When friends heard about my cooking extravaganzas (er.. all right, week night dinners), the ones who actually prepare meals would ask if I’d be trying Chefs Plate. Indeed, it seems to be Toronto’s most popular service having been around for a couple of years. Friends rave about the easy to prepare meals – one who’s moved into a temporary rental even able to cook for a family with only one pot and pan. After all the praise, I was excited to try it for myself.

Dependability

With a choice of two delivery dates (varies depending on the area), it certainly allows you to cater to when you’ll cook most. For my area, the dates were at the beginning and ending of the week:

Of all the packaging, Chefs Plate’s box was the most impressive – regular cardboard but incorporates a built in foil reflective layer. Additionally, they seem to be the only company that didn’t freeze the proteins (so you can cook them on the delivery date), with an abundance of ice packs everything stays cold.  

A nice touch with the introductory box was a welcome pamphlet and an apron that really put me into the cooking spirit. Moreover, I enjoyed the paper bags containing all the ingredients for each dish – they’re sturdier and took up less space within the fridge.

However, there was a mishap: the pizza dough that should have accompanied the calzones didn’t arrive. Had I read the pizza dough information card carefully, I should have realized it wasn’t in the bag and therefore would know it’s missing – unfortunately, I didn’t realize until I was about to cook for the evening. Good old Uber Eats saved the night.

In following up with Chefs Plate, they noted a missing ingredient doesn’t happen frequently. However, if it does, their Customer Service group will refund the customer for the meal.

Recipes: Ease of Use

My friends were right: the recipes were simple, straight forward, and no fancy gadgets were required. For two meals, I only needed a baking sheet. The salmon was the most “equipment intensive” requiring two frying pans and a pot.  

Additionally, the dishes were quicker to prepare – no recipe took more than 30 minutes. Chefs Plate helps save time by prepping ingredients more than any company: garlic cloves arrived peeled and the green beans were arranged in the same direction (a quick wash and one chop was all it took to remove the ends).

Trust the timing on the cooking instructions, they seemed a tad short but ensured restaurant quality doneness… the salmon was a beautiful jewel-toned medium in the middle and the chicken fairly moist.

How It Tastes

Everything was good but nothing wowed us.

Take the nori salmon: the fish was cooked nicely but adding toasted nori slivers into melted butter for two minutes really didn’t infuse the butter with much flavour. The most pronounced taste was the rice wine vinegar tossed into the steamed rice, which was delicious and an idea I’ll re-use. And as a warning, don’t use a rice cooker (or at least use more liquid than called for in the recipe) as mine turned out al dante.

Despite the roasted vegetable medley accompanying the chicken being a tasty combination of potato (make sure these are actually cut to half an inch), onions, green beans and carrots, I found they needed something more than just garlic and olive oil. Another herb like rosemary likely would have paired nicely with the lemon thyme chicken.

After buying my own pizza dough, I also made the cheese calzones. To be fair, it’s difficult to determine if I had too much dough (since recipes don’t include measurements) and if Whole Food’s pizza dough would be as good as what should have arrived in the kit. But, the calzones were also fairly bland – if I were to do it again I’d brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle salt on top.

Conclusion

Out of the three companies I’ve tried so far Chefs Plate is definitely the most polished. Of course, it was disappointing that such a long-standing company would have forgotten to include the pizza dough (a key ingredient for calzones)… guess the quality control person had a slip for the day.

Overall, the recipes were quick and safe – there’s not a lot of spices, herbs or unfamiliar ingredients. So, I see the dishes being a good choice for family with young children or for those who are picky eaters. However, for a person who loves a diversity of flavours and eats out often, I couldn’t help but want more. Oh well, maybe my taste buds need a rest sometimes.

Price and How to Order the Service

Chefs Plate also offers two or four-person plans. However, you’re also allowed to choose the number of meals for the week (two, three or four), which is helpful for those who have an active social calendar and eating at home three times a week isn’t possible.

Of course, the pricing will vary with the number of people and meals:

If the above has intrigued you, sign up and try a week for yourself. Chefs Plate is offering Gastro World readers $110 off throughout their first four orders for new customers. Just click on this special referral link to go to their website.

Forget the floral ceiling, at Figo, the truly popular centerpiece is the blooming bowl of zucchini fritti ($11) that sits a top every table. In fact, there must be one chef whose sole function is to constantly produce these gorgeous intricately appetizers as it was mere moments between placing our order and receiving a bowl.

Despite looking wispy and delicate the fritti requires at least two utensils to break part the crispy batter holding everything together. While still savoury, it incorporates a sweet element from the honey. I would have liked the lemon creama fesca (a lemon ricotta) to be stronger as the dish was pretty greasy and heavy (even split amongst three); a robust dose of citrus could help lighten the fritti.

