outreach for celebrity chefs, restaurants and food brands for the first time through NFTs. When a chef or a restaurant comes on board, their virtual dishes are introduced into game-play.

Take the example of Mumbai-based chef Saransh Goila, one of the first chefs to be part of the game. He will share his recipes, including the famous Goila’s Butter Chicken. The other is Urban Platter, a homegrown e-store that will offer its ingredients in Foodverse. Zorawar Kalra’s Massive Restaurants, too, opens its first outlet in Metaverse, beginning with the popular Farzi Café.

On the international list, Indonesian chefs Reynold and Arnold Poernomo–owners of family business KOI Dessert Bar in Indonesia–and Chef Anthony Sarpong from Ghana who runs Anthony’s in Düsseldorf, Germany are part of this game-play.

Care for some butter chicken?

“Today, as an Indian chef, I know my audience but with the metaverse, one can dream further as this outreach is not restricted to a certain pin code or a particular country. All over the world, restaurants and food brands are announcing the launch of NFTs and leasing them in Metaverse. There are solid takers for them. You are building brand equity which is relevant to the future, as we will be spending a lot more time in the metaverse,” says Goila.

How does Foodverse work?

While metaverses are built on blockchains, Foodverse is built on the Polygon Chain. For any user who wants to sign up, they need to have a Metamask wallet. The core game-play revolves around players collecting NFTs to make a dish. “It is similar to the way we make a dish at home. For example, to make French fries, you need cooking oil, potatoes and salt. The game is split into two components: the gaming layer and the Foodverse layer, which will host virtual restaurants, chef interactions, and bring food brands and bloggers on board. Think of it as a virtual world inspired by a theme of food,” explains Raju.

Players will use ingredients offered by Urban Platter to make their dishes. “As we go along, we will also introduce an e-store experience, promoting products they want to talk about, and bring in chefs to promote their products and share special recipes. The possibilities are endless,” says Raju.

Bridging two worlds

The vision for Foodverse is to bring both real and virtual worlds together. In the future (read as: within two years), NFTs can be swapped for real meals and deals. “When Urban Platter launches a new product, it can reach out to users in the virtual world and they can claim it in the real world against NFTs. We do see a massive translation of the online experience. While engagement is important, taste and tangible experience are equally critical when it comes to food,” says Raju.

Goila played an important role in helping Raju and Gupta visualise the future. “Imagine being in a virtual room in the metaverse where your digital avatar is attending a meeting or meeting a friend over virtual coffee. All this while you are sitting in the comfort of your home, where a coffee brand is delivering a real-time experience. This is how offline and online worlds will merge,” concludes Goila.

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