Meal Assembly Centers - An Illusion of Home Cooking

The NY Times ran an article today- Meals That Moms Can Almost Call Their Own - describing a new trend - places where people can go to assemble meals. They provide the kitchen, the meal planning, the ingredients, the prep, and the instructions and the clean up.

Apparently this is aimed at people who are tired of take out and restaurant food but who don't have the time and/or ability to cook.

According to the article, "The centers are opening at a rate of about 40 a month, mostly in strip malls and office parks in the nation's suburbs and smaller cities, and are projected to earn $270 million this year, according to the Easy Meal Prep Association, the industry's trade group."

Good idea or just another example of how low American eating culture has sunk? With a blog with the address backtothekitchen.blogspot, you know my opinion.

But I'll leave it to Indian food goddess, Madhur Jaffrey to have the final word:

"People basically don't want to cook but they don't want to be told they are not cooking..It's an illusion."