With around 150 meal kit subscription services, choosing the best kit for you can be challenging. In this review, we simplify the challenge with “at a glance” information about one top name that helps you make healthy decisions about what you eat.
Multiple menu options are good, particularly if you need a special diet. Is Home Chef the meal delivery service you’ve been waiting for? We’ll help you make informed decisions that help you stay healthy and live a balanced life.
What Is Home Chef?
Home Chef is a meal kit delivery company owned by Kroger, a Midwest regional grocery store chain. This meal delivery service has been in business for ten years and earned a top spot in customer satisfaction. Menus include everything for the calorie-conscious family, from salads and fully prepared microwavable meals to home-cooked dinners inspired by culinary excellence.
The Pros and Cons of Home Chef
The meal kit delivery market is undergoing substantial growth, mainly because going out to eat wasn’t an option for the better part of two years. Nonetheless, a quick look at the pros and cons of meal kit delivery establishes a benchmark for comparing meal kits with other options, such as grocery shopping.
Pros
- Cost-Friendly: Meal kits range in price from budget-friendly family meals to entrées that could be served in the finest restaurants.
- Menu Variety: Home Chef offers up to 30 unique weekly menu options and fresh quality ingredients.
- Website to Smartphone Friendly: Customers use a smartphone app that works seamlessly with the desktop computer version.
- Dietitian Approved: Home Chef is a pioneer in creating a link between Dietitian-approved meals and home delivery convenience.
- Special Diet Meals: Home Chef doesn’t lock customers into a single menu plan. Instead, the company helps you customize meals for your personal health needs. Or, choose from specific categories like “low-carb” and type of protein, plant and animal.
- Expanded National Delivery Coverage: The website notes 98% national delivery coverage. Unfortunately, customers can’t tell if they’re in a delivery area until they start the sign-up process.
Cons
- Limited Dietary Selections: You might be out of luck if you require specific dietary needs. Home Chef provides essential special diet needs like low-carb and low-fat. However, most menu choices have too much sodium for those on a salt-free diet.
- Not Enough Kid-Friendly Options: Letting your kids help prepare meals encourages lifelong healthy eating habits. Parents may need to consider Home Chef’s offerings if this is a concern.
- Not For People With Extreme Food Allergies: While you can opt for meals that are free from certain ingredients, Home Chef prepares all their meals in the same facility. Therefore, if you have a true food allergy, you risk cross-contamination.
- Excessive Packaging: Like many other options, Home Chef meal kit delivery service uses excessive packaging that ensures freshness and prevents spoilage. While Home Chef uses recyclable packaging containers, many can be repurposed for storing spices and leftovers. Aside from that, you will need a recycling plan or risk contributing to our planet’s waste problems.
- No Single-Serving Options: Unfortunately, there are no options for people who are single or regularly eat alone.
- Doesn’t Track Macros. If you are one that tracks macros, you will be disappointed to know that Home Chef doesn’t do the work of counting for you. You’ll need to insert every meal into a separate app to keep track.
Home Chef Convenience
Although Home Chef is one of around 150 subscription meal services operating in the United States, it is also one of the oldest. The industry goes back as far as 2007, when two Swedish companies started offering meal kits for delivery. However, these services didn’t take off in the U.S. until 2012, with a few locally available services in select markets.
Home Chef entered the U.S. market in 2013, and they’ve been refining their recipes, developing new menu items and expanding ever since. Today, Home Chef provides four meal kit versions.
- Express and Express Plus
- Culinary Collection
- Oven Ready and Oven Ready Plus
- Fast & Fresh and Fast & Fresh Plus
Prep times vary from five-minute microwavable dishes to full-on family meals that need several minutes in an oven. All meal kits come with instructions and recipes for creating the culinary masterpieces you’ve dreamed of.
How Does Home Chef Work?
The Home Chef website and mobile app make grocery shopping for quick and easy meal options as simple as picking a delivery day and waiting for the delivery.
- Sign Up For An Account. You can sign up for an account from the mobile app or the website. This becomes your connection to the Home Chef customer portal. You’ll be notified once you input your zip code if you’re in a service delivery area. However, because Home Chef delivers to 98% of the United States, chances are you’ll be covered.
- Choose Your Plan. If you want to learn how to assemble your own meals, choose the Home Chef plan. Conversely, the Fresh and Easy plans can be prepared in thirty minutes, while others have a cook time of fifteen minutes, depending on the meal. Home Chef also provides wholesome meals that heat and eat in five minutes using the microwave. This step could be the hardest because there are so many choices. Once you choose your plan, you’ll build your box with menu items and extras.
- Customize Your Meals. Take the Home Chef quick quiz to find out what kind of chef you want to be. You’ll have around thirty menu options and up to eighteen extra choices every week. Use their Customize It tool to create meals for your taste buds. This is your time to put in your dietary preferences, like gluten-free, keto, low-carb, Mediterranean and paleo.
- Pick Your Delivery Date. Once you have your plan in place, you’ll just need to decide when you want your meals delivered. Each box has your food choices and the recipe cards and instructions you’ll use when preparing them.
Need to cancel? Take complete charge of your meal planning and preparation by never being locked into a plan or subscription you can’t get out of. Changing plans or canceling is easy; you can do so at any time without any penalties or fees.
Does Home Chef Offer Discounts?
Yes! Heroes (military personnel, doctors, nurses, teachers, and first responders) can all enjoy 50% off their first box and 10% off each order after that. Students can also enjoy some perks, including 50% off their first four boxes (the equivalent of 18 free meals).
Bring Out Your Inner Chef
Meal delivery kits are a great way to have oven-ready meals in the midst of a busy week. While there are other major names in the industry, Home Chef is one of the oldest and highest-rated meal kits in the industry. With a variety of meal options and a no-hassle cancellation policy, it’s never been easier to invest in your health and wellness. And if you still aren’t sure, you have the option to purchase products and meal kits at your local Kroger-owned grocery store to try before you sign up. Check to see if you have an approved store in your area here.
Say goodbye to takeout and begin enjoying healthy meals with easy-to-follow recipes.
You might also be interested in: Home Chef vs. Hello Fresh: A Comprehensive Meal Kit Comparison