Magic Kitchen

Diet Food Home Delivery

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Magic Kitchen

Company Address

Magic Kitchen

174 Frederick Court

Los Altos, CA 94022 (1-877-516-2442)

(San Francisco Bay area)

Website: www.magickitchen.com

Summary

Magic Kitchen This is a California company, founded in 2005, that delivers chef-prepared frozen food meals nationwide. MagicKitchen.com offers a full menu of gourmet frozen meals delivered to your door.

The company also provides a full complement of food gifts, and meals for seniors, including low-fat, low-carb, and heart-healthy precooked meals. Since MagicKitchen.com does not have storefronts, they try to provide hormone free meats and organic vegetables for the same prices.

Magic Kitchen should not really be classified as a "diet" food delivery service, but rather a firm that delivers healthy food which can be custom tailored to a person's needs. 65% of their customers are seniors, 20% busy families and 15% are "others". If weight loss is your main goal, you can use their low-carb meals.

The company went live with its website in May 2006 and 80% of its customers live west of the Mississippi--50% in northern California. It is known primarily in the West. The company does not have "counselors" but it does employ dietitians, who can custom design meal plans for diabetics, people with food allergies or those who need to watch their sodium, etc.

How The Service Works

All dishes are chef-prepared, fully-cooked, and flash-frozen to preserve all of the flavors. The firm prepares its food without preservatives, using only the freshest ingredients. Since the dishes heat up in the customer packages they come in (just simmer, microwave or bake in the oven), there are no pots and pans to worry about.

MagicKitchen.com has developed a program where families can buy chef-prepared tasty and healthy meals packaged for 2 or 4 people, although single servings are also available.

The Magic Kitchen website has some neat features, such as the "meal finder" search engine, which allows one to specify criteria (low sodium, for example) and have those results display all meals meeting those criteria. You can also rate their meals online.

Meal Plans:

This is primarily a dinner meal plan, no breakfasts or snacks or lunches. The "light dinners" could be substituted for lunches.

Magic Kitchen can arrange for the delivery of one prepared meal or deliveries for a month's worth of meals.

They do have a low-carb bundle, where each dish has 9 grams of carbs or less per 100 grams of food.

Products can stay in the freezer for 3 to 4 months from when you get them but it's suggested that they be eaten within 60 days to ensure you do not lose any food value to the product being in a frozen state.

All meals are for 2 or 4 people. However, they do have meals that are packaged for one person, but they are sold as two servings. So you would get two packages of each item, but could thaw out one at a time. Many of the menu items would go up significantly in cost if they were packaged them for one person. Items packaged for one person are indicated with this symbol: SV1.

Magic Kitchen features its one-serving packaging in both its One Course Meals Bundle and the Meal Plan 6 - One-serving Meals.

The maximum days in transit offered is 2 days, to ensure that the product is delivered frozen and safe to eat. Consequently, you cannot select UPS Ground shipping if you live in Florida.

The Cost

Costs vary quite a bit, depending on what you order and where you have it shipped. Dinners generally range from $5 to $12 per serving.

There are "bundles" (6 meals and 3 desserts) that range from $77.99 to $137.99, plus $37.50 S/H.

There is an $89.99 special for first time customers. A lunch meal costs $51.99 plus S/H ($37.50).

The light dinners run about $50 per week, plus $37.50 shipping, or about $135 for 2 weeks and $270 for a month.

Obviously, shipping costs can add up, especially if you live in the East. Shipments are via UPS next day or 2nd day, so it can get expensive. Consequently, you'll want to have as many meals shipped at a time as possible.

Commentary

Magic Kitchen should not be compared to other all-inclusive meal plans such as NutriSystem. The food is better. They can accommodate people with special dietary needs, and their model is not a mass-produced cookie cutter approach. Rather, they are a high quality, custom, regional service. We like the fact that most of their customers are seniors. Very few food delivery services we've come across seem to serve seniors well. If a senior has a little wiggle room in their budget and doesn't mind preparing their own breakfasts and snacks, this could be a very good choice.

The information on this web site is intended for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Before starting any weight loss program, it is recommended that you consult your physician or other health care professional.