ABOUT

For some utterly insane reason, the UK has decided that there is one profession where you’re totally allowed to be a bullying monster to everyone around you, make marginalised young people give up on their hopes and dreams, and rather than get sued, you get a prime time TV deal and everyone uproariously laughs when you scream the work “f*ck” directly into an employee’s face.

Of course, your sexuality shouldn’t prevent you from doing a job that you love, are good at, and that makes you and those around you happy.).

Deliveroo set out to show that kitchens don’t have to be scary, traumatic or isolating for LGBTQIA+ chefs. It’s just really weird that we even needed to be having this conversation in 2024. The Open Kitchen was a campaign with longevity that took a very real community insight and tackled it head on by providing a safe and nurturing place for young chefs to hone their craft.

BRIEF

Pride. A fantastic excuse for brands to do crazy stuff. A Pride mouthwash? Why not. A LGBT+ sandwich? Delish. We wanted to do something that wasn’t completely tokenistic and that wasn’t something nice just to put in our Annual Report.

Because whilst Deliveroo wanted to kick-start their campaign during Pride, it HAD TO go well beyond, demonstrating their commitment to championing representation within the food service industry throughout the year.

Our mission? To tackle something that actually affects people in the LGBTQIA+ community, start a conversation and, most importantly, take action to change it.

IDEA

The culinary industry thrives on diversity, but a research study backed by ONS found that LGBTQIA+ representation in kitchens is painfully low at just 4.1%. Plus, over half of LGBTQIA+ chefs report harassment and bullying in the workplace. Deliveroo saw this as a call to action, not just a statistic to be ignored.

Introducing, The Open Kitchen. A kitchen takeover in the capital, staffed with aspiring chefs from the LGBTQIA+ community who were given a masterclass in cooking by mentors from Deliveroo’s own LGBTQIA+ restaurant network.

The dishes created for The Open Kitchen were made available to purchase on the Deliveroo app during the whole of Pride Month, delivering thousands of meals to hungry customers, all whilst inspiring a community to follow their passions.

The masterclasses were run by head chefs from LGBTQIA+ owned Deliveroo partners, The Athenian and Nanny Bill’s, providing mentoring, support and advice on breaking into the professional culinary world.
But the campaign didn’t stop when kitchen doors closed. We also established The Open Kitchen fund for trainee chefs to apply and receive funding to follow their delicious dreams. All profits raised from The Open Kitchen, alongside a sizable donation from Deliveroo, funded the further education and training of LGBTQIA+ chefs via cookery school Leiths.

RESULTS

Over 50 pieces of top tier earned media coverage, with a reach of over 500M.

It was Deliveroo’s best campaign to date across social channels in 2024 with a 5.2% engagement rate on Instagram content vs 0.4% average.

6.8% ER on TikTok content vs 1.8% average, demonstrating the impact and resonance of the topic.

Shortlisted for the Metro Pride Awards 2025, which are nominated for by the general public and Metro's LGBTQIA+ community (please vote for us).

Thousands of happy customers who enjoyed food from our LGBTQIA+ chefs.

And best of all, tens of thousands of pounds raised to fund the further training of aspiring LGBTQIA+ chefs.