Since the mid-2010s, the sharing economy has swept across China, allowing for shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. Now, the model has expanded beyond bicycles and powerbanks into more essential quality-of-life sectors. Shared kitchens have emerged to meet modern people's increasing need for quality food and speedy services across multiple scenarios.

A shared kitchen refers to a communal cooking space with standard equipment that can be jointly accessed and utilized. In hospitals, for instance, said kitchens have become anchors for patients and their families who are nursing them.

Serving the public

"My mother was hospitalized for nearly six months last year, and I relied on the hospital's shared kitchen to cook all her rehabilitation meals," Shanghai resident Chen Kang told Beijing Review. "With her health condition requiring low sugar, oil and salt intakes, takeout wasn't an ideal option, so I cooked for her most of the time. I believe the shared kitchen played a major role in her faster recovery and earlier discharge."

"The space comes equipped with sinks, induction cook tops, range hoods and microwaves—everything but ingredients and utensils, which you can get at the supermarket located within a 15-minute walk from the hospital. It feels just like cooking at home," she added.

"As a specialty hematology hospital serving patients nationwide with extended treatment cycles, we provide shared kitchen facilities to help reduce living expenses while better meeting patient's specific dietary needs during treatment," Qiao Li, head of Patient Services at Beijing Boren Hospital, told news portal Lifetimes.cn. "The critical success factor lies in standardized management, including equipment maintenance and safety monitoring."

Heart-warming adoptions

Shared kitchens in hospitals appeared across the country in the mid-2010s, under policy encouragement. In 2016, the State Council, the highest state administrative organ, issued an outline for the Healthy China 2030 Plan, which explicitly proposed to optimize health services and emphasized the need for medical services to adopt a more human-centered and refined approach. In 2020, the release of the Service and Operational Standards for Shared Kitchens by the National Health Commission provided, for the first time, standardized guidelines for this model.

In 2023, the commission issued a plan for improving the healthcare experience and enhancing patient satisfaction, which saw shared kitchens move from local pilot programs to nationwide promotion. Subsequently, local governments, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong Province and Jiangxi Province, have successively introduced related policies, helping hospitals at the secondary level and above to pilot shared kitchens.

"Hospitals aren't professional food service providers, and cleanliness must be the top priority when operating shared kitchens," Zhuang Yiqiang, Director of the Guangzhou Ailibi Hospital Management Center, told Lifetimes.cn. "We need detailed, actionable plans to prevent food contamination and poisoning. Equally critical are safety protocols such as regular inspections to eliminate risks stemming from water and electricity usage." Shared kitchens have also made their way into universities and neighborhood service centers. For college students, the limitations of dining halls, nearby restaurants and food delivery options often fail to meet their desire for personalized culinary experiences and social interaction. Shared kitchens fill this gap by providing both the space and tools for students to cook their own meals while fostering community engagement.

At the Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, students have been able to book their shared kitchen time slot through an online reservation system since last October. The university supplies the venue and basic seasonings free of charge, while participants bring their own ingredients.

Meanwhile, in community centers, these kitchens have evolved into platforms for elderly care initiatives and strengthened social bonds among seniors. "With an aging population and many older residents living apart from their children, shared kitchens create a platform that enriches their daily life and brings warmth to elders," Wu Meili, a volunteer at Haibin Town Community Service Center in Shanghai's Fengxian District, told local media.

Wide extension

In addition to serving non-profit institutions like eldercare community centers, hospitals and universities, shared kitchens also inject vitality to China's food delivery businesses. Unlike storefront businesses lining streets and commercial districts, shared kitchens may be located anywhere, from a residential apartment unit to sometimes even a repurposed basement.

For food entrepreneurs, shared kitchens offer access to cost-effective infrastructure services, alleviating the burden of pooling initial investments in rental, promotion, designing, human resources and brand building.

Beyond supplying the physical space, utilities and gas, shared kitchens for food delivery businesses also come equipped with professional-grade appliances, tables, chairs and other essentials. In addition to reducing upfront investment, they free entrepreneurs from time-consuming tasks like scouting locations, and managing renovations—dramatically lowering their barriers to entry in the food industry.

"Operating a delivery business in a shared kitchen is extremely low-cost," Chen Hang, manager of a shared kitchen in Yanta District, Xi'an of Shaanxi Province, told a local newspaper.

"Depending on the size of the space and whether natural gas is available, renting a shared kitchen costs between 1,500 and 3,500 yuan ($208-$416) per month," he explained. "Totaling the costs of stoves, display freezers, ingredients, rent and deposit, you can open a delivery-only shop for under 20,000 yuan ($2,767)." Compared with ordinary restaurants, takeout businesses operating from shared kitchens lack a certain level of exposure. Consequently, many merchants opt to franchise a well-known brand that is already familiar to the general public. "For franchise brands specializing in single items, the franchise fee is under 10,000 yuan ($1,388)," Chen added. "Taking platform promotion fees into account, you can launch a franchise delivery shop with just 35,000 yuan ($4,858) of startup capital, making it a truly low-barrier venture." "The growth of shared kitchens also enhances supply chain and food delivery platform efficiency," Chen observed. In these shared kitchen hubs, adjacent businesses collaboratively source ingredients through group purchasing, a cost-saving strategy that benefits all participants.

The smart order-dispatch system further optimizes operations by automatically assigning deliveries based on both restaurant preparation times and customer locations, making delivery more efficient.

"During peak hours, riders typically collect three to four orders per trip here," Chen noted, highlighting the area's optimized logistics flow.

Despite their benefits and rapid expansion, shared kitchens need stronger regulatory oversight. At a March 2024 symposium on high-quality development in the delivery sector hosted by Shaanxi Provincial Market Supervision Administration, officials mandated stricter platform accountability measures to crack down on unlicensed online food operations.

"We will intensify platform accountability for online meal delivery services," a market regulation official said at the forum. "This includes rigorous enforcement of food business license verification systems and requires platforms to proactively submit merchant registration data to regulatory authorities." The official emphasized the targeted rectification of common violations: "We're prioritizing the correction of unsanitary food production environments and nonstandard processing practices of the delivery kitchen sector."

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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