At first, there was nothing. And by nothing, I mean that the closest thing to a "meal delivery service" was contained in takeout menus and, later, in Seamless. It was the alternative to cooking, rather than a stepping stone towards it.
Now there are posters for new meal delivery services splashed up on the walls of the subway as often as we ask, "What's for dinner?" And they have us asking what exactly makes them all different. Don't they all do the same thing, i.e. eliminate the trip to the grocery store, the meal planning, et al?
Yes—but they've found other ways to diversify (dessert! ethical sourcing! chef-written recipes!). Here's a guide to the topography of the meal delivery service landscape, from the simply-reheat to the some-chopping-required.
Everything but the Grocery Store
A good choice if: you want to learn cooking techniques; if your kitchen is well-stocked with kitchen tools. This seems to be the most common kind of service.
Blue Apron
Ingredients: Pre-portioned, per the included recipe card. Some ingredients, like produce, arrive wrapped.
Sourcing: "We [...] work directly with over 100 family-run farms who use regenerative farming practices that help build healthy soil for future generations. [...] All of our seafood comes from sustainable fisheries rated “green” (best choice) or “yellow” (good alternative) by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch [...] Our meat is raised with care and respect, and without added hormones or sub-therapeutic antibiotics."
Amont of involvement: Chopping and cooking, but no measuring.
Pricing: Starts at $8.74 per serving.
Extras: Each recipe suggests a wine to pair with it; you can add a 500-milliliter bottle to your box for $10.
Availability: All of contiguous USA.
Plated
Ingredients: Pre-portioned, per the included recipe card. Some ingredients, like produce, arrive wrapped.
Sourcing: "Our ingredients are sourced locally whenever possible, and are always carefully curated from responsible providers. While we don’t exclusively source organically, we use 100% domestic and sustainably sourced seafood, 100% antibiotic-free meats, beef with no added hormones, and produce that is fresh, seasonal, and hand-packed."
Amont of involvement: Chopping and cooking, but no measuring.
Pricing: Starts at $12 per serving.
Extras: Recipes are recommended to you weekly based on the "taste profile" you build. There are also weekly featured dessert recipes ($4 per serving).
Availability: All of contiguous USA (save for a few cities in Texas).
Peach Dish
Ingredients: Pre-portioned, per the included recipe card. Some ingredients, like produce, arrive wrapped. The recipes are Southern-inspired.
Sourcing: They have a nifty map of all of their suppliers, and "work directly with many local farms."
Amount of involvement: Chopping and cooking, but no measuring.
Pricing: Starts at $12.50 per serving. (Price decreases slightly the more servings you order—up to 12.)
Extras: They have an online store where you can buy "Southern favorites" like Mississippi-made hot sauce.
Availability: All of contiguous USA.
Others include...
Chef'd (the recipes are written by chefs, restaurants, and companies like the James Beard Foundation and Vegetarian Times), Hello Fresh, Marley Spoon, Home Chef, The Purple Carrot (vegan), Just Add Cooking.
Prepped but Not Prepared
A good choice if: you have one pan; you dislike doing dishes; you don't have any knives; you want one step above takeout.
Mise En Place
Ingredients: Pre-portioned, pre-chopped, individually packaged.
Sourcing: Unknown.
Amont of involvement: The equivalent of "dump and stir."
Pricing: Starts at $15 per person.
Availability: Manhattan only, with plans to expand to the other New York boroughs soon.
Gobble
Ingredients: "Fresh pre-chopped and par-cooked ingredients," individually wrapped.
Sourcing: Not much information, but the FAQ explains that their "chefs take pride in sourcing truly local and fresh ingredients."
Amount of involvement: "10-minute dinner kits [...] with foolproof three-step recipe cards."
Pricing: Starts at $11.95 per serving.
Availability: All California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah.
Others include...
Din ("Recreate restaurant dishes at home in about 20 minutes").
Fully Prepared Meals
A good choice if: you don't want to do the actual cooking; you have a microwave and ample freezer space.
Sprig
Ingredients: Pre-made meals—like takeout, but not tied to a restaurant.
Sourcing: "We support sustainable, local and ethical growers, choose organic produce as a high priority and opt for meat that is sustainably-raised." They share "sourcing info for many of our ingredients, right in the app."
Amount of involvement: Order meals, drinks, and snacks from the app and it's delivered about 20 minutes later.
Pricing: About $10 to $14 per serving.
Extras: All orders are placed through their app; it seems geared mostly towards the lunch crowd.
Availability: San Francisco and Palo Alto, California; Chicago, Illinois.
Umi Kitchen
Ingredients: Pre-made meals made by a home cook that you choose, delivered to your house.
Sourcing: Unknown.
Amount of involvement: Order meals from home cooks who live in your city, and they deliver them to you.
Pricing: Under $20 per serving.
Availability: New Haven, Connecticut; Brooklyn, New York.
Others include...
Veestro (Order up to 3 frozen, prepared, vegetarian meals for 21 days; there's also a bit of a weight-loss focus.), Provenance Meals (organic, dairy-free, gluten-free prepared meals)
Have you used a meal delivery service before? What did you think? How do you feel about them? Tell us in the comments.
On Black & Highly Flavored, co-hosts Derek Kirk and Tamara Celeste shine a light on the need-to-know movers and shakers of our food & beverage industry.
Listen Now
Written by: Caroline Lange
Popular on Food52
8 Comments
For instance, oranges and collard greens with fried rosemary -- such an interesting idea that I've done it, and variations, several times.
Not sure how long I will keep using Blue Apron but am pleasantly surprised so far.
I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed with the Jamie Oliver partnership that they have and find a lot of his recipes overly complicated and time consuming for an unimpressive result. Their regular chefs do a much better job of producing flavorful sauces and simple, satisfying recipes. We will be customers for a long time.
Practically all the packaging is recyclable (we do not compost) and if I was more recycling aware, it might all be welcome in the big blue bin.
There has been zero waste. While the sides can be a bit large for two, the excess has made great leftovers. We buy three meals per week, which encourages us to eat at home more than we have in the past. And that is were we see the biggest savings. And my impulse buys in the local market are just about zero.
There is a certain amount of similarity to the meals. My sheet pan, large frying pan, two nesting bowls, zester, and small plate rarely see the inside of the kitchen cabinets these days. I am pretty safe setting the low profile oven to 400F before I start. And a 30-minute lead time to eating is about standard. I keep the recipe cards, and there are no repeats in the growing stack.
While the mise en place and cooking techniques do not vary much, the variety of ingredients make for three days of enjoyable dining every week. There have been a couple problems: containers of English peas that popped open in transit, undocumented produce substitutions, a missing important ingredient (only one time, and we had some in the fridge already), and a blank label on one ingredient box (pretty easy to figure out, we had it for lunch today.)
In all, "Hello Fresh" has been successful for us, and I am sure we will be sticking with the service for the time being.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.