Between now and August 31st, A Child Grows in Brooklyn readers can get $10 off their first order from plated.com. Simply use discount code “achildgrows” at checkout.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting several people over at Plated.com, and thanks to their generous offer of trying out four complimentary plates, you’re now reading this review.
Plated.com is the brainchild of HBS grads Nick Taranto and Josh Hix. It’s a web-based company that curates a shortlist of recipes from renowned chefs like Jason Roberts, Gabe Thompson, and Phoebe Lapine, and sends boxes of raw ingredients to customers’ homes so that they can enjoy the actual cooking experience at home.
I don’t know what meals look like at your house, but at ours, if they are cooked by myself or my husband, they’re often not more than a pot of pasta covered with a jar of tomato sauce. If we had actually planned somewhat for the week and did grocery shopping on the weekend, that pot of pasta may also include some fresh garlic and some sauteed spinach – though more often than not, it’s just the store-bought tomato sauce. Pathetic, right? I know. So when I had an opportunity to try Plated.com for free, I jumped on it.
The whole premise of Plated is simple – easy to cook, delicious gourmet meals, without the hassle of grocery shopping or meal planning. All of the ingredients you need to cook dinner are delivered to your door:
Plated’s recipes are easy enough for the new cook to follow, but will still impress the home gourmet aficionado with one-of-a-kind dishes.
Plated customers are required to purchase a minimum of four plates per order, so we tried two different recipes (two plates each). One was an Asian chicken dish with baby corn, spicy chili pepper and a savory soy sauce, served over rice. The other was a seared tuna served over linguini. All ingredients were delivered together on the same day, and even though a couple of days passed before I was able to prepare the tuna, Plated’s packaging kept it very fresh until I was ready to prepare it.
I can honestly say that I was extremely pleased with my entire Plated.com experience. The ingredients were truly beautiful, the recipes easy to follow and very quick to prepare (roughly 20 minutes each), and the outcome better than if we’d been dining in a restaurant (partially because of the satisfaction I get from cooking an incredible meal at home).
Using a service like Plated.com on a regular basis isn’t cheap (cost ranges from $10 – $15/plate, depending on quantity ordered), though when I stopped to think about what we regularly spend on takeout and eating out, as well as the excess of empty calories we consume on nights when we don’t have anything decent at home to eat, it’s actually a pretty smart addition to our meal rotation. I’ve often times thought of how I could possibly afford to hire a personal chef. Maybe this is it? Either way, I look forward to seeing more from Plated.com and trying new additions to their menu.
Between now and August 31st, A Child Grows in Brooklyn readers can get $10 off their first order from plated.com. Simply use discount code “achildgrows” at checkout.