10 years ago, Corey Hansen had a reputation as the head chef at Iowa State’s Gamma Phi Beta chapter- and a good one at that.

To take their notable quality service to the next level, Hansen and his wife, Carey, decided to create an app that connects students to their house chefs in an accessible, easy to use way. The app, called Greek House Chefs, is a leader in custom food service for fraternities and sororities, with the comprehensive app helping connect chefs with students with ease.

Greek House Chefs, or GHC, has almost 100 accounts in 25 states, and now serves 19 houses on Iowa State’s campus. 

Before the launch of the app in September, students and their chefs communicated mostly using white boards and dry erase markers, writing notes letting the chefs know what they were craving.

“We wanted the communication to be on another level,” said Corey Hansen. “We wanted the entire company to be connected on one app.”

Keeping up with the changes in cooking styles and what college students want to eat is not an easy task, but GHC makes keeping up with food trends and giving the students what they want a top priority.

Today, students are able to request meals, specific recipes, sack lunches and late plates, and even text their chef directly with any questions, requests or concerns. The “Rate My Meal” feature allows students to add comments about what they think about the food. However, the positive feedback from students is not just about the food.

“It’s usually about how friendly and approachable their chef is and how nice it is to have somebody in the kitchen that they can go to and talk to and request certain meals and certain recipes,” said Carey Hansen.

While the app is available primarily for student use, there are other unique features that are available and specific to chefs. Chefs are able to submit menus, check to see how many late plates they need to make, look at the school calendar, get new menu ideas from other chefs and see exactly what the students in their house want to eat.

“They [chefs] can all connect and feel like they are a part of the business,” Corey Hansen said. 

From re-creating Grandma’s Famous Hand Ball recipe to rolling fresh sushi, Greek House Chefs are willing to go the extra mile to make sure students get exactly what they want from their meal plan.

Natalie Wiedner, a junior in Public Relations and member of Alpha Chi Omega, uses the GHC app on a regular basis.

“I love how convenient it is,” said Wiedner. “I can just go to the app and see what’s for lunch for the whole week and I don’t have to re-download a picture every Monday of the new schedule.”

For the Hansen’s, Greek House Chefs goes beyond the kitchen. The relationship between student and chef is an important value that GHC preserves through services such as catering to weddings of former Greek members. Their business continues to serve their clients long after their time living in a fraternity or sorority house.

“We just keep that connection going after their experience in Greek life is over,” Carey Hansen said.

In the upcoming year, with the help of their new app, GHC plans to launch a new meal plan that focuses on accommodating a student’s specific eating choices or diet restrictions to allow them to get more out of their meal plan. This approach will be able to satisfy students on an even higher level.

“We believe whole-heartedly that ours is absolutely the most comprehensive app in the industry,” Carey Hansen said. “It connects our students to their chefs and our chefs to us, nationwide.”

To learn more about Greek House Chefs, visit their website at www.greekhousechefs.com or email Chef Corey Hansen at [email protected].