When Seth Lederman moved to Chicago from New York last April, he was a hungry man. He had used a home meal delivery system in Manhattan for several years before he moved, and was used to the convenience of having all his meals delivered to his doorstep. In Chicago, he feared, he wouldn’t be able to find such a program.
“Eating out is extremely expensive and not convenient,” said Lederman, 41, who will open a spine and sports rehabilitation business called Rehability in River North in December.
“I just don’t cook that much, and as a single person, trying to cook for myself means a lot of waste unless I plan very carefully.”
Then he found out about the Mike George Fitness Systems personal chef service, and Lederman’s hunger was appeased.
Lederman found that the service would deliver three meals and two snacks, all prepared fresh every day, to his door before breakfast each morning.
Wouldn’t it be nice never to have to worry about what’s for supper again? Would your life be improved if you never had to set foot in a grocery store? Do you wish you had a magic method to eliminate worries about calories and carbs, portions and protein? Do you wonder if the space your kitchen takes up could be put to better use?
If you’ve wondered about any of those, a home meal delivery system might be the solution for you, too.
Home delivery meal systems, sometimes called home meal replacement programs, have provided similar solutions for many subscribers across the country, though no one keeps track of exactly how many people use them.
Typically such programs provide three meals a day, usually freshly prepared and ready to heat in the microwave or oven, delivered once or twice a week. Some include couple of snacks each day. Some companies provide such service nationally, while others are local. Most cater to those on specialized diets or those interested in losing weight, or to customers who simply want to be sure they’re eating healthfully.
“I coined a saying: Reality is an illusion; perception is reality,” said Bob Messenger, the editor of a daily online newsletter, The Daily Cup, based in Chicago, which tracks food industry news. “Americans want to believe they don’t have time. Everything is about convenience, about ‘make my life easier.’ “
As a result, Messenger said, “you’re seeing a lot of different food distribution channels evolving, and [home delivery] is one of them. All over the country, there are programs that deliver chef-quality meals to the home.”
Does money buy time?
Such programs aren’t cheap. Some require a minimum one-month enrollment, and with costs as high as $40 a day, that’s a significant chunk of change. But if time is money, then money is time, and people will happily pay, said Messenger, to buy even the illusion of more time.
“We want people to cook for us, we want someone else to shop for us,” he said. “We now have machines to watch TV for us until we can watch–that’s what TiVo is.
We live in an age of cooking illiterates, and there are a lot of young people who don’t cook because they have so many other options.”
The idea of taking the work out of feeding ourselves isn’t new, said New York based food and restaurant consultant Clark Wolf.
“Grocery stores have been trying to put this together for years, starting with rolled, tied roasts that were ready for the oven,”Wolf said.
Now, he said, with “everyone working, as the stay-at-home dads go back to work because their 401ks were destroyed, and women stayed in the work force, it begins to be more cost efficient for everybody. It’s cheaper than going out; you get more of what you actually want; you feel as if it’s being made especially for you; it’s designed to travel. It’s also cost-efficient in terms of using your own time.”
Still, said Wolf, by some standards, the notion is peculiar. “Americans are unique in their willingness to have others make their food decisions for them,” he said.
“Our culture is based on plenty, cheap. Other cultures are much more invested in their food decisions. So here we are saying to other people, ‘You tell me what’s healthy, you tell me how much it costs, and I’ll let you deliver it.’ “
Other food industry observers are less optimistic that consumers will see value in these services.
“These businesses come and go,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice-president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago food industry marketing research company. “There’s a lot of competition from grocery stores and restaurants. I’m not sure there’s a real benefit to consumers.”
Personal trainer Mike George would say his meal replacement program serves both good food and real benefits. The delivery program seemed a logical outgrowth of his company’s other services, he said.
“We began it for the same reasons we have a registered dietitian and physical therapist on the staff,” George said. “It helps our customers adhere to the program.” His company in Chicago offers personal trainers, cardiovascular and flexibility programs, metabolic assessments and a range of other wellness services.
