Through fortuitous circumstances, we were the recent beneficiary of several meal kits from HelloFresh.
If — like us — you are unfamiliar with meal kits or a first-time user, they contain all the ingredients for a meal. But you get the privilege (or chore, depending on your point of view) of preparing the meal. That is, you slice and dice the vegetables, and you mash the potatoes. In short, you become an amateur celebrity chef with ingredients delivered in a densely wrapped box to your home.
Sound like fun? Well … maybe. And maybe not.
Remember, this is not a ready-to-eat meal. This is a kit. It’s bupkis until you prepare it.
Meat or fish has to be cooked, vegetables have to be roasted, potatoes have to be peeled, sliced, diced and cooked. So there are multiple steps before you get to sit down to an attractive-looking dinner like the ones lavishly illustrated on HelloFresh’s website.
They do tell you what you are going to need before you begin work, advising that you need to “bust out” pots, strainers, bowls, baking sheets and occasionally a zester. Wait, you don’t own a zester? For shame.
The instructions typically promise a prep time of 10 minutes. We are highly skeptical of that figure. Maybe if you read the instructions beforehand and proceed efficiently, but we found the prep time to be about twice that. Of course, that could be because we were totally butterfingers with an improvised zester.
Also, you need to supply ingredients that HelloFresh presumes you have conveniently stocked in your cupboard such as kosher salt, black pepper, cooking oil, and butter. What, you forgot to pickup kosher salt on your last trip to Whole Foods? For shame again.
Regardless, we took several of the meals for a spin including the peppercorn-crusted beef tenderloin illustrated above. (We also managed to scatter the packet of peppercorns over the kitchen counter and found one or two hiding in odd places a day or two later.) Some of the steps are easy; some are not. Some even offer little subtleties, such as “use a basting brush to coat the salmon, but if you don’t have one, use the back of a spoon.” (We’ve put zester and basting brush on our imaginary culinary wish list.)
In HelloFresh’s defense, the meal kits include little touches and garnishes such as sliced almonds over the entrées (nope, we didn’t have to slice them ourselves.). They are an attractive option, but don’t forget to “bust out” some scissors to slice open the myriad packets.
So what’s the verdict? If you want to imagine yourself as an aspiring Bobby Flay or Giada De Laurentiis and have all the ingredients delivered to your home in a cold-packed box, you might willingly dig into the meal kits.
But — and this is a huge but — we think there are better alternatives. First of all, you could venture out to Whole Foods, Smith’s or Albertsons and load your grocery cart with the ingredients for dinner. And then actually cook it yourself, using your own style and your own imagination. (Zester optional.)
For that matter, there is even another alternative if you don’t feel like “busting out” all the tools you need, don’t wish to endure prep time of maybe 10-20 minute and cooking time of more than a half hour. That alternative is McDonald’s. The last time we peered in, their dining room was open.
For the record, HelloFresh is a German company based in Berlin. If you believe Wikipedia, it is the largest meal-kit provider in the United States and has operations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and several European countries. No sales figures were immediately available.
Bon appétit.
