Chef’s Plate – a great meal planning tool

As the parent of three small children, I have been working under the assumption that easy to prepare meals were things like pasta dishes, slow cooker meals and breakfast for dinner. My whole meal repertoire has become very lazy in the last few years with my picky eaters, work/life imbalance, and just exhaustion. Before kids, I would spend hours pouring over cook books, carefully planning luxurious meals and spending loads of time just prepping. I honestly believed that those days were gone, but I was pleasantly surprised that I could get the same output (quality, unique meals) with maybe 10% of the work.

A few weeks ago, I got the chance to try out Chef’s Plate, a food delivery service that’s more than just a veggie box. Set up as a subscription, every week, you get to peruse the menu on hand, and select which meals you would like based on your plan (more on that in a second). The menu rotates every week, so you’ve always got something fresh. On Mondays (and I think some Thursdays) your box arrives, full of proportioned food, recipe cards and info.

The week we did it, we chose a steak meal (with gorgeous potatoes and braised radicchio) and Mexican Sopes, a street food with sautéed beans and cheese. I hand made and pan fried the sopes myself! The food was easy to prepare and incredibly tasty. And in our week, there was a bit of a mix up, and I am still wildly impressed at Chef’s Plate’s response.

When we got our delivery, I noticed that we never received the steak for our meal. I contacted Chef’s Plate immediately, and they resent the entire order two days later! We had the sopes again, and this time I made them less spicy and our kids LOVED them. They also LOVED the steak. This is huge, because they usually won’t eat anything. I think that the novelty of the meals, the delivery and the uniqueness made them more interested in trying what I was cooking.

Our overall experience with the company was incredible, especially since they rectified the mistake so happily. Most companies usually say, “Sorry!” but not Chef’s Plate. They want to make sure that each customer is very happy and they certainly exceeded my expectations.

The only downside that I feel could deter some is the cost. At around $10 per person, it can be expensive. You can choose to have meals for 2 or 4 people and you can choose 2-3 meals a week depending on how many people you are cooking for. So, you are looking at between $60-$90 per week. For many, this could be part of a grocery budget, but here’s what I feel – the fact that Chef’s Plate pre packages EVERYTHING you need, including exotic spices, veggies and meats (really top quality at that), and saves you from having to buy, say, a $10 jar of saffron for one meal is worth it. I also love the idea of picking menu items and then quickly prepping them. I’m a home cook who likes to experiment but I also would love to take a little guesswork out of my weekly prep, so I think that while that $10.95 might seem high, it’s actually convenience and ease you are paying for. And the fact that you can pause your subscription at any time is a really nice option, too.

If you’re a busy working parent, or hoping to figure out what to cook when baby arrives, I highly recommend you try out Chef’s Plate! Click this link to receive a discount on your first order. I’d love to hear your experience with Chef’s Plate, so let me know if you loved it in the comments.

Chef’s Plate will be at The Baby Show in Toronto April 2-3.