Across America, there’s a trend toward locally-sourced, fresh ingredients for one’s meals. For agricultural communities like Whitewater, where many residents have large gardens, or enjoy fresh eggs, that’s not a trend as much as it is a way of life. But other communities have seen a trend that encourages moving away from frozen meals, for example, to fresh ingredients.
What happens, though, when that trend runs into ‘meal in a box’ offerings, where one orders and receives an entire meal in one container, as a time saver? Sometimes, surprisingly, the meal-in-a-box-wins:
If you drew up a list of people likely to hate home-delivered meal kits like Blue Apron, Sara Moulton would be on it. She is one of the nation’s most enduring recipe writers and cooking teachers, a former food stylist for Julia Child and a dean of food television and magazines in her own right, whose new book is called “Home Cooking 101.”
But after two meal kit companies approached her to work with them, Ms. Moulton thought she should investigate. As for anyone who has been paying attention to home-cooking trends, it was hard not to be at least a little meal-kit curious. So she signed up.
“I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised,” she said, echoing the sentiment of many very good cooks who have taken the plunge and ordered a box. Ms. Moulton has not decided whether she’s going into business with one of the companies, but the kits gave her ideas for recipes. And the best part? She didn’t have to decide what to cook for dinner.
See, It’s Dinner in a Box. But Are Meal Delivery Kits Cooking?
A battle of trends plays out: the desire for fresh ingredients and home-cooking against the longstanding concern that there’s not enough time for everything.
Even in a fresh-foods environment, sometimes meals-in-a-box win out.