There’s no better way to lower my expectations for a meal than to have it emerge from my own oven.
I’m not a naturally talented cook. I rely heavily on well-written recipes and dumb luck, an approach that hasn’t kept me from baking a kugel in a non-oven-safe dish—which exploded in a squall of pretty purple glass—and burning so many pricy cuts of meat that I now disengage my smoke detectors when I preheat the oven.
I realize this is a potentially problematic admission for a restaurant reviewer, but I would argue that ineptitude breeds appreciation. And if that sophisticated line of reasoning didn’t fly—as I’m sure it won’t with readers aghast that I don’t own a madeline—I’d point out Dick Schaap didn’t box, Greil Marcus doesn’t sing and Roger Ebert’s only contribution to filmmaking is the screenplay for Russ Meyer’s uber-camp flick Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Obviously, I’m a mite defensive about the fact that making lasagna makes me sweat. Which I why I was so intrigued by two relatively new establishments offering to do my home cooking for me.
Your Secret Kitchen, on the southern end of Hendersonville Road, and Super Suppers, on Merrimon Avenue, are two of Asheville’s first entries in the rapidly growing meal-prep market. The concept behind these spots is simple: Customers use the stores’ kitchens to prepare ready-to-freeze meals or pay a small surcharge to have employees do it for them. They’re then sent home with a cooler full of stuffed fish, baked pasta, meatloaf and the like.
According to the Your Secret Kitchen Web site, it’s “the hottest food trend sweeping the nation!”
That may be an understatement. Way back in 2003, when George Bush was president and folks listened to music on their iPods, there were 46 meal-prep outlets in the entire country. Today, there are nearly 1,200.
The industry took off when two Seattle-area women figured out how to streamline the assembly process so customers could make 12 dinners for six in two hours, spawning the hugely successful Dream Diners franchise. Devotees of Dream Diners—and competing chains such as Meal Makers, My Girlfriend’s Kitchen and Super Suppers—swear the system saves them time and money.
But to some critics, there’s something mildly off-putting about the process, which can render the most personal of domestic tasks blandly generic. To use Merriam-Webster’s 2006 Word of the Year, it’s “truthiness” in cooking. As Indian cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey sniffed to The New York Times: “People basically don’t want to cook, but they don’t want to be told they’re not cooking. It’s an illusion.”
Metaphysics aside, I wanted to find out whether the dinners available from Asheville’s meal-prep kitchens were good enough to make me consider eating in. And while I’m not quite ready to buy a bigger freezer to accommodate the dozens of Ziploc bags and aluminum trays a month of prepped meals entails, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food I sampled.
A huge part of the make-and-take experience is the making, which at Your Secret Kitchen is done in an antiseptic kitchen that looks ready for its Food Network close-up. All of the ingredients are set out in stations grouped according to recipe, so even the most numskulled cook can’t make a mistake.
I figured I shouldn’t risk it. Your Secret Kitchen encourages participants to adjust their seasoning to reflect their family’s tastes, but it didn’t seem fair to grade an entrée I might have devastated with my clumsy cooking. That said, I know I missed out on much of the fun. At Your Secret Kitchen, aproned participants in prescheduled two-hour group sessions drink wine and nibble on snacks as they toss their shrimp with ginger. It may not be cooking, but apparently it’s a good party: The vast majority of meal-prep customers opt to assemble their own dinners.
Even though I skipped assembling my meals, I still had to figure out how to transform them from frozen meatsicles into something edible.
There’s a memorable chapter in food historian Laura Shapiro’s terrific Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Viking, 2004) detailing the development of cake mix and the Ernest Dichter egg theory. According to Dichter, a researcher for General Mills, housewives didn’t take any pride in their mix-born cakes. Adding water to powder seemed like a culinary cop-out. So Dichter recommended removing the dried egg from the mix and letting cooks break their own fresh eggs into the batter. General Mills complied, and—as industrial legend has it—everyone soon felt much better.
I thought about Mr. Dichter when I studied the tray of Amish Chicken and Rice I’d chosen from Super Suppers’ rotating monthly menu. Even Lean Cuisine requires me to slash the plastic wrap on its entrées, but according to a sticker slapped to the cardboard lid, I wasn’t supposed to do anything but stick the whole shebang in the oven.
