Some home-delivered meal kits take a bit more work -- and shopping -- but promise to make the results worthwhile.
Christine Martin, founder and chief executive officer of Style & Entertaining in San Francisco, created DIY Dinner "toolkits" to make the cooking experience a learning experience and help one find one's "inner celebrity chef." Each kit contains herbs, spices and other nonperishable goods for the meal ... along with a conversational booklet that includes a food shopping list -- broken down by department -- for fresh, seasonal ingredients and wines; a meal-preparation timeline; lessons for preparing the meal; food-and-wine pairing lessons; cooking tips; and props including custom invitations and envelopes, scent-free votive candles, menu cards, place cards, cocktail and paper dinner napkins. The booklet also includes presentation tips, down to "floral arranging, music selection, table setting, and setting the mood."
Currently, the company is offering a Romantic Dinner Kit for two ($39.95); the Gourmet Dinner Party Kit for eight ($59.99); and an Exclusive Holiday Gift Set containing both ($100) at styleandentertaining.com.
We tried the Romantic Dinner Kit, whose menu includes Arugula Salad With Shaved Fennel and Orange Vinaigrette; Herbs de Provence Roasted Chicken; Wild Rice with Portobello Mushrooms, Walnuts and Dried Cherries; and Chocolate Pots de Creme. The kit came with the herbs, wild rice, walnuts, cherries and wheat berries.
The down side was that, first, a number of the items we needed -- such as never-heard-of-it-before walnut oil -- were on the expensive side. The grocery bill for this one meal came to $63.83, counting extra items that weren't on the official shopping list but that we needed to have on hand.
Second, there's a good chance of not finding everything in one spot, even the fancy Kroger. We actually substituted a bok choy bunch for a fennel bulb (Why? They sort of looked alike.); golden balsamic vinegar for the listed white balsamic vinegar; and, since Hubby doesn't drink wine, a wine-like bottle of white grape juice for the recommended "half" bottle of sauvignon blanc.
Third, due to inexperience, stress and/or tiredness, one might just grab the wrong ingredient, period. We confused scallions with the required shallots, and we thought we grabbed a bottle of pinot noir but somehow ended up with the cabernet sauvignon. Fourth, the inexperienced cook -- especially one who's a bit leery of extensive handling of raw meat -- should be prepared to do things she may not have done before, like place her hand between the chicken skin and the flesh (eww), loosen the skin, then go back in and insert herbs and sliced garlic.
So how did everything turn out? Delicious. And yes, I want to shop for wheat berries and keep springing for giant mushrooms.
Food on 10/01/2014