The
go-go gourmets
By ROSEMARY
BLACK
DAILY NEWS FOOD EDITOR
It used to be that if you wanted dinner
brought to your doorstep, your choices were
pizza or Chinese. But home meal delivery has
gotten to be so popular - and the options so
upscale - that you can order just about
anything by phone or online and have it by
the next day. Instead of being limited to lo
mein vs. Szechuan chicken, or pepperoni vs.
sausage, you can choose anything from
braised short ribs with French green beans
to mashed potatoes and filet mignon. These
are meals that require some involvement on
the part of the consumer- boiling water, for
instance, or operating a microwave- but most
are ready in well under half an hour.
"Home meal delivery is a growing trend,"
says Michael Schiller, spokesman for
Decision Point Marketing. "People today have
so many demands on their time that they just
can't always prepare meals the way they used
to. Also, since 9/11, there's been a renewed
interest in home and family. People want to
be out of the house less, and do more
together. Sure, they can stop at the
supermarket deli on the way home and get a
prepared meal. But more and more they are
opting to get a gourmet meal delivered."
Four for dinner
We tried dinner from a four-star chef,
calorically controlled entrees that tasted
fattening and some intriguing ethnic fare for
this report. After sampling our way through four
choices, here's what we found.
Chef Connie Cooks! is owned and operated by
Connie Rousseau of Fort Lee, N.J., who's been
cooking professionally for five years. She
prepares the meals herself in your home and
leaves everything ready. All you need to do is
reheat. You may order everything from Middle
Eastern to Middle American, from Korean to
Caribbean. Typically, a client hires Connie
Cooks! to cook several meals at a time, though
some clients also hire her to prepare a dinner
party.
"I can do a full service where I serve it
all, or I can just prepare the food and then the
client takes full credit," Rousseau says.
She travels as far away as Connecticut,
though most of her clients are in Manhattan.
Sake- and soy-glazed Chilean sea bass,
pistachio-crusted baby rack of lamb, pan-seared
salmon in banana leaf and rum-glazed sweet
plantains were all delicious. A family of four
can expect to pay around $24 per serving, though
this is flexible, depending on if you order rack
of lamb or a casserole. She also prepares kosher
meals.
"My typical client is either a time-stressed
professional or a stay-at-home soccer mom who is
also time-stressed," Rousseau says. Her most
popular entree is the Chilean sea bass. She also
prepares vegetarian dishes like Garden Patch
Baked Pasta, a mixture of broccoli, carrots,
celery and pasta in a bechamel sauce. Available
in all boroughs.
Fiveleaf, working with a company called
Cuisine Solutions, offers meals created by some
of the top professional chefs in the U.S. and
France - Thomas Keller of the French Laundry,
for instance. The frozen meals arrive packed in
dry ice. The home cook simply drops the pouches
of frozen food into hot water (following package
directions) and dinner's ready in roughly 20
minutes. A few items are cooked in a
conventional oven.
The meals I sampled were very good: There
were beef short ribs braised in red-wine sauce,
which came with a little side of cooked celery
(a creation of Daniel Boulud), as well as a
poached chicken breast accompanied by leeks and
carrots in a chive sauce. In both cases, the
meat was tender and flavorful, the sides were
satisfying and (if you take the time to arrange
the meals on the plate as suggested in the
instructions) the meal looks especially
appealing. The drawback is that you'll need to
spend about 20 minutes cooking and you also have
to defrost the items, preferably for a day, in
the fridge. Prices range from $9.99 to $17.99
for appetizers and up to $29.99 for entrees.
FreshDirect, which began last September and
now has 65,000 customers, carries fresh meat,
breads, pastries and groceries. Its line of
prepared meals includes a very good grilled
filet mignon. I also sampled the delicious
mashed potatoes, a decent Caesar salad, a
thin-crusted pizza and butter-glazed carrots,
all of which needed a simple reheating. Prices
range from $4.99 for chicken fingers to $14 for
grilled filet mignon. The average entree is $6
to $7. Meals are created and prepared by David
McInerney (formerly of Bouley and One If by
Land) and Michael Stark (formerly of Tribeca
Grill). John Boris, vice president of marketing
and development, notes that delivery is provided
from the Battery up to 125th St. They hope to be
in Queens soon.
Finally, for those concerned about weight or
health, a meal delivery program called 5 Squares
drops off a cooler each night filled with the
next day's food. Wheat and sugar-free, the meals
are prepared fresh each day. Instead of three
meals, you get five different smallish ones for
one day. I tried the meals for several days
running and was pleasantly surprised that they
were fairly satisfying, despite their size. One
day's meals might consist of wheat-free
banana-nut pancakes, lime-marinated chicken
served over spinach salad, zucchini stuffed with
ground turkey and served with broccoli rabe,
shrimp and scallops with portobellos and filet
mignon with kale and garlic-mashed potatoes.
The cost is around $8 per meal, I didn't feel
hungry during my three days following this plan,
and it really was effortless. For information,
visit
www.my5squares.com or call 1-866-5wecook.
There is a minimum order of three days' worth,
and a three-day cancellation policy. Delivery is
Monday through Thursday (weekend bags are
delivered on Thursday.) Delivery is available in
Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester and
Connecticut. It will be in Queens in six weeks.
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