Ex-actuary caters healthier, easier Chinese cuisine

Americans have long had a love for Chinese food.

"Chinese food is popular in the United States," said Wang Rui, a co-founder of Cuckoo Kitchen. "There are more than 43,000 establishments, and with an annual sales of over $25 billion, it is the second most popular takeout cuisine in America."

However, despite its popularity, most Chinese food in America is perceived as unhealthy and low quality, said Wang, who used to be an actuary at a big insurance company with a high-paying managerial position. He quit months ago.

"We hope to elevate the way Chinese food is perceived, ordered and consumed in America by providing healthier and more convenient meal kits online and delivered nationwide within 24 hours," he said.

In 2012, Wang started a successful restaurant called Chinger, which sells traditional Chinese Xi'an street food in New York. As a meticulous actuary who graduated from Tsinghua University, he used his math skills to create an executable 100-page manual detailing precise instructions for every operational aspects of store operations.

Soon after Chinger's success, Wang planned to start a Chinger franchise in New York. However after further market research, he hesitated and began questioning the retail chain model.

"The food market has changed. On one hand, the cost of running physical restaurants is getting higher, and on the other hand, growing numbers of conventional retail business bite the dust with the unstoppable impact of Internet sales," said Wang.

"How can an e-commerce model be applied to the food industry? How can healthier and high-quality Chinese food be prepared and delivered in a way that meets customer needs? How to ensure high quality and taste? How to deliver the food to customers within 24 hours?"

To answer these questions with absolute certainty, Wang set out to experiment with the ways to turn traditionally cooked Chinese food into a standardized and streamlined process through central kitchen with one of his partners, John Zhang.

After proving the model would work, in the spring of 2015, Wang resigned from his actuary position and started Cuckoo Kitchen with Zhang and the third partner, Mark Yuan.

They opened a corporate office in Manhattan, and put the United States Department of Agriculture-certified central kitchen into operation in June.

From the very beginning, Cuckoo Kitchen prepared meal kits fresh in its USDA approved central kitchen in Clifton NJ.

This eliminates expensive retail space, centralizes food prep operation, increases economy of scale and enables 24-hour delivery to customers in most of the eight northeastern states of the US.

"All meal kits are designed by Master Chefs from China using all-natural high quality ingredients such as antibiotic-free chicken and organic tofu," Wang said.