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0 pointsSvip6y ago0 comments

It's the same reason, I sometimes still like to watch classic television; rather than choosing specific programmes to watch, I want them curated for me. And while television channels offer a mediocre experience on average, watching something I wouldn't have picked myself is a way to expand my horizons.

In the same vein, Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, I'd imagine, are there to expand your horizons in terms of culinary options. If it's just me going to the grocery store, then I'll just get for any old recipe I know.

They both remind me of a Danish company, Aarstiderne, which has been around since 1999, where the sales pitch is fresh organic vegetables with curated recipes by chefs every week. Particularly in 1999, when organic vegetables were harder to come by - even in Denmark, it made a lot of sense. Now they have so many different subscription choices (that offer different kinds of culinary experiences), that it's akin to picking the channel on television, but letting the programmers pick the programmes.

That's the appealing thing to me, it's actually less the convenience.

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0x284696y ago

Download their online recipes and do a rand on them.

It's 100% about convenience. They offer nothing more than you picking up your own food. Plus they ship as much packaging as food so it's probably far from being the most ecological solution.

kelnos6y ago

The problem with that approach is that often they include ingredients in very small quantities that most people won't have, and buying the ingredient yourself requires getting a container with 1000x the amount you need. Even if it's cheap, people balk at that.

But yes, the packaging is insanely wasteful, not to mention the ecological cost of shipping itself.

I definitely cooked more often when I had a HelloFresh subscription. And when I do cook now, the variety of things I make is much smaller.

delfinom6y ago

>The problem with that approach is that often they include ingredients in very small quantities that most people won't have, and buying the ingredient yourself requires getting a container with 1000x the amount you need. Even if it's cheap, people balk at that.

This is more of a problem with how fucked American supermarkets are and how much food wasted is generated not just by too much being packaged. I go out of my way to shop at Asian supermarkets because at least I can buy alot of produce individually and not massive bags of shit that'll spoil before I can eat it like American supermarkets push.

batiudrami6y ago

That's interesting because, by the nature of needing to appeal to everyone, I find Hello Fresh recipes to be very safe and often quite bland tasting. If you already know how to cook it's easy to make them tasty according to your preferences but if you don't I suspect people just churn out middling-tasting food.

SvipOP6y ago

I have no experience with Hello Fresh, but Aarstiderne in Denmark strives on making their offerings uncommon. They arrange their subscriptions by how difficult they are. Of course, there is no 'chef' level, so to speak, because if you're at that point, you don't really need something like this.

But as someone who is reasonable acceptable at cooking, I do like the idea of something where I can get outside my comfort zone.

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