The floral themed meal continued with the lobster gigli ($26), the lasagna type pasta sculpted into tulips – great for scooping the thick tomato sauce and sweet peas. With pops of basil the gigli remained light and tasty. Thankfully, there were adequate chunks of lobster so you could actually taste the seafood and I enjoyed that they kept the sauce light (rather than relying on a cognac cream sauce that seems to follow the crustacean so often).

Figo is undeniably pretty … so pretty and girly that I’d love to see a table of cowboys sitting around digging into the frilly dishes. It’s an elegant and airy open space, swathed in such neutral tones that I’m sure a number of weddings will be held in the central Toronto restaurant.

It’s a lovely place to meet up for a chat with the girls – but, alas, I doubt that’s where we’ll meet those cowboys.

After one week of using a meal kit delivery service, the home chef in me was ignited and wanted to continue. Hence, I sought out other Toronto companies and Prepd graciously offered a week of meals to prolong my culinary creations – something my husband was happy about as well.

Dependability

Prepd’s Sunday delivery date works the best for my schedule: I like being home to put everything into the fridge as quickly as possible (although Prepd froze the proteins and there were tons of ice packs so could be left outside for a while) and gives me a chance to cook one of the meals on Sunday – the evening I’m home the most and generally have time to cook.

Similar to competitors, ingredients are clearly labelled and packaged (except proteins) into a separate bags for each dish.  With the exception of salt, pepper, and oil, everything required for the recipe arrives in the kit. Simply wash and prep the produce and you’re ready to go.

I particularly like that Prepd offers a pick-up service to return boxes and ice packs. Yes, I know items can typically be recycled, but manufacturing and even the recycling process still uses resources and energy, so anything we can do to re-use something helps the environment.

Additionally, their boxes were smaller (fitting all the ingredients perfectly) and were less reliant on unnecessary packaging (for example, not wrapping items such as carrots in plastic wrap, instead just placing them in the bag).

Recipes: Ease of Use

Overall, recipes were very straight forward, laying out instructions in chronological order. For example, the recipe would indicate to continue making the salad while something is in the oven, so you literally just follow the directions step-by-step. Looking back, there may be a few steps I’d process differently – in the lentil salad mixing in the herbs and shallots with lentils first, then adding the spinach as after adding the leafy vegetable it makes everything difficult to combine – but, it’s a very small change.

Prepd also required minimal equipment. With the salmon recipe, the carrots and almonds were also placed on the same baking sheet, so everything’s essentially made in “one pan” minimizing cleaning. Even the dressing for a salad could be made in the container holding the mustard – add oil and vinegar into the mustard and shake up to create the dressing.   

How It Tastes

Wow, the recipes sure incorporate a lot of herbs and spices. Even the vegetable soup combined pesto and vegetable bullion to make a very flavourful soup. Moreover, the selection of vegetables (carrot, leek, kale, onion and broccoli) created different flavours and textures to add interest. Including white beans into the dish made it hearty and filling (even more so with the generous portions of toasted bread). With plenty leftover, this re-heated nicely for lunch the following day.

My favourite meal was the salmon salad – fantastic hot the night of and cold for lunch. To be honest, after looking at the ingredients, I was skeptical whether I’d like the dish: carrots, dill, and chopped almonds? Not exactly my favourite things, let alone mixed together in a salad. Boy was I wrong! The sweet carrots with the dill and lentils actually worked nicely together; the chopped almonds much better than the slices I find too crunchy.

The lamb and beef koftas was the sole dish that tasted mediocre, simply due to the overpowering dry meat patties. Unfortunately, since I haven’t used their spice mix before, it’s hard to judge how much to add “to taste”… especially, when you’re adding it to raw meat – how do you even taste? Knowing how strong chili powder is, I already decreased the amount that came with the package, but unfortunately didn’t know what to do with the spice mix. Adding it all was a big mistake - the kofta became grainy and overly citrusy.

The patties were also hard to bind together, something wet (other than using wet hands to form the kofta) would definitely help and make the meat moister. With something already so flavourful, the condiments could have been toned down – the yoghurt would have been better plain, I found the additional feta made it too thick and salty. Also, the garlic incorporated in the yoghurt would have worked better in the meat, as the pungent raw garlic along with red onions was too much. Just imagine how great your breath smells afterwards.

Conclusion

Prepd’s recipes inspired me to combine a variety of ingredients and herbs together. At times, I didn’t think I’d necessarily like everything, but never one to not try something, I followed the formulas and (for the most part) wasn’t disappointed.

Although the dishes don’t necessarily look the most exciting from the pictures, they were actually full of bold flavours and with such generous portions, enough to try again the following day.

Price and How to Order the Service

If you’re living by yourself, congratulations – Prepd has a one person plan! With three meals per week, it will cost you $40 or $13.33 per meal.

For two and four people, the three meal plans and both work out to $10 a meal ($60 and $120 for the two and four person, respectively). All prices are inclusive of taxes and delivery charges – definitely one of the most economical services.

At any time, you can pause or cancel your plan. So, you’re not committed to having to order a meal kit every week.