All You Do is Pack and Cook

(Wednesday, July 20, 2005) — Excerpts from the Washington Post:
"Make It and Take It: New Meal Assembly Industry Shops and Slices. All You Do is Pack and Cook."
By Candy Sagon

"'I loved it. It was easy and delicious,' [Jane Korrow] says. So easy that the resident of nearby Cockeysville arranged a second visit a month later."
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"Companies like Let’s Dish! call it 'meal assembly.' Moms call it a lifesaver. And financial experts call it one of the fastest-growing food trends in the county.

The business allows home cooks to gather in a commercial kitchen and assemble prepared raw ingredients, following easy recipes for up to 12 meals. No meals are cooked at Let's Dish!. Instead, customers pack up the entrees they've assembled in freezerproof bags and containers and take them home, to be frozen and then cooked as needed."
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"The experience is not only convenient—cooks get to skip all the shopping, chopping and cleanup—but it’s also fun says Korrow. There’s music playing, snacks and drinks to enjoy, and other mothers to talk to."
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"At the Let's Dish! in Timonium, Jenna Millman of Baltimore came to a recent weekday session with her mother, Robin Gladstone. 'The meals are easy to prepare, and I liked the idea that I could split portions with my mom,' says Millman, as she added chili powder and lime juice to two plastic bags containing chicken breasts. 'The fist time I came, I didn't split it and it was too much food.'"
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"The entree choices at most meal assembly places change monthly and tend toward the gourmet. On the Let's Dish! menu for July, for instance, there's chili lime grilled chicken with blank bean salsa, salmon fillet with lemon and dill butter, and Cuban grilled pork tenderloin with chimichurri sauce."
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"Elizabeth Marcotte, [location partner and operator] of Let's Dish! in Ashburn, says a large part of the appeal is 'you don't have to wash any dishes. You don't have to shop. But you still can tailor each recipe to you own family. if they don't like garlic, you can just leave it out.'"
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“For a lot of people, food is a chore done solo. This turns into an open event with or family members”—Gregory Fairchild, University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
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“Several recent studies, including one from the University of Michigan, show that kids who eat dinner with their families have fewer problems at school—a finding that many meal assembly places site as a way of attracting customers.”