Hello Chef | a new era of baking

Hello Chef…What happens when Hello Fresh and Home Chef meet.

Recently, I have had this urge to start baking. I’ve always been one to cook dinner for the family but I would consider myself pretty basic when it comes to my meal selections. To be completely transparent, it overwhelms me thinking about going to the grocery store and having to pick out all of the fresh ingredients for these home cooked meals I would find on Pinterest.

Not saying I haven’t done it before, but seriously…mad props to all of you out there who do this on the reg, especially if you have children. I am ALL about convenience these days. If I do go to the grocery store, I am a huge fan of Kroger ClickList but sometimes I just don’t want to have to think about what’s for dinner or spend any unnecessary time planning for it. Needless to say, this new era of baking was made for someone like me!

Last month, my family was over for dinner and my aunt asked me if I had tried any of the new meal delivery programs yet. As soon as she said “fresh ingredients delivered right to your doorstep” and “ready-to-cook meals that can be whipped together in about 30-45 minutes” my ears perked up immediately. I had seen ads for these companies on Facebook before, but probably would have never considered them until someone I loved recommended them (and gave me coupons to try each #ballinonabudget).

We decided to give both Hello Fresh and Home Chef a try so we could compare the two and see which one we liked better. Here are my takeaways on each:

• Ease of baking – Home Chef wins this category for me because the directions were a bit easier to follow, the ingredients were exact measurements and prep seemed to take less time. Although it could be assumed, I even appreciated that they always had you line the baking sheet with foil during prep to aid in a quicker clean up. Every little tip helps.

• Marketing/Presentation – Hello Fresh had me at Hello. Each meal comes in a box which presents much better than Home Chef’s clear bags (although some could argue that they take up too much room in the fridge. That said, I’m talking about Marketing here)! It was obvious that they invested in their branding, from their welcome brochure down to getting the perfect photo of each meal in an appealing setting on their directions. Home Chef’s tagline was my favorite though – “Home Cooking Made Simple”. After all, that was exactly what I was going for.

• Website – Both we’re user friendly, although the ability to skip, reschedule or adjust meals just seemed easier on Home Chef since the calendar was right there when you logged in. I had to do a bit of digging to find this feature on Hello Fresh.

• Recipe Selection – To each is own when it comes to the tastebuds, but so far Home Chef takes the cake on the recipes we’ve tried. Our top two favorite meals were both from Home Chef – fig-glazed pork tenderloin and shrimp pomodoro. Check these out > >

Noteworthy:

1. Home Chef also asks you for your dietary preferences and has you create a “Taste Profile”, which I really liked. They ask you what you eat (veggies, meats, seafood), what you avoid (nuts, soy, gluten, dairy, etc…) and whether you want low-calorie or low-carb options. Hello Fresh offers a Classic, Family or Veggie plan and I’m sure you could submit special instructions should you be gluten free or allergic to nuts. That said, I liked that Home Chef took the time to get to know you better upfront.
2. Hello Fresh has a wine club and tips for wine pairing. I would love for the recommended wine to be on each recipe sheet, but the marketer in me can appreciate their push for further user engagement and a reason to go back to visit their website. We usually just do cab with red meat and chardonnay with seafood and poultry, but it did inspire me to dive into wine pairing more as we step up our chef skills.

This has honestly become something I look forward to every night. Daddy usually watches the baby while mama woosahs over a glass of wine in the kitchen and I get to feel like a master chef after every meal! Even Trevor has whipped together one of the meals for us. He probably wouldn’t admit it, but I think he kind of liked it. Once Banks gets a little older, I could see us really enjoying this pastime together but, these days, it’s divide and conquer!

It may be slightly more expensive than your average home cooked meal, but the quality of the ingredients and lack of stress leading you to the end result is well worth it in my book. Not to mention, it’s cheaper and healthier than eating out and encourages me to try things that I never would have before.

I’m a firm believer that not one shoe size fits all so try them both out for yourself and see which one you prefer! The moral of the story here is really that we have a new era of baking…and I am totally hopping on board this choo choo train!

Get $30 off your first Home Chef order, by clicking here.

Get $40 off your first Hello Fresh order, by clicking here.

Happy Baking!