Nova Chef

Mar 23
5 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Restaurant-quality hot meals, anywhere, anytime — no kitchen, no chef, no compromise.

Mission

We provide a cost-effective, turnkey solution for sites where traditional kitchens or chefs are not feasible, as well as for existing kitchens where we help streamline workflows in a cost-effective way without compromising quality.

Problem

Running food service at remote sites, 24/7 operating facilities, night-shift operations, or industrial locations is often broken. Vending machines serve basic snack or cold, processed food loaded with preservatives. Short shelf-life meals spoil in transit — up to 30–40% goes to waste — driving up costs and creating safety risks. Full kitchens aren't always viable or not operating 24h a day, and when they are, staff turnover, rising wages, and inconsistent quality make them a constant headache for chefs.

Solution

Nova Chef has spent several years solving one deceptively hard problem: how do you make a frozen meal consistently taste freshly cooked? The answer is the intersection of culinary expertise, blast-freezing, and proprietary reheating technology.

Our chefs prepare each dish using quality ingredients, blast-frozen immediately with no added preservatives — locking in nutrients, flavour, and texture for up to six months. Smart oven technology and QR-code guided reheating bring every meal back to restaurant quality in minutes, consistently, with no culinary skill required on-site.

Our products are available in two formats to suit clients operational needs: individual portions that reheat in a smart oven in just 4–7 minutes, and multi-portion catering packs that cook from frozen in standard combi ovens in 20–40 minutes, serving up to 150 portions per cycle with no thawing or prep required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRAzlIhbV7g

Key advantages:

Scalable from a single vending unit to full-site catering — the same solution works for a 15-person remote outpost or a 500-person industrial facility

Six-month shelf life with no added preservatives — dramatically reducing waste and simplifying inventory
Safety – blast freezing maintain the highest standards of safety throughout their shelf life and transportation
No culinary staff are required, as existing personnel can operate both solutions with minimal training—programmed smart ovens ensure consistent quality and eliminate human error during reheating
Chef-curated menu covering breakfast through mains, with main dietary and religious requirements catered for
100% biodegradable packaging available to supporting sustainability commitments

Market Opportunity

Nova Chef operates within the broader foodservice and hospitality market, with a specific focus on high-convenience, labour-light food solutions. Nova Chef focuses on segments where traditional kitchens are inefficient or impractical:

• Hotels (UK: ~10,000+ properties, with strong concentration in 3–5★ segment)

• Logistics and industrial sites (24/7 operations, shift-based workforce)

• Healthcare, education, and workplace catering

• Maritime, offshore, and remote operations

Global Foodservice Market (TAM – global):

Estimated at $3.5-4 trillion, driven by increasing demand for convenience, automation, and out-of-home dining (industry consensus across multiple reports)
UK Foodservice Market (TAM – UK): ~£104 billion in 2025
UK Hospitality Market: ~$63.8 billion to be reached in 2026

Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM):

UK workplace and institutional catering: ~£12 billion annually

These segments share the same compounding pressures: acute labour shortages, rising wage costs, growing demand for round-the-clock food availability, and relentless pressure to cut costs and reduce waste.

SOM:

Targeting 3–5★ hotels and logistics and corporate sites as the initial beachhead, Nova Chef can realistically capture £50–150m within 3–5 years — representing under 0.5%-1.5% of the SAM — through direct sales and regional UK rollout before scaling nationally.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Customer acquisition strategy varies by segment. In hospitality and corporate workplaces, we focus on direct B2B outreach and referrals from existing clients. In logistics, industrial, maritime, and remote operational environments — where procurement is more complex — we go to market through partnerships with UK vending machine operators, catering contractors, and facility management providers, complemented by industry networks and introducers/advisors.

Exit Strategy

A trade sale is the most realistic exit for Nova Chef, given its positioning at the intersection of food production and automation. Likely acquirers include global foodservice operators such as Compass Group, Sodexo and Aramark, as well as distributors like Sysco and Bidfood seeking higher-margin, value-added offerings. Hospitality groups and automated retail players are also potential buyers, driven by the need to reduce labour dependency and improve unit economics. Private equity may also participate by scaling the platform and consolidating the automated foodservice category.

Traction

KPIs: Nova Chef currently serves 60+ UK hotel clients, including major international brands, with a growing presence in logistics and workplace catering. Growing order rates per customer and excellent client retention reflect strong operational integration across all segments.

Milestones: Nova Chef has developed and commercially proven its product, with smart oven technology deployed across multiple sites and a scalable supply chain and production capability in place. On the commercial side, the company has secured approval as an NHS supplier via YPO, on boarded with Entegra, and has begun expanding beyond hospitality into new verticals. To support the next phase of growth, Nova Chef has recently relocated to a new operational facility built for exponential production scale, and secured partnerships with large vending machine producers and operators.

Business Model

Revenue Streams: Nova Chef's core revenue comes from the sale of frozen meal products. While not a formal subscription model, it operates with subscription-like predictability — clients com-mit to a minimum monthly order volume, generating consistent recurring revenue, with additional spikes driven by seasonality or event-based demand.

Cost Structure: Primary costs span food production and supply chain, R&D across recipes, packaging and technology integration, B2B sales and marketing, and logistics and distribution.

Team

Nova Chef was founded by Chef Sergey Men and portfolio manager Danat Abdrakhmanov, combining culinary excellence with strategic vision.

Sergey began his career in IT before discovering his passion for cooking. He went on to become the driving force behind Sumosan and later founded The Markets Group in 2012, building a portfolio of respected London restaurants, including Michelin Guide–recognized Bisushima. Through years of running high-performing kitchens, he experienced firsthand the operational challenges of food service — staff shortages, turnover, rising costs, and the constant pressure to maintain consistency. This led him to experiment with advanced freezing techniques to preserve restaurant-quality standards at scale.

Danat brings technical and financial knowledge and an insatiable love for great food. Together, they dove headfirst into research and experimentation, spending quite a while perfecting recipes and testing technology. By the time they were done (and after eating way too many test meals), they had created Nova Chef.

An enterprise stock incentives scheme for key team members is in place

Funding

We are not currently raising capital — our focus is on expanding operations and growing our client base. We welcome new clients, partners, advisers, mentors, and introducers who share our ambition and can help drive strong, sustainable growth through 2026 and beyond.