Gourmet food delivery service Providoor reborn six months after collapse

Six months after the collapse of celebrity chef Shane Delia’s COVID-born gourmet food venture Providoor, the brand has been resurrected by Sydney-based entrepreneur and investor Sam Benjamin.

Providoor, which went into liquidation in April, resumed operations today servicing the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets after Benjamin, an avid user of the original service, acquired the company shortly after it went into liquidation.

Delia founded Providoor during COVID lockdowns in 2020 with the aim of keeping restaurants in business. At the time of its collapse, the business supported about 80 restaurants including the likes of Curtis Stone, Three Blue Ducks, Rockpool and Saké, providing a premium at-home delivery service across almost 2,000 menu items.

The company is said to have supplied more than a million meals to customers over three years, with Providoor revealing that in its first year the company generated more than $40 million in revenue for the restaurant industry.

Under a new model developed by Benjamin, the founder and managing director of Seventh Street Ventures, Providoor is offering home deliveries of restaurant-quality meals backed by a raft of celebrity chefs creating frozen and fresh options for the menu through Providoor Frozen and Providoor Locale respectively.

Among the names backing the relaunch are Matt Preston, Silvia Colloca, Anna Polyviou, Luke Nguyen, Gary Mehigan, Manu Feildel, Justin Narayan and George Calombaris, who are providing menu offerings for the venture.

“The way food is prepared has not really changed for thousands of years,” Benjamin says.

“We have worked with famous chefs and leading food technologists to disrupt this model.

“We have developed processes that allow us to prepare, store and finish restaurant quality food in a way that has never been done before.

“It’s an absolute gamechanger to have this many chefs and personalised menus under one banner. It is revolutionary in stepping up the quality of food available to Australians for delivery fresh to their home.”

Benjamin has experience in the sector with Seventh Street Ventures owning food delivery platform Kaspa, which sits among a diverse business portfolio for Seventh Street that includes Brag Media and Arkie Early Education Centre.

“Over the last three years we have invested time and resources travelling the world researching, testing, tasting, sourcing, preparing and then retesting and delivering high quality food with high quality speed and service through test-platform, Kaspa,” Benjamin says.

“We have assembled a highly experienced team from all over the world - operations and culinary - all committed to the bold aspirations of the business with an innovative chapter to drive the full Providoor purpose and potential.”

Providoor’s menu has been curated by a host of restaurant chefs and food personalities, with the meals pre-prepared in new kitchens located at Homebush, Five Dock, Neutral Bay and Moore Park in Sydney from where the company is also servicing the Melbourne and Brisbane markets. The company is planning to eventually open kitchens in Brisbane and Melbourne as well.

Italy-born food presenter Silvia Colloca, who says she is often asked when she plans to open her own restaurant, sees joining forces with Providoor as ‘the closest thing to serving my favourite family recipes’ to people in the comfort of their home.

“Some of the most loved dishes from my shows and books will be available to order,” she says.

Matt Preston is adding a range of his favourite burgers to the menu, including the mushroom burger.

“I love burgers, and of course no burger is complete without sweet potatoes fries and tata-totts,” Preston says. “I am so happy to make my favourite burgers available exclusively through the team of Providoor.”

Benjamin’s decision to acquire Providoor stems from his own experience as a customer, saying he ‘loved the original concept of Providoor’.

“It offers a connection for at-home diners to top chefs and restaurants who don’t want to cook but want elevated at-home dining,” he says.

“I know we can breathe new life back into a brand that has such good sentiment. The demand is there and we are ready to meet it.”