Perhaps more widely known around Chicago is Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating. Sutton, a registered nurse, began a meal replacement program in 1985. Sutton’s Ottawa, Ill., commissary alone prepared 155,000 meals for its Chicago-area distributors during one week this year. With franchisees in other states experiencing similar 20 percent annual growth, Sutton sees a bright future.
Sutton said her company’s meals are “ideal for anyone, even kids!” She said some people call “and put their [aging] parents on this, so the they can be sure their parents, who no longer want to cook, still eat well.”
The Sutton program provides meals twice a week; clients can pick them up from a local distributor, or have the meals delivered at additional cost.
Many of Sutton’s customers are motivated by the desire to lose weight–“we have more than 50 people who have lost more than 100 pounds apiece,” she said–but programs like hers also serve the culinarily disinclined.
“People don’t want to spend the time in the kitchen,” Sutton said. “This generation doesn’t want to cook; the next generation won’t know how to cook.”
Even if they do know how to cook, Sutton said, “Many working couples come to us because they don’t have the time to do marketing and cooking.”
Sticking to a diet
There are meal replacement programs for Atkins diet followers, South Beach diet followers and Zone Diet followers. Arthur Gunning founded the national Zone Diet at Home program last February after the spectacular success of his New York Zone Chef program.
Zone Diet at Home delivers a week’s worth of meals and snacks. Everything is packaged sous-vide, a vacuum-packing process that preserves quality without freezing, Gunning said. His clients say the sous-vide process makes a difference in quality.
“One of our California clients is redoing her house,” Gunning said. “She’s thinking about not even putting a kitchen in their new house, and wondered if we could deliver forever. Of course we told her, ‘Yes!’ “
Gunning, himself a client of the Zone Diet at Home, says his program could, indeed, go on forever. “We believe it’s a lifestyle program, more than anything else. Just the education of getting healthy food, proper portion size, and a good blend of foods — that’s a good step.”
With clients who range from “runway models to a woman who just gave birth, and also the executive on the go,” Gunning said, meal delivery programs like his “eliminate the boredom of having to eat at the same places every day. People say they’re more productive, because they eat right at their desk.”
For some satisfied home meal replacement clients, though, the selling point is both the catering and the coddling.
“In New York, I told them my food likes and dislikes, and they chose the meals,” Lederman said. “Here, I get to choose what I want, and they take into account my activity levels and so forth. So, since I’m very active, they upped the calories, and provided double lunches and double snacks.”
Lederman says it’s an ideal solution for him. “The food quality is excellent, and I like the many choices. It’s worked so well for me that when we open [Rehability], we’ll refer clients to the program.”
Comparing the plans
We ordered a week’s worth of meals from a handful of home meal replacement programs to see what customers receive. We specified a reduced-fat, 1,200-calorie menu. The Tribune paid for all meals. Prices will be higher for higher-calorie plans. Here’s what we found.
CHOICE EATING
Typical day’s menu
Breakfast: Zesty Arizona frittata, roasted new potatoes, fresh melon chunks
Lunch: Orzo melange, curried tomato bisque, soft bread knots
Dinner: Barley bean “burger” on wheat bun, Terra chips, corn on the cob
Cost: $18 a day and up; no minimum sign-up fee
Delivery: Twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays
What tasters thought: Food tasted homemade, but was under seasoned; some dishes (bean soup, omelet) had odd textures. Portions seemed small in some cases. Promised delivery times weren’t met. This program offers the most flexibility.
Contact: choiceeating.net; 877-243-3438 or 312-243-3438
MIKE GEORGE FITNESS SYSTEMS
Typical day’s menu
Breakfast: Turkey and cheese scrambled eggs
Morning snack: Chocolate peanut butter muffin
Lunch: Vietnamese spring roll with soba noodles and vegetables
Dinner: Roast lamb with sweet potato and mint demi-glace
Evening snack: Chocolate swirl cheesecake
Cost: about $40 a day, minimum 1-month enrollment
Delivery: Every day, before breakfast
What tasters thought: Flavor profiles on most dishes seemed contemporary and creative; even with reheating, most dishes ended up correctly cooked (soba noodles were still al dente, for example). Food’s appearance remained bright and colorful even after reheating. Prompt delivery every morning.