Unfortunately, the results were proportional to the amount of work I put in. The chicken was smothered in fried onions, which I hadn’t realized could be used for anything but Thanksgiving green-bean casseroles, and accompanied by a sludge-like cinnamon rice that rightly belonged to the pudding family. A baked fish entree was slightly better, although the side dish of mac and cheese—which was delivered to me as a sandwich bag filled with Creamettes and a larger bag of putty-colored liquid swimming with gummy cheese cubes—didn’t go down easy.
Super Suppers is one of the nation’s largest meal-prep franchises. Your Secret Kitchen, owned by Asheville residents Marsha Gantt and Lorri Wooding, is one of the smallest, with just one outlet. The individualized attention shows: Your Secret Kitchen uses top-notch ingredients, even offering its customers a selection of meal-capping desserts from Biltmore Village restaurant Rezaz.
Having barely warmed up my meal-making skills with my Super Supper entrees, my gastronomic pulse skyrocketed as I prepared Your Secret Kitchen’s beef stroganoff. I ended up six dishes to wash and a very tasty stroganoff—having spent only 30 minutes over the stove.
A dish of caramel-apple pork chops was also good, although I found the sauce cloyingly sweet. I was smitten with the portabella enchiladas, which featured meaty chunks of mushroom and black beans in a red enchilada sauce. They were delicious, and—sorry, easy-prep industry—simple enough to make even me wonder whether it’s time to take another whack at cooking from scratch.
Super Suppers
Price: Six entrees, $120
Where: 660 Merrimon Ave.
Contact: 252-4662
Hours: Hours vary; call to schedule a session
Your Secret Kitchen
Price: Six entrees, $125
Where: 1836 Hendersonville Road
Contact: 277-3957
Hours: Sessions are available Wed.-Thurs., 5:30 p.m.; Thurs.-Sat., 10 a.m.; Sat., 1:30 p.m. Call for information on pick-up and private parties.
Dear Hanna, I read with interest your reveiw of Super Suppers and My Secret Kitchen.
I also share your ineptitude in my own kitchen. My husband, an excellent gourmet cook loves to entertain and can whip up a 5 course meal before I can ask “what is a food processor and where do I find one?” His favorite cookbook, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, has no pictures to even give you the slightest hint of what you are attempting to prepare. But even the best cook becomes tired of the daily question “What’s for dinner?”
I read no further recipies involving more than three ingredigents, not including spices that I have never heard of, coriander, cilantro, kosher salt, and on and on. Terms such as poach, caramelize, blanch make me so dizzy I just have to close the book.
I was thrilled to find Super Suppers just down the street from me. Still a litle intemadated at the thought of preparing meals I was pleasently surpize when the local owner, Tamara Benton gave me persaonal attention, assistance and most importantly convidence (the cute apron helped. I also received nutritional information, cooking tips and I had a great time!
Most importantly the food was very good. We have served Super Suppers to family and friends and all have enjoyed the meals. Some we like better than ohters but is that not the way in all families?
I also had the good fortune to attend a party with friends at Super Suppers. After donning our aprons we begin snacking on delicious Hors D’ Oeuvres and sipping wine, the party began! Receipes were chosen and comments such as this is so much fun and this is so easy and what a great idea and I’m coming back next month filled the air. Several of my friends have said since then how much they enjoyed themselves, how good their entrees are and
how clean and organized is at Super Suppers. They also had kudos for the suport staff that hustled making sure everyone had just every little thing they needed and were having a positive experience.
Nutrition, cleaniness, budget, easy, streefree, fun and good tasting. What else do we want for an every evening get dinner on the table quickly experience.
Tamara strongly believes that families that eat one meal a day together or stronger emontionaly and healthier. Importantly we are eating more nutriously and economicaly.
It takes courage to open a new business. Tamara has that courage and I am pleased to be one of her best customers.
I have never responded to any kind of article like this but after reading your comments I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I have patroned Super Suppers a few times and have loved everything. I especially loved the Amish Chicken and could easily eat it weekly. Your description was insulting and completely inaccurate making me wonder if you had even tried it. I have read other reviews of yours in the past, most are negative and seem more of an attempt at creative writing than actual reviews and based on your past performance I would have fired you from my company. I only hate that people who have read your print review might never see this response.
