Who invented dark kitchens?

The story of who invented the dark kitchen is less about a single lightbulb moment and more about a slow, necessary evolution fueled by technology and changing consumer habits. When people ask who is responsible for these delivery-only cooking facilities, they are usually asking about the modern, scaled business model—the "cloud kitchen"—rather than the simple act of preparing food for takeout, which has existed for decades. ^[1][7]

# Takeout History

The basic concept of preparing food for consumption elsewhere is not new. Food service has always included elements of off-premise dining, from traditional takeout windows to early delivery services. ^[7] Before the proliferation of smartphones and third-party apps, this model relied heavily on direct phone orders or proprietary delivery drivers, which limited scale and geographic reach for most restaurants. ^[1] The foundational difference between older takeout operations and the modern dark kitchen lies in optimization and scale—the dark kitchen is designed solely for high-volume delivery fulfillment, often without any customer-facing presence whatsoever. ^[1]

# Tech Shift

The true catalyst for the contemporary dark kitchen phenomenon was the widespread adoption of third-party delivery platforms. ^[1] These apps created a massive, reliable, and digitized conduit between the kitchen and the consumer, radically altering the economics of the restaurant industry. Suddenly, real estate was no longer primarily dictated by foot traffic or visibility; instead, it became about kitchen efficiency, low rent, and proximity to dense delivery zones. ^[3] This shift is what enabled the creation of what are formally known as cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens—facilities set up specifically to serve delivery orders, sometimes housing multiple distinct brands. ^[1][5]

Who invented smart kitchen appliances?

# The Modern Architect

While many operators were experimenting with delivery-only setups as apps gained traction, the specific entity most often credited with industrializing and heavily investing in the infrastructure of the dark kitchen concept is CloudKitchens. ^[10] This company, founded by Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber, adapted the asset-light, hyper-efficient ethos of ride-sharing to the physical world of food preparation. ^[10] Kalanick’s background provided the blueprint: create a centralized, technology-enabled operational base—in this case, a shared kitchen space—that allows many different brands to operate without the massive upfront capital expense of traditional storefronts. ^[9][10] CloudKitchens focuses on providing the physical space, the logistical support, and the technological stack necessary for delivery-focused brands to launch quickly. ^[10]

It is important to note the distinction: Kalanick's company scaled the model of shared, optimized commissary space. Meanwhile, virtual restaurants—which are essentially brands operating out of an existing restaurant’s kitchen or a dedicated dark kitchen facility without a storefront of their own—became the popular tenant of these spaces. ^[5] The invention, therefore, is a convergence: the technological platform (delivery apps) met the real estate solution (CloudKitchens-style facilities) to enable the operational strategy (virtual restaurants). ^[1][5]

# Operational Models

The term "dark kitchen" is an umbrella covering several closely related operational strategies, making pinpointing one single inventor difficult because the underlying ideas have evolved independently in various markets. ^[3][7]

We see at least three main categories emerging from the sources:

1. The Commissary/Hub Model: Large-scale facilities owned and managed by a single entity (like CloudKitchens) that rent out individual kitchen stations to multiple independent restaurant brands. ^[10] This offers economies of scale in terms of utility hookups and sometimes shared back-office services.
2. The Virtual Restaurant: As defined by Wikipedia, this is a brand that exists solely for online ordering, operating out of a brick-and-mortar restaurant's existing kitchen during off-peak hours or out of a dedicated cloud kitchen space. ^[5] The invention here is the brand concept detached from physical location.
3. Third-Party Aggregation: In some cases, delivery aggregators themselves have been known to experiment with creating virtual brands based on local demand data, effectively inventing the product to fill a gap in their marketplace. ^[1]

When looking at the business side of scaling this, the insight becomes clear: the early founders of these delivery hubs were often former tech executives who recognized that the biggest barrier to entry for new food concepts wasn't culinary skill, but commercial real estate zoning and build-out costs. ^[10] They were selling access to delivery infrastructure, not just ovens and fryers.

Did the Greeks invent the vending machine?

# Zoning and Market Access

The true success of the modern dark kitchen structure is heavily dependent on local regulations, which is an element the original conceptors of the idea might not have fully foreseen. For instance, a dedicated ghost kitchen facility requires specific commercial zoning, something that traditional restaurants easily secure, but a pure delivery hub might struggle with in older city centers. ^[6] The genius of the CloudKitchens approach, or any similar operator, is finding underutilized industrial or semi-commercial real estate that already permits high-volume food prep, thereby circumventing the typical restaurant zoning hurdles. ^[6] In areas where zoning is particularly restrictive, the "dark kitchen" might manifest as a traditional restaurant simply turning off its dining room lights and rebranding its entire operation as delivery-only, which is a far cry from the shared tech hub model. ^[6] This local variation shows that while Kalanick may have scaled the corporate vision, the operational reality is often shaped by municipal code compliance.

# Investment Scale Comparison

To illustrate the difference between older models and the modern "invention," consider a comparison of startup approaches. Before the mid-2010s, an entrepreneur wanting a delivery-only food business might have leased a small, unused commercial kitchen space for a high monthly fee, managing utilities, cleaning, and maintenance entirely alone.

The shift represented by companies like CloudKitchens was moving from the "Simple Commissary" column to the "Cloud/Dark Kitchen" column—transforming a high-risk, capital-intensive business into a much lower-risk, scalable service based on data and real estate optimization. ^[10] This standardization of the physical space is perhaps the closest thing we have to an "invention" in the last decade, though it built upon existing culinary foundations. ^[7] The current landscape is a high-tech environment where the real estate plays as big a part as the recipe. ^[3]