A new meal delivery service is bringing a gourmet cooking experience into Centretowners’ kitchens by providing ingredients and recipes from local chefs for restaurant-quality meals.
Chefx, an online subscription service, is the latest business taking advantage of the home-delivery trend. Ingredients are delivered in a cooler with preparation instructions once a week for customers to make meals at home. Depending on the subscription, there are enough ingredients for two meals per week for families of two, four, or six.
Owner Jeff Heaton says he wanted to provide an alternative from frozen meals for people who enjoy cooking but may not always have time. The recipes are simplified for even the most novice chefs.
“It spells things out quite quickly and takes care of a lot of the thinking and shopping,” he says. “Oftentimes there are techniques that the chef will suggest in the recipe new techniques or new ingredients that you may not have tried before.”
Several chefs located in Centretown are part of the project. Marc Lepine, owner and chef of Atelier restaurant on Rochester Street, says it was a “no-brainer” to join Heaton’s business venture.
“I think part of what Jeff wanted to accomplish is to also educate people a little on techniques, new ingredients,” he says.
Marc Doiron, owner and chef of Town restaurant on Elgin Street, says the convenience appeals to consumers.
“I think that people at home are always looking for a quick, good-tasting meal that doesn’t take long to prepare,” he say. “They know it’s associated with a chef and all the ingredients are there when they come home. It’s something they can do and put together for the family quite quickly.”
Chefx is a recent addition to a long string of home-delivery services that makes life easier for those who don’t have enough time for chores such as grocery shopping. In a trend that harks back to the 1950’s home-delivery era, groceries, beer, and even diapers are all being delivered straight to customer’s doors.
However, the road for home-delivery goods in Ottawa has not been a smooth one. In November 2011, The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario temporarily shut down an alcohol home-delivery program between Beau’s All-Natural Brewing Company and Operation Come Home after another brewery complained.
At the time, Operation Come Home was unable to deliver alcohol that was not from a government authorized alcohol retailer. The ban didn’t last long, with the provincial government overturning the prohibition against Beau’s less than a week after the complaint was filed.
Lynda Franc, an organizer of the program at Operation Come Home, says she thinks home-delivery services are becoming “trendy” in the market.
“It’s just a matter of people knowing about it and people love it,” she says.
Even online shopping giant Amazon.ca is getting in on the online grocery business. On Oct. 31, the company announced the launch of a grocery section of its website for Canadian consumers.