Disclaimer: This blog post may have been compensated with complimentary goods and services but all opinions are 100 percent those of Great Beer Now.
Meal delivery services are growing in popularity. With limited time on our hands and the desire to eat more interesting and/or healthier food options, Americans are increasingly turning to online services for meal suggestions and delivery. One that I have tried and liked is Chef’D, a delivery service inspired by celebrity chefs.
Getting to Know Chef’D
Chef’D is a personalized meal service dedicated to bringing delicious meals into your home. The service features meals influenced by award- winning and other celebrity chefs and they offer foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, etc with special categories for lighter cooking, family friendly, gourmet, and more. The Collections section helps customers personalize meals further by offering food designed to meet specific needs or objectives such as:
- Best Sellers
- Quick and Easy
- Vegan
- 500 Calories or Less
- Summer Salads
- Cheese Lovers
- Budget Friendly Meals
Other search options include meals featuring food/drink from Chef’D Sponsors/Partners; specific celebrity chef recipes; and specific meal plans recommended by and abiding by the strict dietary requirements of Weight Watchers, American Diabetes Association, and other organizations.
What You Get
Food orders with Chef’D are offered in 2- person and 4- person options and they come complete with most of the necessary ingredients to complete the preparation. Sometimes, customers may need to supply their own ingredients (for example, olive oil) and this is clearly indicated with each purchase. If there are any potential allergens to be concerned with, Chef’D lets you know up- front. The service provides nutritional information for each meal as well and even lets you know exactly what bakeware you will need to have available to prepare the meal.
For better food/beverage pairings, Chef’D includes a recommended wine and recommend beer for each meal. They also have reviews of the meals online, so that you can see what other consumers think before you make a commitment.
Meal Delivery Made Easy
Chef’D is a meal delivery service I only recently got to know. I have been bombarded by offers to try services like these for quite some time and have only tried one or two others until now. Chef’D appealed to me for various reasons, chief among them the more interesting recipes offered at Chef’D compared to other services. I also like that they provide a recommended beer style for each meal- something that is handy for beer lovers and long overdue for this type of service.
For our first Chef’D meal, we at Great Beer Now decided to stay true to our beer loving roots by selecting a classic food known to pair well with beer: Burgers and fries. My specific choice was the Juicy Lucia Burgers and Parmesan Fries, a meal brought to you by Adam Richman, of Man vs. Food fame. The meal kit arrived complete with the burgers, potatoes, seasonings, buns, and even small containers of mayonnaise and catsup, plus parchment paper. The addition of condiments and parchment paper was a pleasant surprise because many other delivery services expect customers to supply things like this. It was cool that Chef’D decided to add these extras.
Preparing this meal didn’t take much effort and I was more than pleased with the results. The burgers themselves are made with a mixture of beef and Italian Sausage and are stuffed with mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, garlic, and basil, piled high on a potato bun. The burgers are thick, hearty, and delicious and the parmesan steak fries add a perfect side dish for this classic pairing. My kids liked the gooey cheese in the middle of each burger and I liked the addition of peppers, garlic, and basil, for a more spicy and sophisticated taste.
For my beverage, I decided to add a serving of Sidekick Extra Pale Ale, an American Pale Ale brewed by Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville, Illinois. This beer is well- balanced among citrus hops and bready, malty notes and it made for the perfect match with this meat and potatoes meal. The recipe actually recommended pairing the food with an American Brown Ale, which I’m sure would be quite tasty in its own right. It’s the perfect excuse to purchase this recipe again, for a future food/beer pairing.
With limited time on our busy schedules, we at Great Beer Now are inclined to take meal preparation short cuts from time to time. We often rely on local delivery services to provide quick, beer compatible food, but it is good to know that other options exist, and Chef’D is one of them. The food is fresh, the instructions are clear, and you have all the information you need to prepare a meal to your specific requirements. It’s a good meal delivery service and based on my initial experience with Juicy Lucia Burgers paired with Two Brothers Extra Pale Ale, I’m confident that I will be using this service again.
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