NYT magazine sunday had an article on the 6-year-old phenomonon of meal
prep places, where you make an appointment, pick your recipes, and when
you arrive, they have work stations set up with your raw ingredients, a
recipe, and a container to put it all in.

For 12 6-serving entree's, the cost is about $200usd, and time
scheduled is about 2 hours.. It's geared towards the harried family
that doesn't have time to cook during the week. Pop those 12 entrees
into your (assumedly empty of all but icecream and ice cubes) freezer,
and thaw one for one of those nights when you're not getting home til
late. Cooking instructions included.

Am I missing something here? For $200, you're getting raw materials, a
prep area with people who chop all your ingredients to spec, and the
privilege of putting it together yourself? Are people that fearful of
a knife and the time it takes to chop a few ingredients, that they'll
pay someone to do it for them?

Oh, this is not geared towards the restaurant chef audience, but the
harried family cook/chauffeur/breadwinner.

maxine in ri

maxine in ri wrote:
> NYT magazine sunday had an article on the 6-year-old phenomonon of meal
> prep places, where you make an appointment, pick your recipes, and when
> you arrive, they have work stations set up with your raw ingredients, a
> recipe, and a container to put it all in.
>
> For 12 6-serving entree's, the cost is about $200usd, and time
> scheduled is about 2 hours.. It's geared towards the harried family
> that doesn't have time to cook during the week. Pop those 12 entrees
> into your (assumedly empty of all but icecream and ice cubes) freezer,
> and thaw one for one of those nights when you're not getting home til
> late. Cooking instructions included.
>
> Am I missing something here? For $200, you're getting raw materials, a
> prep area with people who chop all your ingredients to spec, and the
> privilege of putting it together yourself? Are people that fearful of
> a knife and the time it takes to chop a few ingredients, that they'll
> pay someone to do it for them?

Perhaps there are many people willing to pay to be in charge of
things.... Also, from a business standpoint, the chopping could be a
liability issue if the customer was doing the chopping. I wouldn't LET
them chop anything, or go near anything even remotely sharp.

Dean G.

maxine in Rio wrote:

>
> Am I missing something here? For $200, you're getting raw materials, a
> prep area with people who chop all your ingredients to spec, and the
> privilege of putting it together yourself? Are people that fearful of
> a knife and the time it takes to chop a few ingredients, that they'll
> pay someone to do it for them?
>
> Oh, this is not geared towards the restaurant chef audience, but the
> harried family cook/chauffeur/breadwinner.
>
> maxine in ri
>

Personally, I think this is "Disney Land" cooking

Abby

--
The ChildFree Abby Archives - http://www.dismal-light.net/childfreeabby/

maxine in ri wrote:

> Am I missing something here? For $200, you're getting raw materials, a
> prep area with people who chop all your ingredients to spec, and the
> privilege of putting it together yourself? Are people that fearful of
> a knife and the time it takes to chop a few ingredients, that they'll
> pay someone to do it for them?

Add to that 2 hours the drive time to and fro', thaw time for the frozen
entree, cooking time as well as efforts to round out the meal with other
dishes and well.... For me, it probably would be just as fast and
certainly no more expensive to stay and make it from scratch in the
first place?
Of course you're also paying for someone else's (the franchise)
imagination as to what is possible. I'm pretty handy that way on my own.

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 05:57:47 -0500, Goomba38 >
wrote:

>maxine in ri wrote:
>
>> Am I missing something here? For $200, you're getting raw materials, a
>> prep area with people who chop all your ingredients to spec, and the
>> privilege of putting it together yourself? Are people that fearful of
>> a knife and the time it takes to chop a few ingredients, that they'll
>> pay someone to do it for them?
>
>Add to that 2 hours the drive time to and fro', thaw time for the frozen
>entree, cooking time as well as efforts to round out the meal with other
>dishes and well.... For me, it probably would be just as fast and
>certainly no more expensive to stay and make it from scratch in the
>first place?
>Of course you're also paying for someone else's (the franchise)
>imagination as to what is possible. I'm pretty handy that way on my own.

I know somebody who loves it. Her husband works night shift and she
works days and they have a 12yo son, and she's always running around
like a chook with it's head chopped off trying to get everything done.
Plus they're trying to sell their house so they need to keep things
show-room ready as much as possible because somebody might want to
come and see it.
So now she goes to the meal place once a month and makes her dozen
meals (which she pays a little extra to split into half-dishes) and
gets a few extra pre-frozen ones while she's at it, then brings them
home and bungs them in the freezer and the 12yo can put dinner on at
the appropriate time without messing up the kitchen. (apparantly he
likes to cook but makes the most godawful mess while he's at it, and
he doesn't clean up...)
It wouldn't work for me because I actually like cooking and I have
plenty of time for it most days, but I'm sure there are lots of women
out there like her...

Karen AKA Kajikit wrote:

> I know somebody who loves it. Her husband works night shift and she
> works days and they have a 12yo son, and she's always running around
> like a chook with it's head chopped off trying to get everything done.
> Plus they're trying to sell their house so they need to keep things
> show-room ready as much as possible because somebody might want to
> come and see it.
> So now she goes to the meal place once a month and makes her dozen
> meals (which she pays a little extra to split into half-dishes) and
> gets a few extra pre-frozen ones while she's at it, then brings them
> home and bungs them in the freezer and the 12yo can put dinner on at
> the appropriate time without messing up the kitchen. (apparantly he
> likes to cook but makes the most godawful mess while he's at it, and
> he doesn't clean up...)
> It wouldn't work for me because I actually like cooking and I have
> plenty of time for it most days, but I'm sure there are lots of women
> out there like her...

But as also has been pointed out in the recent discussions about these
places, they're only giving you an entree. No side dishes, no dessert.
So if one wants a real dinner they still have to dirty up the kitchen a bit?
Your friends are in a hard spot, especially trying to sell their house.
I feel for them. Having to keep a home in order for showing is
exhausting.