Restaurant chefs are turning the reins over to customers as more establishments provide ingredients and recipes that allow patrons to recreate dishes in their homes.
Once widely considered a threat to their bottom lines, restaurants are taking a cue from the meal kit industry and developing their own kits, with the practice increasing over the past few weeks.
Belcampo’s organic-focused Santa Monica, San Mateo, and Oakland restaurants are selling roasted chicken and grass-fed meatloaf dinner kits, while Fiola Miami last week began selling pasta kits, offering a choice of Gemelli homemade pasta with pesto sauce and Parmesan Reggiano; Rigatoni with Pomodoro sauce, and Parmesan Reggiano; or a dozen Ravioli filled with ricotta cheese, lemon and herbs, as well as make-at-home cocktails.
Regional and ethnic cuisines are in the mix.
Soby’s New South Cuisine in Greenville, S.C., recently launched an at-home Shrimp and Grits kit, with peeled and deveined shrimp, barbecue shrimp sauce, grits and buttermilk and cheddar cheese biscuit mix, and Baology, a Philadelphia Tawainese street spot is selling potsticker and Gwa boa making kits.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to learn about ingredients and how to make something new. And it’s a tactile experience as well,” said owner Judy Ni. “You see more and more people looking for these types of experiences.”
Some can be family-focused like Doughnuttery in New York, which is selling DIY mini donut kits -- one with the mix and devices for making them from scratch, and another of just-cooked donuts with glazes and toppings. Having closed three of its four stores, the business is looking to reopen a second shop downtown this week.
“We had to pivot to these types of items in order to appeal to people’s current lifestyles and situations,” said owner Evan Feldman.
Even upscale steakhouses are going that route.
When 79-year-old Gene & Georgett in downtown Chicago reopened last week, after a 2019 fire, it did so with five meal kits on the menu, including kits featuring steak and peppers, rigatoni, and pork chops.
Many also factor in technology in guiding home preparation. At Frontier, the Chicago restaurant known for preparing and serving whole pigs, lambs, goats, and wild boar, executive chef Brian Jupiter is selling meal kits to pair with a live cooking class on Instagram. Jupiter encourages customers to place orders for ingredient kits in advance, and then tune in to the class. He’s doing one to two a week.
“It’s showing some little tricks that might last them the rest of their lives,” he said. “The recipes are things that are executable no matter the skill set in the kitchen, and things that are versatile that allow them to add their own touches.”
The Monday class was a collaboration with “Grandbaby Cakes” cookbook author Jocelyn Adams, preparing key lime pie to go with Jupiter’s Gumbo Ya Ya recipe.
With the average family unlikely to be interested in preparing or eating an entire goat, kit offerings were developed to have a broader appeal, including pulled brisket sliders and beer can chicken with sides like chips, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese.
Establishments say the kits will stay on the menus post-pandemic.
Meal kits are expected to generate $10 billion in revenue this year, according to statistics portal Statista; and more than 40 percent of consumers would buy meal kits to prepare at home if their favorite restaurants offered them, the National Restaurant Association says.
Rishi Kumar, CEO and co-founder of DailyKit Inc. pushes the concept of meal kits as a supplemental expansion of business at restaurants, as well as a way to use up inventory that would otherwise go to waste.
His Chicago-based company facilitates restaurants creating and selling kits online. “It gives restaurants more room to breathe,” he said.
This week, in California, in conjunction with logistics startup AxelHire, DailyKit is launching restaurantmealkits.com, a marketplace of restaurant lunch and dinner kits.
In contrast to buying from traditional meal kit companies, ordering kits from local restaurants allows customers to get the kits the same day or next day, while providing more cuisine options, he said.
A similar concept, chefmealkits.com is shipping to California and five other states, but delivery is weekly.
Photo: Fiola Miami
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