Contact: mg-fitness.com; 312-943-6700.
SEATTLE SUTTON’S HEALTHY EATING
Typical day’s menu
Breakfast: Country pancakes with blueberry topping and grapefruit juice
Lunch: Sliced chicken sandwich on wheat bread with mustard, seasonal fruit, chips
Dinner: Turkey Parmesan (sliced turkey breast with basil cheese sauce), asparagus, parsleyed potatoes
Cost: About $100 a week, including delivery. No longterm enrollment required.
Delivery: Twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays
What tasters thought: The Sutton program asks diners to add two 8-ounce glasses of skim milk a day to reach the 1,200 calorie total, so you’re paying for just over 1,000 calories of food each day. Portions look shockingly small at first, until you get used to them; then you’ll look at a bakery muffin and think, “Who could eat that monstrosity?” The quality of the food was on par with high-end frozen entrees, with dishes and flavors very main stream.
Delivery exactly as promised.
Contact: seattlesutton.com; 800-442-3438
THE ZONE DIET AT HOME
Typical day’s menu
Breakfast: Eggs benedict with turkey bacon
Lunch: Turkey pastrami Reuben wrap
Dinner: Chicken cacciatore with red pepper polenta
Snacks: Peach cobbler with granola; orange cranberry cheesecake
Cost: $35 a day, plus $50 weekly shipping
Delivery: Once a week
What tasters thought: Mixed success here; the turkey reuben wrap was quite good, but a beef-shiitake salad was inedible, according to one taster. The vacuum-packing shattered one of the three small phyllo cups in a berries with ricotta offering.
Portions were generous, and food is creative.
Delivery went off without a hitch.
Contact: zonedietathome.com; 866-343-8911
–R.M.J.
A mail-order alternative to meal delivery
Somewhere between pulling a week’s worth of frozen entrees out of the supermarket freezer and having freshly prepared meals delivered to your door is ConAgra’s new Golden Cuisine program.
Golden Cuisine offers senior citizens home delivery of a variety of frozen dinners, all formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of the aging.
Shoppers select meals online at goldencuisine.com, choosing from 16 entrees that cost from $3.75 to nearly $5 each. Meals are delivered once a week, usually on Thursday, and are packaged for maximum food safety.
A week’s worth of meals will cost $32 to $35 for seven meals, including delivery. Entrees vary from tuna noodle casserole to beef pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy to chicken manicotti with marinara sauce. Each includes 3 ounces of cooked protein, 2 1/2 cups of vegetables, and 1/2 cup of starch, such as rice or potato. And each entree contains only 30 calories from fat.
“We worked with Meals on Wheels to develop the recommended daily allowances for our programs,” said Russ Bragg, senior vice president of ConAgra foods in Omaha and president of goldencuisine.com.
“We designed a meal that is a little bigger, on a tray that’s a little deeper so it’s harder to tip over. The printing on the back of the box is in larger print so people can read it without their glasses,” Bragg said.
Bragg said that adult children with aging parents contend with the complexities of caring for their folks, and Golden Cuisine makes it easier for everyone.
“My mother had been in extremely poor health in New Jersey, while I lived in Minnesota,” he said. “We moved her into Minneapolis, and my wife cooked meals, packed them up and froze them. I delivered them to Mom’s apartment so she could choose a different meal every night and heat them up in the microwave.”
While the meals are designed for the calorie and nutrient needs of senior citizens, Bragg said they’re also good for anyone who wishes to eat them.
“We’re seeing a lot of parents sending these meals to their college kids at exam times,” he said. “We wanted to put meals out there that we’d be comfortable serving to our own moms.”
–Robin Mather Jenkins
