ChefMealKits Review

If you are a food entrepreneur, chances are you may be looking for more ways to promote your dishes.

ChefMealKits combines meal kits and a virtual kitchen to help restaurants sell their food. This review takes a look at how ChefMealKits works, their pricing, and the types of meals they have available.

How Does Chef Meal Kits Work?

ChefMealKits partners with restaurants and independent food entrepreneurs to convert recipes into meal kits before selling them on their website.

Currently, there are 220 meal kits available on ChefMealKits’ website, and visitors can filter meals according to protein type, city, and diet requirements. Each meal kit contains two to four servings.

If a restaurant wants to sell meal kits, ChefMealKits will help them select up to eight of their menu items and convert them into meal kit recipes. ChefMealKits will then create a storefront on its website with the restaurant’s branding and photos of each dish.

Every meal kit listing on ChefMealKits’ website includes the following:

• Estimated cooking time
• Price
• Number of servings
• Shipping time
• Dish description
• List of allergens
• Location the kit was shipped from
• Rating
• Skill level
• Spice rating
• What is not included
• Tools needed
• Recipes

ChefMealKits takes care of the meal kit preparation, packing, shipment, marketing, and customer support.

Ingredient preparation takes place in Chef Meal Kits’ virtual kitchen in San Diego, and the company operates in several states, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho.

Visitors to the site can browse meal kits and place orders without subscribing to ChefMealKits’ services. Shipping takes up to two days, and the specific delivery date will be highlighted in the checkout process before the buyer makes the payment.

Chef Meal Kits do their best to include the same ingredients that the restaurant uses, but they may use a substitute ingredient. The website will also protect a restaurant’s recipes by listing some items as secret ingredients or blends.

If the customer wants to order meal kits from different restaurants, they have to make separate purchases.

Pricing

There are two plans that food entrepreneurs can choose from: Food Entrepreneur Basic and Food Entrepreneur Elite. With the basic package, the food entrepreneur can:

• Create a branded shop page
• Create a profile page
• Upload up to four recipes
• View orders

The elite option is almost the same, except that the food entrepreneur can upload eight recipes instead of four. Both the basic and elite package is a minimum twelve-month contract.

According to ChefMealKits’ terms and conditions, membership and setting up a store on their website is free. However, the company charges a percentage of the total sale price when an item sells. All payments are processed through Braintree, a third-party payment processor.

Kit prices range from $12 to $60, depending on the number of servings, the ingredients, and the simplicity of the dish. Some meal kits fall outside this price range, however.

The total order value determines the shipping costs. If the total order value is less than $59.99, the shipping cost is $20. If the order is between $60 and $89.99, the shipping cost is $14, and if it is higher than $90, the shipping is $10.

Types of Meals

When choosing a meal kit, a customer can use several filters, including meal types. The options include the cuisine type, protein type, and diet requirements.

The cuisine selections include American, British, Cajun/Creole, Chinese, Cuban, French, Greek, Hawaiian, Indian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Mexican, Persian/Iranian, Scottish, and Spanish.

The protein selections include beef, chicken, duck, turkey, lamb, pork, and seafood. If you have special dietary requirements, you can choose from gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, pescatarian, and halal.

Company History

Chef Meal Kits launched in 2016 when founder Meg Ginimav wanted his favorite dish but lived far away from his mother, who usually prepared it for him.

Meg combined the meal kit concept with that of a virtual kitchen and offered the idea to restaurants and food entrepreneurs. It was the perfect way to establish brand awareness without high capital output.

Unlike similar companies, ChefMealKits doesn’t require a subscription. The company’s plans for the future include shipping by FedEx Air once they reach the appropriate sales targets.

Many food entrepreneurs view ChefMealKits as a low-cost launchpad for their products and brands. The company makes it possible for these businesses to sell their food to people without having to set up a restaurant or kitchen.

Alternatives

• Hello Fresh – A top meal kit option, HelloFresh has been around for almost a decade.
• Peach Dish – If southern food is your cup of tea, Peach Dish will be your choice of the best meal kit providers.
• Blue Apron – One of the three largest Subscription services, Blue Apron continues to expand its meal types.

Pros

• Convenient eCommerce platform for restaurants and food entrepreneurs
• ChefMealKits takes care of customer support, packing, shipping, and marketing
• Assistance to develop a meal kit from an in-house recipe
• Meal kits are delivered within two days
• There is a wide range of meal kits that are searchable by filters
• Registering and setting up a store on ChefMealkits is free
• A low-cost method to start in the food industry
• Meal kit listings are comprehensive and include ingredient information and instructions

Cons

• The meal kits are not available in all states
• The subscription fees may be too high for some small business
• Substitutes sometimes replace a restaurant’s ingredients

Conclusion

ChefMealKits makes it possible for restaurants to sell their products without having to worry about logistics, high overhead, or customer support. If you have popular dishes that you want to get out there, Chef Meal Kits may be the ideal solution to help you develop a marketable meal kit.