Thuy Phan & Nhat Anh/Nguoi Viet
COSTA MESA, Calif. ― On any given Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m., you can find Vuong Nguyen and his team of young, up-and-coming chefs cooking up a storm. They are working hard to fill orders for The Meal Prep, a meal-delivery service Nguyen founded in 2015 alongside Kelvin Tsoi, 32, and Andrew Johnson, 40.
The Meal Prep prepares orders for the week ahead. (Photo: Courtesy The Meal Prep)
“We started this under the idea that people just didn’t have time to eat healthy or they didn’t have time to cook,” said Nguyen, a 30-year-old marketing-consultant-turned-entrepreneur. “Essentially we are solving a problem where we send healthy meals to people who are too busy to cook or prep themselves.”
These meals include choices such as Pino Grigio chicken, garlic broccoli and lime cilantro brown rice, baked salmon, sweet potatoes and steak.
Fresh baked salmon is ready to be put in the oven at The Meal Prep. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Customers must place the order by Friday evening so the team can prepare the meals on Sunday and send them out for delivery for the coming week, or whenever the customer specifies. Unlike other popular meal-delivery services that deliver meals with recipes and instructions, The Meal Prep is all about ease, convenience and health. The meals come ready to eat.
“The Meal Prep is a little bit different because we prepare the meal for you already cooked so all you have to do is pop it in the microwave or the oven if you need to,” Nguyen said. “It’s more of an automated process.”
With many people setting New Year’s resolutions to eat better, Nguyen said his company can help.
Ratatouille is one of the dishes The Meal Prep chefs lightened up by using olive oil and low sodium spices. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
“We count the macros for you, or the macronutrients, so that way if you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle, you have the ability to reach a certain goal,” Nguyen said.
In fitness and bodybuilding terms, macronutrients are the three primary calorie sources: protein, carbohydrates and fat. All three are necessary for a healthy diet and workout regimen.
Pino Grigio chicken is one of The Meal Prep’s signature dishes. (Photo: Courtesy The Meal Prep)
Kyle Smith, 20, who serves as the executive chef, said eating the meals helped him lose 30 pounds.
“When I was in the kitchen, it was really easy to put on weight,” Smith said. “All the food I was eating was really unhealthy, so I took (out) all the fats and processed sugars and here, I turned it into light, easy aromatic and tasteful dishes. Instead of using canola oil, we use coconut oil. Instead of frying things, we blanch and then we sear and bake.”
In addition to creating healthy versions of classics such as ratatouille ― a French dish that includes roasted vegetables ― Smith swapped out different oils for low-sodium seasonings.
One challenge the team had was trying to figure out how to make dishes that would taste fresh even after they have been chilled and reheated.
Kelvin Tsoi preps the meals for delivery. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
“Molecules in the food get destroyed,” Smith said, “and it takes away from the seasoning, the texture and the overall nutrients of the food. So we cook it in a way to preserve all that. Trial and error is how we went about it.”
Johnson, a former assistant director of the Culinary School at The Art Institute of California, said a lot of research went into the packaging.
Teriyaki steak, ratatouille and popcorn cauliflower is one of The Meal Prep’s best sellers. (Photo: Courtesy The Meal Prep)
“The containers are paper based and work in the oven but we had to consider how they were going to reheat,” Johnson said. “So the broccoli is cooked in a certain way that maintains a bright green so that when it comes out of the microwave, it’ still looks the same.”
The Meal Prep averages about 100 orders a week so far, and the team is concentrating efforts on Orange County. In the future, the Meal Prep could expand operations to San Diego, Los Angeles and beyond. Meals are delivered in tote bags designed to keep the meals cool even if customers aren’t home to receive them. The tote bags are meant to be reused for the next order, reducing packaging.
Vuong Nguyen, left, poses with the chefs and team members of the meal delivery service he helped create called The Meal Prep. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
“When a customer lands on our website, they have the ability to select which meals they want,” Nguyen said. “If you are doing a Keto diet and you can’t do carbs, then we have an all-veggie portion you can choose. If you are vegan, we have a vegan option for you. All of our meals are gluten free, dairy free and we don’t use any GMO products.”
While the meals are geared toward people looking to lose weight or gain muscle, Nguyen said many of the clients who order are stay-at-home-moms and office workers. In the future, Nguyen and his team hope to be able to bring on more chefs, creating different versions of The Meal Prep, such as Vietnamese, Korean or Filipino options. That would not only give customers more of a variety, but allow aspiring chefs a space to be creative.
“I think the American Dream is to own your own business and be an entrepreneur,” Nguyen said. “I think we all have a passion to help people, and when you do something that helps people, you end up building a business that people like to talk about. I hope we can be a solution that people can use to help reach a fitness goal, or a convenience goal.”
To find out more about the company, visit http://themealprep.com/
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