I have been to many meal prep places as the result of being invited to baby showers, wedding shower, etc… I also gone to Dream Dinners and Super Suppers up North before I moved down here. I have to say that Your Secret Kitchen is a definate standout as far as food quality and menu goes, and I believe that is because the owners have control of what they can serve and put on their menu. While the other food prep companies were OK, I think the Your Secret Kitchen meals were GREAT. The personal attention and cleanliness of the store was impressive (plus their desserts are yummy). Just like with any other restaraunt or food place (ie: Chili’s), if you want consistency and OK ingredients, then you go to a chain (ie: Super Suppers). Nothing wrong with that, you would get an easy to prepare meal with a consistent flavor (wether that flavor is good or bad will obviously vary by person). However, if you want a unique menu with better ingredients, you go to a non-chain restaraunt or food place (like Your Secret Kitchen). There is a big difference in preparing a meal with something pre-processed in a can or bag as part of the ingredients as compared to fresh ingredients prepped onsite. The taste tells the story. Just my 2 cents. If you want OK flavor and ingredients go with the Chain, if you want unique menus and unprocessed, fresher ingredients, go to a non-chain. Everyone has a different palate, so it is good there are choices out there. Just because one person doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean that it is a bad meal. It just means they didn’t care for it, and they are entitled to their opinion, just like everyone is.
First and foremost my comment is to mikee1 – go try Your Secret Kitchen and see for yourself. You can make an opinion on what you have had, but the comment doesn’t hold water unless you have tried others. I have tried others, and Your Secret Kitchen is by far better than Supper Suppers and Dream Dinners. The aforementioned “chain” meals tasted like cafeteria food or worse. One meal I couldn’t even eat and opted to have cereal that night. When I finally was able to try meals from Your Secret Kitchen, I was surprised at how great the food tasted. I’ve had several meals now from Your Secret Kitchen and only one turned out less than great, but that’s only because I didn’t set my timer and overcooked it.
I just recieved an e-mail that someone had responded to my comment so here I am. After reading the above posts it is obvious that they have a personal tie to this business whether an owner or employee I don’t know. For the record I have tried both and I haven’t had anything that I personally liked better than the Amish Chicken from either storefront. I choose Super Suppers for the quality as well as the convenience to my location. To sugest there is a difference in the quality of ingredients is ludicrous and to compare Super Supers to a chain restaurant doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure if either one of you actually prepared your meals but you a using a recipe’, exactly as if you took one out of a cookbook and went to your local grocery and purchased the ingredients. I’ll bet if you compare invoices both businesses are using the exact same or very similar supplier(s). I was simply responding to an inaccurate review of a wonderful locally owned business. I’m not here to bash anyone, which is the worst business strategy you could possibly have (just a tip), but I suggest it is you who haven’t tried Super Suppers and if not I suggest you do. If you are an actual customer of Your Secret Kitchen there is no minimum at Super Suppers which I personally like.
i don’t know the owners or any employee other than from being a customer. i thought the same about your post, you having a tie with Super Suppers, but mentioned nothing of it. the fact that you or i or anyone else having something nice to say about a business establishment does not necessarily mean that we are tied in any way other than being a loyal customer. like you, i am not bashing anyone, just giving my opinion of what i like. and to say that something is inaccurate is to say that there are facts, and the fact is the writer’s review is her opinion, so it is not inaccurate.
i can’t explain why the ingredients are better, but when something has been processed and frozen – or “flash frozen” like it was explained to me at Super Suppers, i can tell the difference. perhaps my palette is sensitive to how things taste, i don’t know. anyway, like i said in my previous post, i have tried super suppers and others. i have also prepared my own meals, with and without meal prep businesses. the your secret kitchen meals are just better. IMHO.
Its not when you say something nice about a business but when you compare the business, in a negative way, to competitors that obviously shows you are personally involved somehow. And about the writers opinion, she inaccurately described the facts in her review about the Amish Chicken, that is where my whole problem started and I wanted people to know this lady, I believe, hasn’t even tried the Amish Chicken. I have eaten at every restaurant in this entire region over the years and can tell you from experience if the reviewer worked for me I would have fired her long ago.