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Hello everyone,

Long time TLS reader and current 0L going to law school next fall (sorry for posting in this topic as a 0L, I didn't know where else this post should go).

After reading one of the threads on NY biglaw associate life, the lack of free time associates have, and the propensity to eat out/order seamless while in biglaw, I had the idea that certain biglaw associates might want to eat more home cooked/healthier meals, but just didn't have the time to cook/grocery shop on a regular basis.

I thought if I had job that demanded extremely long hours it would be nice to have the convenience of having some home cooked meals in the fridge that I could just throw in the microwave at home or at work, but I wouldn't want to sarcrafie the 4-6 hours of limited free time I have on my off days to meal prep food for the week.

For myself, mealprepping has been a pretty big part of my life, brought about when I decided to eat healthier and stop eating out for nearly every meal while in college. Over the last few years I've spent pretty much every Sunday cooking about 5-6 different meals in large enough portions so I could have each meal once a day for the week. Meal prepping and eating healthier is something that I personally like and has allowed me to have quality meals stored in my fridge and freezer so I wouldn't have to worry about what I was going to eat during the week.

As a recent college grad who lives in the suburbs of NYC, has a lot of free time on his hands, and is looking to earn some money before law school, I thought I'd throw the idea out there of a meal prepping type service for those who are living in NYC and wanted to eat out less. Just a random thought I had so I'd thought I'd make a post and see if there was any interest among current NY biglaw associates.

I've gotten to be a pretty good cook over the last couple years and can meal prep a variety of meals. Was thinking something like $100-$200 depending on the amount of meals someone wanted + the cost of grocerys. All it would really be is someone telling me what meals they want prepped, me going to the grocery store and buying the food, then going to your apartment/house while your at work or home and using your kitchen to cook the different meals. After that I would just portion each meal into individual containers, label them, clean up all the dishes, and then leave them in the fridge/freezer for your consumption. Essentially it would be me just doing my normal meal prep routine, but instead of cooking for myself, I would be doing it for someone else.

I honestly don't have a good grasp on what the typical dietary habits are for biglaw associates and if they really cared about eating food cooked outside of a restaurant, healthier food, knowing what exactly is in there food, or if eating out a lot is a big deal.

Just had the idea so I thought I'd share it and see if anyone was interested!

Firms generally pay for associate dinners by take out, so you'd probably only have a market for lunches

I, too, struggle with reading:

http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=170603

lymenheimer wrote:I, too, struggle with reading:

http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=170603

Yea I am aware of the 0L rule for this board. From what I have seen, the ask a law student/graduate is not very heavily trafficked by the biglaw associates this post is directed toward, which is why I decided to post here. If A Nony believes the post should not be here, I am sure she will move it the other forum. Thanks for the comment tho.

ughbugchugplug wrote:Firms generally pay for associate dinners by take out, so you'd probably only have a market for lunches

Okay good to know, thanks

E: OP, accidental anon

Because one thing NYC has a dearth of is convenient food options. Perhaps if you have a car, you can come up with some kind of service to give people rides home, call it something like Süper.

If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Civilservant wrote:Because one thing NYC has a dearth of is convenient food options. Perhaps if you have a car, you can come up with some kind of service to give people rides home, call it something like Süper.

Haha good ole TLS snark. I mean there is pretty clearly a difference between cooking for yourself (or someone cooking for you as a proxy) where your have full control over the meal and the indgredtiens in it and just picking up take out from a restaurant or getting it delivered, especially if someone wants to pay closer attention to their nutrition.

E: OP, accidental anon

hagoomata wrote:If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Theoretically I could meal prep different meals at home and drive into the city to deliver them (live with my parents about 50 minutes away). Not really looking to start a business or something like that, just thought it would be an interesting way to make some money over the summer. In regards to cooking in their kitchen, I get where some people might have pause, but it makes it a little easier to do all the shopping/cooking in one place and then just storing it right there in the fridge. Basically just a cheap personal cook that makes meals for you to eat at your leisure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

E: OP, accidental anon

Anonymous User wrote:

hagoomata wrote:If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Theoretically I could meal prep different meals at home and drive into the city to deliver them (live with my parents about 50 minutes away). Not really looking to start a business or something like that, just thought it would be an interesting way to make some money over the summer. In regards to cooking in their kitchen, I get where some people might have pause, but it makes it a little easier to do all the shopping/cooking in one place and then just storing it right there in the fridge. Basically just a cheap personal cook that makes meals for you to eat at your leisure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I don't think people will do this with a temporary company that is only going to be around a few months. I would never let a stranger in my apartment while I'm at work and I dont want you around when I'm home either.

It's a decent concept but I think it's possible to find meals like you are talking about in the city. There are plenty of places to get good home style meals to take home or delivered.

Npret wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

hagoomata wrote:If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Theoretically I could meal prep different meals at home and drive into the city to deliver them (live with my parents about 50 minutes away). Not really looking to start a business or something like that, just thought it would be an interesting way to make some money over the summer. In regards to cooking in their kitchen, I get where some people might have pause, but it makes it a little easier to do all the shopping/cooking in one place and then just storing it right there in the fridge. Basically just a cheap personal cook that makes meals for you to eat at your leisure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I don't think people will do this with a temporary company that is only going to be around a few months. I would never let a stranger in my apartment while I'm at work and I dont want you around when I'm home either.

