“Make and Take” is Still Too Much Work
March 3, 2008
Back in the spring of 2005, A. was just 18 months old and I was a few months pregnant. A. had just become a picky eater — previously, he had at least tried everything we put in front of him. I remember him begging meat off a “steak on a stake” at a Renaissance fair when he was just barely a year old. That was probably the last red meat that he ever ate! As a first-time mom, I was more worried about making sure he ate something, anything, rather than continuing to offer a wide variety of food. I served a lot of pasta and yogurt, and was mostly happy because I knew he wasn’t hungry. Obviously I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture.
It was around that time that an independent meal-assembly shop opened up near me (it has since closed) and I thought it was heaven-sent. This is one of those places like Dream Dinners or Let’s Dish where you buy a package of 8 or 12 meals, and then spend a couple of hours in their kitchen assembling your recipes, adjusting them to your family’s tastes. You take the prepped meals home and freeze them — you just defrost and cook when you’re ready. And you don’t have to clean up your kitchen!
The problem was that the meals didn’t really fit with what I needed — a mostly vegetarian meal pack. We don’t combine milk and meat in our house. We don’t eat pork or shrimp. J. doesn’t like chicken (go ahead and roll your eyes, I sure do). And making something with non-kosher beef just didn’t feel right to either of us. I did do a set of meals once, thanks to a gift certificate from my mom, and at that point in my life those meals provided some of the only real, home-cooked dinners I was serving.
There was a good article about the current state of these “make and take” shops in the New York Times recently (“It’s on to Plan B as a Hot Trend Cools Off”). Turns out that 2005, when the place near me opened up, was the very height of this small business trend, and growth in the industry has dramatically slowed. Apparently, assembling a meal yourself when all the shopping, set up and clean up is done for you, is still too much work for most people.
The trend now is for these meal-assembly places to simply offer the completed, full-prepped meal as an alternative to take out, or to frozen foods from the supermarket that might contain more processed ingredients. The Times article even noted that the third-largest meal assembly franchiser intends to get out of the session cooking business altogether, and only provide the staff-assembled meals to their customers.
I’m fascinated by this shift. I never really understood the rapid expansion of these chains, even when I wasn’t cooking for myself. It seemed to fill (what I thought was) a non-existent void between people who wanted to or felt compelled to cook, and people who were fine with take out or pre-made from a supermarket. It seems like if you think homemade is important, you’ll cook. And otherwise you may be very content with frozen stuff from a store — whether it’s a trans-fat filled corn dog or something healthy, with no preservatives, like the Amy’s line of products.
There are so many choices now, at least here in the suburbs of Manhattan, for healthy, all-natural pre-made dinners. I just don’t see how a “make and take” can succeed.
That said, Let’s Dish is still up and running in nearby Scarsdale. I wouldn’t say no if someone wanted me to try it out with them on a one-off basis… the appeal of not having to wash dishes is that strong!
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Filed under: Thinking Out Loud
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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6 Comments
1.
merrie | March 3, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I found the place that closed amazing. I like to prepare food but was short on time. What I liked about it was that I could prepare the entire weeks meals in 1/2 and hour and alter them to my family’s taste. (That is probably why I still try to cook all of my stuff in 2 days tops!) The system really worked for me.
However, with it being closed, I have not ventured further b/c of the time. To me I like to cook but only have a limited time. If I am traveling 20 minutes each way, it is too much time. Seriously, everything I make can be prepped in 1/2 an hour:)
I also hate dishes.
Unfortunately, I think you were one of their only clients! I think it worked so well for you because you were very open to a range of recipes, especially once you customized them (lower fat, for instance). — Dara
2.
Amanda | March 3, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Thank you for writing about this. We don’t have businesses like that around here and I’ve been curious about them for awhile.
I post over on a parenting message board and one of the ladies there uses Dream Dinners. I was always confused by the concept. It seems like if you have the time to go down to there store and assemble all the meals at once, you’d be able to take 30 minutes or an hour out of your day to cook a meal at home.
Ehh.. I guess everyone has to do what works for them.
Amanda, I also think that the planning is what stumps a lot of people. If you are cooking at home you have to plan a recipe in advance, shop for it, prep it, cook it on time, and clean up. Pretty much all of those steps are eliminated at a place like this — you just have to remember to defrost it. I’m with you… everyone’s got to do what works for them. — Dara
3.
Jodi | March 3, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I have never heard of this before!? Well we have a place here, but I think the idea is gourmet food ready to take home and serve? I am confused now. So, instead of grocery shopping you go to a place like this, choose what you want (and it is already all prepared?) and then you freeze it and then cook it the day you want to serve it?
I could do that…that sounds like something I would totally be into…no wait, I have to cook while I am there? Oh, I just want a personal chef!
You don’t actually cook, you assemble. So, you would layer a lasagna from ingredients that are already set out at a station, and that have measured scoops in them. Or you would bread chicken and put it in a casserole dish. Etc. It was combining and mixing, but no cooking. Although the article indicates this type of place isn’t as successful as the ones that just make the dinners for you, and you just pick them up and put them in your oven. — Dara
4.
Beth | March 4, 2008 at 10:23 pm
We have two make and takes near me and the thing that gets me is the price- $20-$30 for a meal that I could easliy make at home for $5 -$10. For those prices I would rather eat out an avoid the kitchen altogether.
5.
Carol | March 7, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Last fall I bought a book called “Don’t Panic – Dinner’s In the Freezer!” and it basically shows you how to take this “Make and Take” concept and do it at home, complete with freezer-easy/ready recipes. I spent one afternoon putting together about 4 meals (took me maybe 2 hours, complete with interruptions), and it was nice to be able to just pull things out of the freezer. I think what was most helpful was some of the freezing tips. If the concept appeals to anyone, they can check out that book. I believe that the women who began “Dream Dinners” also have a cookbook of the same concept.
6.
Terese | March 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hi Dara,
I was very interested in the topic of your blog chat last week. I own the Let’s Dish! in Scarsdale and would love to have the chance to introduce you and your friends to meal assembly and to Let’s Dish! First, a few thoughts on the comments made by your readers:
- We work hard to put recipes on the menu that are not just something you could easily do yourselves at home. If you can do it at home for $5, it most likely isn’t on the menu at LD. The same cannot be said of some of our competitors. We chose to bring LD to the NY metro market precisely because we believed the menu to be diverse, interesting and healthy, all aspects that this market demands.
- We call it a ‘risk free culinary adventure’ as you get to try new things every month.
- our customers all have their own reasons to use LD. For some, its being able to fill their freezers with a months worth of dinners that go from freezer to table in 30 minutes. For some its the ability to tailor recipes to individual diets (low salt, allergies, etc). Ingredients are high quality including hormone free chicken etc. For others its the the party atmosphere of doing a session with friends. For many, they prefer to let us do the ‘dishing’ for them. They simply place the order. Then there is the cost factor as the per serving cost is below $4 per person even with the full range of meat, fish and vegetarian choices.
I could go on, but I think I will stop and simply invite you to check it out yourself. The website is http://www.letsdish.com. You can place your order there, give us a call, or simply stop by to check it out. We also now offer delivery all over the NY metro area if that’s a preference.
I’d like to offer you and your fellow bloggers a $10 discount if you use the code DARA1.
Feel free to email or call with any questions. I look forward to meeting you.
Terese
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