A few weeks ago David and I were watching Shark Tank and two gentlemen came on pitching their new company, Plated. The idea is that all of the ingredients are shipped to your house and all you have to do is cook it. You can choose an individual meal or sign-up for a monthly membership.
Last week they ran a special, I pay the shipping in exchange for two free meals. I thought it was worth the shipping to try it out. On Saturday Fed Ex arrived with my box just in time for Easter. My meal of choice, Cauliflower Leek Fritters With Butter Lettuce. Sounds yummy.
Cauliflower leek fritters with butter lettuce
All of the ingredients arrived in a ice cooler type box. It contained all of the food along with a recipe card. The idea behind this company is that you get the meal delivered to your doorstep with the exact amount of ingredients that you need, creating no waste. The caveat is that you have to make it.
I read the recipe three times. I will say that I felt that the instructions were confusing. I make recipes off of the internet all the time and feel that those instructions are very self explanatory. This recipe seemed a bit more complicated and possibly designed by a culinary chef who did not write for the ‘layman’. I had many questions like: Are the leeks suppose to be cut in slices or chopped? The recipe card said sliced but the picture showed chopped. And there were a few other discrepancies like the lettuce…do I use all of it or some of it? Bah!
Above is my pre cooked cauliflower leek fritter slop. The recipe card looked nothing like this…I am thinking the leeks were suppose to be chopped. I was also a little confused about leeks. I have never cooked with them before and apparently you have to soak them in water to get the dirt out. Umm, hopefully they were clean because I know nothing about leeks!
The lettuce part of the recipe was not too hard to follow other than the fact that I did not know if I was suppose to use all of the lettuce or just part of it. (and there was not enough stuff for dressing which ended up being a blessing, see below)
I will say that it was really nice to have the exact amount of ingredients that I needed, rather than having an entire bottle of say harissa spice that I will likely never use. I tend to shy away from “fancy” recipes that require several weird ingredients that I may or may not use again. Especially when those items may be nine or ten bucks for an entire bottle and the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon….I hate that!
All in all I struggled with the recipe. I was super excited to be a culinary chef even if for a moment but I fell short. The fritters never set up like pancakes. I tried everything to make them set up like potato pancakes and the closest I got was hash. The salad dressing was hotter than a habanero raw pepper. Not sure if it was meant to bring out the flavors in the fritter, but holy moly, it was so hot both David and I ended up not eating our salads.
I think the idea behind the company is good. It introduces everyday people to special recipes that they may not otherwise cook. However, they need to let the cooks know if they are spicy, give better instructions and I would even suggest how-to videos. Because I questioned the way I cut the leeks I immediately blamed myself when the fritters wouldn’t set up. Combine that with the uber hot sale dressing and I felt like I completely failed the entire meal. Thank god we were able to run to whole foods for a homemade Las Paletas watermelon popsicle to make Easter dinner somewhat salvageable.
What about you, have you tried plated? I have one more meal to try. I hope to goodness that this one is easier!
Amanda –
Sounds like a good idea and it probably will work if the company gets enough constructive criticism – and follows thru. I hope your second meal selection is more to your liking and expectation – in the meantime thank God for Whole Foods!
Marie
I agree! I love the idea and think there is a lot of potential. Having exactly what I need delivered to my door step is awesome! But I hated that I felt so bad when things started going south. I had no where to go to figure out what I did wrong or a place to go for tips. I looked on their website and youtube videos but couldn’t find anything.