Danish website turns homes into take-away restaurants

COPENHAGEN, Apr 20 (AFP) :  A Danish website is turning private homes into take-away restaurants by letting users advertise what they are cooking, when and for what price.

"Sometimes I only put one serving up for sale, sometimes up to 20. It depends on what I'm making and how much time I have," said Ana Teresa Salas, a 32-year-old consultant from Copenhagen.

The website, Dinnersurfer.dk, is sometimes described as a restaurant version of the popular lodging site Airbnb, on which homeowners make their spare rooms or unoccupied dwellings available to paying lodgers for a fee.

And just like on Airbnb, the cost to consumers is often considerably less than if they had used a professional service-with the added benefit that many of the homemade dishes may be healthier than the greasy fare typically available at take-out counters.

"It sounded exciting. I make food for my family every day anyway, and I always make too much," said Salas, who sells her food on the website two to three times a week.

"On weekdays I try to make food that's healthy, without too much starch and fat," she added.

On most days she makes food inspired by her father's Argentinian background, which she sells for 35 kroner (4.70 euros, $6.50) per serving to her customers, most of whom are young and single.

"When I make healthy dishes it's mostly women, and when it's pasta and so on it's mostly men," she said.

Since being launched in February, the website has attracted 2,900 members, of whom 460 are registered as cooks, meaning they sell food.

Nearly all of them live in Denmark, where the website is especially popular in the trendy Copenhagen neighbourhoods of Noerrebro and Vesterbro, but the site's founders are hoping it will go global after recently launching an English-language version.