Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazines is an industry resource connecting foodservice operators, equipment and supplies manufacturers and dealers, and facility design consultants.
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18 • FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES • OCTOBER 2016 operator's opinion Q&A; With Josh Katt Chef at Home Meal Delivery Concept Kitchfix By Amelia Levin, Contributing Editor H ome meal delivery companies, or home meal kits as they're sometimes called, continue to enjoy ongoing success as busy consumers — particularly busy working Millennials — look for great tasting, chef- inspired, healthy and fresh home meals they can receive and prepare in a flash. Kitchfix, founded in 2013 by Josh Katt, hones in on the healthy segment of home meal delivery with a retail storefront locat- ed above fitness studio Chicago SWEAT. Kitchfix offers prepacked meals, salads, sides, snacks and beverages for takeaway. Customers can also enjoy some of Kitch- fix's menu items in-house on the ground floor of the fitness studio. The culinary staff prepares the meals in a 5,000-square- foot kitchen that opened last spring. Here Chef Katt discusses the future of this emerging foodservice industry segment. FE&S;: Why are home meal delivery/kits trending right now? JK: On-demand everything is huge right now — and there's definitely a trend with meal kits and meal delivery services. Especially in cities like Chicago, it's mak- ing life easier and more convenient for many adults to have healthier options that are easily accessible and different than the conventional takeout/fast-food restau- rants. Kitchfix's chef-crafted, ready-to-eat meals are delivered in microwavable, recyclable containers, making it super easy to have a hot and delicious meal ready in just minutes. Our core audience is busy professionals, families and athletes in the Chicagoland area. FE&S;: How is the new retail location laid out? JK: Our 1,450-square-foot retail location in the Gold Coast is just a few miles from our kitchen. We have a slender corridor layout with a walk up bar, grab-and-go coolers, and a small prep area for behind the bar with a barista set up. The barista can serve up made-to-order smoothies, hot chicken and bone broth, juices and limitless coffee draft beverages. We also have a Nitro system for cold brew coffee. Our food is always gluten-, soy- and dairy- free, and many options are Paleo-friendly. We're creating the types of food people crave, but making them full of nutrient- rich superfoods. FE&S;: How often do you change the menu? JK: Our menu changes weekly. We send out the next week's menu to our custom- ers every Monday at 10 a.m. to allow enough time for each client to decide on what they'd like to eat the next week and Josh Katt, Kitchfix Kitchfix's 1,450-square-foot retail location features a corridor layout with grab-and-go coolers.