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JULIAN MELLICOVSKY uses the Web to link you with local chefs.

Maybe you’re in the mood for a specific kind of ethnic dish. Maybe your doctor just ordered you to follow a special diet. Or maybe you recently visited northern Brazil and came back craving authentic cuscuz. My website, bookofcooks.com, makes it easy to find locals with the right skills to satisfy your needs in a hurry.

Book of Cooks helps you find the best pro and amateur cooks, chefs, caterers, and bakers in your neighborhood, and order a home-cooked meal that they can deliver to your door or even prepare in your own kitchen. Basically, it’s the Craigslist of food preparation.

Our site is still in beta, but it already has listings for more than 600 cooks in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and elsewhere. Like Craigslist, our success will depend on keeping the content free while generating revenue from a combination of advertising, market research, and other streams like an online store with links to affiliates.

If we can do that, Book of Cooks will be the world’s only online platform that links cooks directly to consumers—and the best place for an easy meal that isn’t fast or frozen come dinnertime.

Julian Mellicovsky is the founder of Book of Cooks.