Home Chef Review: Pros & Cons in 2023

By Jennie •  Updated: 02/21/23 •  8 min read

Home Chef is the #1 meal kit company in customer satisfaction. It delivers to happy clients all over the USA.

Get Up to 18 Free Meals
9.6

Going grocery shopping, preparing delicious dinners, and cleaning the kitchen afterward can drain out all your energy. And when you are a busy mom with four mouths to feed, meal planning and preparing can be a real problem. 

Home Chef meal delivery service aims to simplify the cooking process for home chefs. Suppose you have basic culinary skills but have a passion for enjoying healthy homemade meals; Home Chef meal kits can serve you better. The meal kit service delivers pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards. You have to put the ingredients in a pot, follow the instructions on the recipe card and enjoy a deliciously healthy meal in no time. With Home Chef, you get to make easy meals even without grocery shopping.

Pros:

  • Delicious recipes on the weekly menu.
  • Customize the protein source as per your taste.
  • Skip meals easily without being charged.

Cons:

  • Premium meals are costly.
  • A lot of plastic is used.
  • It does not use organic materials.

About Home Chef

Home Chef is a meal kit subscription service that was introduced in 2013. The service has weekly menus that arrive in a meal kit. The kit contains fresh ingredients along with clear cooking instructions on how to prepare chef style meal at home. 

There is a wide selection of recipes, and you choose meals depending upon your taste. The meal kit delivery service gives you a good blend of modern and chef-style recipes that will be on the table in just 30- minutes. 

To make cooking easier, the Home Chef menu also contains Oven-ready meals, 15-minutes meal kits, Low Carb meals, and Calorie Conscious meals (perfect for carb-conscious people). The meal delivery service also offers a special meal Fresh And Easy plan that has no-prep meals.

You can choose your meals from the 13 options sent by the company. You can design a meal kit for up to six people at a time. Eco-friendly packaging and friendly customer service are some positive features of the service. With easy-to-read recipe cards, customizable meal plans, and delicious recipes, Home Chef has joined mainstream delivery services such as Blue Apron, Sun Basket, and Hello Fresh.

How Does Home Chef Work?

Home Chef delivers proportions of meals with easy-to-follow recipes that set it apart from other meal delivery services such as Blue Apron. Blue Apron is more inclined to teach foodies how to cook a chef-style meal so that recipes can be a bit complex at times. 

To order meals, go to the Home Chef website and log in to view the Home Chef meal options by the service. Customers with dietary preferences can choose from calorie-conscious or carb-conscious meals. 

Unlike other meal delivery services that offer a minimum of four servings, Home Chef lets you order two or six meals containing two, four, or six servings per week. 

You can either choose your meals from the Home Chef’s menu or let the company select nutritious meals for you. Customers can also rule out allergens or swap proteins such as pork, beef, shellfish, and tree nuts.

Enter your shipping details, and then you have the choice to select your first delivery date from the given options. Proceed with the payment option. Then, you can choose the Home Chef meals for your first delivery. You can change meals or skip weeks through your account settings.

Home Chef Meal Selections

The Home Chef recipes are easy to prepare. All you need to do is follow the instructions on the recipe cards and assemble home-cooked meals in just a few minutes.

The Home Chef menu is more directed towards the picky eaters who want taste and variety at the same time. Most meals by Home Chef are perfectly balanced for the American diet. If you prefer a classic diet, you can try their baked chicken or pork tenderloin with vegetables and sauces that bring you the best flavor. There are pasta dishes, and you can have chicken tacos. Besides the simple dishes, you can also have complex restaurant-style meals such as butternut Chowder, shrimp risotto, grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce, and garlic bread. 

Home Chef also has a Culinary Collection. There you get to enjoy premium meals at a higher price. Seafood such as mahi-mahi, tuna, and higher-cuts of beef fall under this category. These can come as add-ons along with your weekly menu. You can also add breakfast meals such as lava cake, or maybe you need some extra red meat on the table. Home Chef’s menu has options for both. Vegetarian meals are also placed into the mix, but the number of vegetarian meals on the Home Chef’s menu is limited. 

Looking at the weekly menus, you will be pleasantly surprised at how well-managed the website is. Before selecting any recipe, you can give it a thorough test drive! For each recipe, there is a preview card. It contains information about the recipe, such as per serving cost and common allergens within the meals (soy, wheat, and dairy products). The tags on the recipe indicate the dietary restrictions and step-by-step instructions for cooking.

How Much Does Home Chef Cost?

The per-serving price is $9. But lunches and salads cost about $7, whereas adding seafood and high cut beef to your subscription plan will raise the price to $11-$18 per serving. 

Shipping cost is applied to orders below $45. If you order three meal boxes with a serving for four people, it will cost you $120. Purchasing extra protein for your dinner, including packs of raw beef, fish, chicken, and steak, will cost you $60 and goes as high as $75 depending upon how many servings you ordered.

Home Chef Meal Packaging

The complete Home Chef meal kit is delivered in an insulated cardboard box having an insulated liner. The insulated liner and cardboard box are fully recyclable. Inside the box, there are ice packs to keep things fresh. It can either be reused or recycled. 

However, there was a lot of plastic used in packing the ingredients. The proteins in your meal kit are vacuum-sealed in plastic bags. The ingredients are separately packed in different plastic bags. You can recycle plastic at specific locations, which might not be available in every city. 

Supporting Materials 

The meal kit service comes with a fully detailed recipe card giving you all the nutritional facts, prep time, and estimated cooking time. Although the kit comes with all the ingredients in the proper quantity, you will need some basic items for your kitchen cabinet in losing salt, oil, olive oils, and pepper. The recipe card also mentions the pots and pans you will need to prepare the meals.

There is also a mobile app that can help you order and track your meals. You can keep a food log through the app by ticking out the recipes you found delicious and would like to order again.

Customer Service

The customer service is supportive but not what you can call an entirely professional one. The website has an FAQ section where you might clarify your queries. You can also contact the Home Chef representatives through email.

Who Is It Good For?

Home Chef could be a top pick by people who want to enjoy home-cooked meals with convenience

Home Chef’s vast menu also makes it easy for couples and big families with kids. Since you can order for up to six people, families can have different meals for everyone.

Protein lovers also prefer Home Chef. The Home Chef menu comprises a long list of proteins giving you more choices.

Who May Not Like Home Chef?

Home Chef has no unique meal plans for foodies following more restrictive diets such as Keto, Paleo, or vegetarian. People with severe allergies should also stay away from the meal delivery service. 

Although the brand allows you to avoid common allergens, the website states that there is a chance of cross-contamination. Home Chef is also not a good stop for cooking experts who further want to polish their culinary skills. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Where do Home Chef offer delivery?

Home Chef delivers meals to all across the U.S except the states of Hawaii and Alaska.

How much does Home Chef cost?

Most of the meals at Home Chef cost about $9.95 per meal. Suppose your order is less than $45; you will have to pay a shipping fee. So, if you want to order three meals for four people, it will cost you around $119.40.

Is Fresh And Easy a part of Home Chef?

Fresh and Easy is a sub-brand of Home Chef. Both options are available on the company website. However, the recipes at Fresh and easy are oven-ready and grill-ready. The plan is suitable for busy people having no time to cook meals.

Jennie

Jennie

Related