Meal kits under the True Chef and Chef’d brands will soon be available at all Gelson’s locations.
The retailer plans to carry all eight recipes from both brands, including Truffle Butter Sirloin Steak, Chicken Marsala and Saffron Tomato Chicken, according to a news release.
Each recipe needs 15 minutes of prep and cook time, and the kits are marketed as clean-label and preservative-free.
“We are very excited for this partnership,” Paul Kneeland, executive director of Gelson’s, said in the release. “We pride ourselves in providing our customers top quality product and look forward to a successful relationship with True Chef & Chef’d meal kits.”
True Food Innovations bought the Chef’d brand last summer after Chef’d — which had made significant inroads at retail — ran out of money and abruptly ceased operations.
“We are extremely excited to relaunch the Chef’d and True Chef brands in Gelson’s Markets, and it is a testament to the quality of product and our ability to meet the highest standards of Gelson’s and its customer base,” Alan True, founder and CEO of True Food Innovations, which produces the kits, said in the release.
True Food Innovations had already been selling meal kits under the True Chef brand, using high pressure processing to ensure longer shelf life. It planned to use the same technology for meal kits marketed under the Chef’d brand.
“Our strategy is to provide retailers with a multi-brand offering with the ability to provide meal kit options based on price, demographics and geography; Gelson’s agreed with us and has built a destination with both the True Chef and Chef’d brands for its consumers,” Robert Jones, president of True Food Innovations, said in the release.