It's a decent concept but I think it's possible to find meals like you are talking about in the city. There are plenty of places to get good home style meals to take home or delivered.

Since the word "law" appears several times in the headers on this page I would be remiss if I didn't point out that there are laws covering what is and is not permissible with respect to preparing food in your home that you then sell at retail to others (look up cottage food laws). Add to that the need to make sure you're insurable - pretty sure I don't need to tell you how litigious biglaw associates with food poisoning might be.

OP:
I like your idea and entrepreneurial spirit. I agree it would be good summer or seasonal job and not a long term business, although it could be. If I lived anywhere near NYC I would consider trying it out.

But Jesus Christ, man, you've got to figure out the difference between an anonymous reply a regular reply.

I actually have a few chef friends who do something like this. They prep meals for the week and drop the meals off at their clients' houses on a weekly basis. From what I can tell, their prices aren't that much higher than what you're suggesting - and they're trained chefs. Granted this is in LA where the restaurant/chef job market might look different, but I bet you could find similar services in NYC if you looked.

I'm not trying to discourage you, because I think it's a decent idea - it's just that chefs in NYC might already be doing this.

Not a bad idea, but I suspect you'd already have a bit of competition for it.

Also when you're earning $180k+ I think you care less about the costs of eating out, so I don't really know that there's a huge market for people in that income bracket who hate paying $20-$30 for a healthy lunch (cause there are a lot of options for people looking for healthy options these days, even in Midtown) enough to hire someone to cook them healthy meals. I guess there's an added hassle in having to stand in line for 20 minutes but I don't know if it's worth $200/week to people to shave off that time. As someone else said, dinner's generally covered because few associates get away with not working 10+ hours a day anyway.

Honestly I'd imagine people in the lower income brackets who work similar hours but don't have the budget for takeout would be a better market, but obviously they don't have the kind of money biglaw associates do, so I get why you wouldn't want to target them.

Npret wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

hagoomata wrote:If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Theoretically I could meal prep different meals at home and drive into the city to deliver them (live with my parents about 50 minutes away). Not really looking to start a business or something like that, just thought it would be an interesting way to make some money over the summer. In regards to cooking in their kitchen, I get where some people might have pause, but it makes it a little easier to do all the shopping/cooking in one place and then just storing it right there in the fridge. Basically just a cheap personal cook that makes meals for you to eat at your leisure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I don't think people will do this with a temporary company that is only going to be around a few months. I would never let a stranger in my apartment while I'm at work and I dont want you around when I'm home either.

It's a decent concept but I think it's possible to find meals like you are talking about in the city. There are plenty of places to get good home style meals to take home or delivered.

Guess the cooking in the apartment thing might be too big of a hang up haha. FWIW, I'm not like a vagrant or something, just a college grad with some downtime this summer. Really only posted because I was reading through the "so you want to be a corp associate thread" and thought it would suck if I never had the time to cook my own food. And yeah I am sure there are a lot of healthy take out options in NY with the health food craze that seems to be really popular right now, thanks for the feedback!

snowball2 wrote:

Npret wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

hagoomata wrote:If you are serious about starting a company that does this, my guess is that not enough people would feel comfortable letting a stranger cook in their homes. However, I do think there is a market for healthy, pre-cooked meals that don't taste like shit. I would be interested in a weekly delivery if it were reasonably priced. There was a company in Austin called My Fit Foods (recently shut down) with the same vision but they operated brick and mortar stores and I believe their overhead killed them.

Theoretically I could meal prep different meals at home and drive into the city to deliver them (live with my parents about 50 minutes away). Not really looking to start a business or something like that, just thought it would be an interesting way to make some money over the summer. In regards to cooking in their kitchen, I get where some people might have pause, but it makes it a little easier to do all the shopping/cooking in one place and then just storing it right there in the fridge. Basically just a cheap personal cook that makes meals for you to eat at your leisure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I don't think people will do this with a temporary company that is only going to be around a few months. I would never let a stranger in my apartment while I'm at work and I dont want you around when I'm home either.

It's a decent concept but I think it's possible to find meals like you are talking about in the city. There are plenty of places to get good home style meals to take home or delivered.

Since the word "law" appears several times in the headers on this page I would be remiss if I didn't point out that there are laws covering what is and is not permissible with respect to preparing food in your home that you then sell at retail to others (look up cottage food laws). Add to that the need to make sure you're insurable - pretty sure I don't need to tell you how litigious biglaw associates with food poisoning might be.

Yeah that is a good point, thanks

kellyfrost wrote:OP:
I like your idea and entrepreneurial spirit. I agree it would be good summer or seasonal job and not a long term business, although it could be. If I lived anywhere near NYC I would consider trying it out.

But Jesus Christ, man, you've got to figure out the difference between an anonymous reply a regular reply.

Thanks! Haha yeah I am on mobile and it is pretty easy to accidentally click the anonymous quote button, think I have it under control though now.

