Is Cooking Dinner Making A Comeback?

As a personal chef you would think I wouldn’t be happy to hear ‘cooking dinner is making a comeback’ but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure I would love if my clients booked meal deliveries and in home cooking days till the end of time. But what actually makes me the happiest is when clients take control of their own eating lives by cooking at home several meals a week. Nothing brings a family together better than food. Nothing bonds a couple better than sharing the fun of cooking a new recipe and trying a new dish. What people don’t like is the food shopping, measuring and cleaning up. Some also might have confidence issues with cooking like ‘oh I don’t know how to cook there is no way I can cook that’ so they don’t even bother. That’s where meal delivery will help you get on the right track.

I don’t really think  the insane obesity rate has to do with this specific diet or that (Paleo, Gluten Free, Low Carb, No Sugar). It really has to do with the percentage of meals cooked and eaten outside the home. Between long days at work, hectic family schedules and long commutes, unhealthy takeout can easily trump a homemade meal when we’re pressed for time. It is also making that decision of what to eat when you are most vulnerable a.k.a. when you are starving. Then it becomes what is the closest, easiest, cheapest place I can stop on the way home from work. Then people tend to get in trouble.

Choose a combination approach – maybe you use a personal chef meal delivery service twice per month. Then alternating weeks you order from a service like Blue Apron, Plated or HelloFresh where ingredients are delivered to your door with easy recipes to follow. Don’t be shy in using technology to your advantage, try recipe apps like Meal Makeovers or SparkRecipes. Lastly you can always do take out but plan ahead and make wise choices. Your favorite health focused restaurants also do take away. I personally love True Food Kitchen. A ground breaking new trend is fresh salads on the go from a vending type machine. Farmer’s Fridge is a much needed service which provides protein rich salad in  places devoid of anything green, think airports, office buildings and malls.

What ever path you choose, switch paths often and try different things. Cooking dinner at home is making a come back and I couldn’t be happier.