[chrose]

Back in the late 80's home food savers were coming into vogue, and the French thought that the latest thing would be cooking Sous Vide. That died out as people found that the bags were sold separately and ended up being costly. Also people weren't all that thrilled about going to a fine restaurant that only boiled water I guess. There were still pockets of renegades and it never died completely. Well guess what, it's coming back. People again will buy the Geroge Foreman food saver until they realize how much the bags are costing and another fad goes down the drain.
HOWEVER what I saw tonight astounds me. fiveleaf.com is a company that sells "restaurant style" meals for big $$$. Check out the Star Chef section and see who's cooking and check out the prices. $14.99 to $29.99 and up + shipping. It will cost you as much if not more to boil in a bag than go to the restaurant. But that's not even the worst part. These chefs don't even cook the food. They supply the recipe and a company in Virginia cooks it and packages it and Omaha Steaks mails it!
So I can pay $60.00 for a 1 entree and app meal that's cooked and frozen by Leroy in Virginia. I bet there will be people with too much money too that will buy it. God help us all!!!

 

[cape chef]

This is depressing, Once again the hard work, blood, sweat and tears is being exploited.

How do you think Keller or Trotter feel about this? What would Soltner say, How does Alice Waters precieve this?

I getting so tired of sell outs.

 

[isa]

What does Trotter and Keller would think about this CC? They must love it cause this company is selling their food or menu or bag. Do check it out. For about 30$ you can have your own little bag of "Mac and Cheese" Lobster w/Orzo.


Don't think they are the only one. Check the list:


Chef Daniel Boulud
Chef Thomas Keller
Chef Mark Miller
Chef Reine Sammut
Chef Charlie Trotter
Chef Antoine Westermann
Chef Gerard Bertholon


Part of me has to think ok I see the point. I may be far away from The French Laundry but I may still eat Keller's food. If you can call it food. The other part of me think I'll never eat that stuff.

 

[kuan]

Actually this was a cocept I was once interested in starting. The only difference was that it would be delivered via grocery vans as in www.simondelivers.com. But I had some problems with the honesty of it, plus the capital expense was enough for anyone to retire. I actually got good comments on this but then all of a sudden money kinda dried up and then my conscience got the better of me.

Kuan

 

[kuan]

This brings up a question about recipes from another thread. Do people really think that it'll taste the same as if you went to Cafe Boulud or French Laundry? Maybe Charlie Trotter gives everything that comes off the production line a good stare and that magically makes it great!

Kuan

 

[peachcreek]

Welcome to the world of Home Meal Replacement.

 

[suzanne]

Turning the question a bit: a very well-reviewed restaurant (bistro-type) here in NYC uses sous vide in this way: they make large batches of their braises such as coq au vin and package them in-house. So when an order comes in for the item, yes, the meat station cook pops the bag in the water. All the rest of the plate is done fresh. What the exec sous told me is that it helps them offer a consistent product, minimizes waste (since they don't have to dispose of excess cooked product), keeps the integrity of the sauces (no over-concentration, then having to water it down again), and allows the station to spend more time on more complicated a-la-minute cooking. (BTW, he also told me how many thousands of $ it cost, and how fast they made back the investment in lowered costs elsewhere, but I forget those numbers.) I think it makes sense to use the technology that way. Remember, they only use this in-house. What do you think about that?

 

[chrose]

I think as long as they're particular about what items they choose to do that to, such as the braises than I think it makes perfect sense. But to have a company cook something and pack it under your name, especially some of these dish is ludicrous.
I priced out BBQ pork chops for two with veg and starch with 2-3 day shipping at just under $50.00. Thanks, no!

 

[jock]

A couple of years ago here in the San Francisco Bay Area a local chef called Bradley Ogden tried something similar. He actually set up a kitchen that did all the prep and packaged meals with instructions on how to finish them at home. Meals were designed for minimal and basic cooking, veggies were chopped and ready to boil/saute/whatever.
I never got to try it before they gave up on the idea but I heard it was pretty good. Especially for weekdays when we are mostly too busy to cook after work.

Jock

 

[nick.shu]

home meal replacements are going to take over to a certain extent. Once the price comes down and quality exceeds take away at the very least (i.e. becomes competitive). TV dinners have failed because of the quality. Upper market meals have failed because of costs.

What does that tell you. Easy, address quality and cost issues, and there is a market in the making.

 

[shroomgirl]

Hmmmm....personal cheffing is very similar my friends. I cook 5 meals for a family a week in addition to desserts, and a lunch.
The food coming out of Va. is comparable in cost to mine. Of course not all of the food I make is frozen....but some will be.

One of my friends is doing food out of one of his bistros for home consumption, shtuff already on the menu....cassolet, shanks, daube, salads, desserts, pate etc....$15 for an entree and 2 sides.
$35-40ish for servings for 4....just started so it'll be interesting to see.

Time is as big a commodity as money.....I'd much rather see healthier foods consumed than a drive through of fat.

While I was in NYC I bought a cryovaced pkg of 4 beets from France. 99cents, organic $2.99....they were peeled and shelf stable. I brought it back to show my farmers an alternative package that would take them to another level. Being able to sell year round, having farm food that will Winter well. I agree with Suzanne, it's ok to use technology....look at the quality and
see if it's worth the price.

*I've got an interview with a reporter this morning....one of the questions she wants an answer to is, "Are personal chefs and personal teachers a trend of the future?"

I'm banking that people will come to Clayton Farmer's Market to meet their farmers, buy local foods and hang out for the market tour and cooking demo....So for those that want to learn how to prepare local fresh foods, I'll teach um, for those that just want a fridge of prepared food, I'll cook it....for those that wanna go out I'll recommend restaurants....

Oh yeah the newest trend I see on the forefront is Healthy fast food places with organic foods...Chipotle in Chicago is owned my McDonalds and is buying organic foods and I think Niman meats...
Oh Yeah and Charlie Trotter has a go food place now, it's on my Chicago list to visit, I tried his products at Fancy Food show, the only one that got me was the coffee fudge sauce.

 

[momoreg]

Funny...
When we went to Trotter's, they handed me a big bag of goodies on our way out. Most of the items in the bag were from his store, including that sauce. My husband fell in love with it. It's really just coffee flavored ganache (and very tasty at that).

The store is definitely worth visiting, by the way.

 

[karlat]

Wow!
I just finished looking at the site.
I guess you can get just about anything for just about any amount of $$. Are these entrees compariably priced to the actual restaurants? And if they are why are they? No linens to pay for, no wait staff, no lighting, no atmosphere.

I once had a whole side of yellow fin tuna shipped overnight at some cost (shipping cost and product cost) for a dinner party for no special occasion. But would I spend $$ on a prepacked vaccumed sealed entree. NOPE. But then I can cook and put whole ingredients together to make something really good. I suppose if your a food lover and can't cook.......

Karla

 

[shroomgirl]

It's absolutely the name power. Your buying go food from recipes of top chefs.....there are loads of folks that follow those guys that have a whole lotta money and want to try the food. My clients ate out a lot when they were climbing the ladder, now they want food cooked to their specs in their home and will pay for me to cook it.
I wonder how much repeat business the go-food firm has....it'll be interesting to see how they are doing in 2 years.

 

[suzanne]

There's an item in today's New York Times that Impromptu Gourmet, one of the companies selling kits of big-name chefs' stuff to (basically) reheat, is going out of business. Not enough pigeons, ooops I mean people, bought the product. NOT

 

[isa]

There's an article about two gourmet meal companies in Time magazine.

 

[kimmie]

You're right Suzanne. Their website Impromptu Gourmet is not working.