MeanieTeanie wrote:I actually have a few chef friends who do something like this. They prep meals for the week and drop the meals off at their clients' houses on a weekly basis. From what I can tell, their prices aren't that much higher than what you're suggesting - and they're trained chefs. Granted this is in LA where the restaurant/chef job market might look different, but I bet you could find similar services in NYC if you looked.

I'm not trying to discourage you, because I think it's a decent idea - it's just that chefs in NYC might already be doing this.

Yeah that is interesting to hear. I haven't lived in NYC for several years so have no idea what the current options are for someone looking for this type of service. It's not an incredibly novel idea so it not surprising to hear others are currently pursuing it.

elendinel wrote:Not a bad idea, but I suspect you'd already have a bit of competition for it.

Also when you're earning $180k+ I think you care less about the costs of eating out, so I don't really know that there's a huge market for people in that income bracket who hate paying $20-$30 for a healthy lunch (cause there are a lot of options for people looking for healthy options these days, even in Midtown) enough to hire someone to cook them healthy meals. I guess there's an added hassle in having to stand in line for 20 minutes but I don't know if it's worth $200/week to people to shave off that time. As someone else said, dinner's generally covered because few associates get away with not working 10+ hours a day anyway.

Honestly I'd imagine people in the lower income brackets who work similar hours but don't have the budget for takeout would be a better market, but obviously they don't have the kind of money biglaw associates do, so I get why you wouldn't want to target them.

Yeah those are some good points. I really wouldn't know about how someone at that income level views a $10-12 home cooked healthy meal versus a $20-25 one from a restaurant. A benefit I could think of for myself and part of the reason I like to meal prep my food as opposed to eating out, is that I like to have a general idea of what macronutrients I am consuming each week, which can be pretty hard to keep track of since most restuarants aren't great about posting what exactly the nutriontional composition of the food they are serving is (although I think the overall healthy restaurant food is moving this way). Guess my idea fits the small niche of people that really want to pay attention to their diet and the food they are consuming but don't really have time to come up with meals, shop, and cook for an extended period of time during any given day.

Not a bad idea, but I wouldn't let someone into my house to do this and $100-200 plus the cost of groceries sounds too expensive (assuming weekly). If it was going to work, you'd need to prepare in bulk for multiple clients from your own kitchen (maybe they have commercial kitchens for rent). There's really no benefit at all to cooking in someones house, and it limits you to cooking for one client at a time. Also come up with your own menu items.

I googled "meal prep companies" and here's the first page. Maybe just work for one of these companies, so you don't have to deal with the legal hassle and overhead costs? You can just cook for pay, which seems to be your goal? See BistroMD or something.

You could also find a kitchen job for the summer.

You're envisioning unrealistic profit margins for your solo business here.

pretty sure I've seen ads for similar businesses, but with professional chefs. something like $30 a meal or something.

also would not let someone i don't know in my house

OP yeah no offense but this won't work the best.

I for one wouldn't want someone coming into my home and cooking meals for me, especially someone that is just viewing it as a temporary summer job thing.

You can get pretty healthy meals to go from any Whole Foods or somewhat good supermarket these days.

I would trust their quality control and standards better than I'd trust some rando kid coming into my house to do it for me.

.

Biglawmealprep wrote:

elendinel wrote:Not a bad idea, but I suspect you'd already have a bit of competition for it.

Also when you're earning $180k+ I think you care less about the costs of eating out, so I don't really know that there's a huge market for people in that income bracket who hate paying $20-$30 for a healthy lunch (cause there are a lot of options for people looking for healthy options these days, even in Midtown) enough to hire someone to cook them healthy meals. I guess there's an added hassle in having to stand in line for 20 minutes but I don't know if it's worth $200/week to people to shave off that time. As someone else said, dinner's generally covered because few associates get away with not working 10+ hours a day anyway.

Honestly I'd imagine people in the lower income brackets who work similar hours but don't have the budget for takeout would be a better market, but obviously they don't have the kind of money biglaw associates do, so I get why you wouldn't want to target them.

Yeah those are some good points. I really wouldn't know about how someone at that income level views a $10-12 home cooked healthy meal versus a $20-25 one from a restaurant. A benefit I could think of for myself and part of the reason I like to meal prep my food as opposed to eating out, is that I like to have a general idea of what macronutrients I am consuming each week, which can be pretty hard to keep track of since most restuarants aren't great about posting what exactly the nutriontional composition of the food they are serving is (although I think the overall healthy restaurant food is moving this way). Guess my idea fits the small niche of people that really want to pay attention to their diet and the food they are consuming but don't really have time to come up with meals, shop, and cook for an extended period of time during any given day.

Yeah I guess my point is that there are restaurants these days that do publish true ingredients/etc. where people can go for lunch (especially as vegan/raw food is getting more and more popular). And they're typically really expensive, but people who are earning $180k+ don't really have to worry all that much about the price. It's only people who can't afford $20-30 lunches every day who wouldn't really be able to go to those restaurants (I'm thinking, like, PDs who care about their health). But I don't know how many would be able to pay that much for meals. If you can figure out a way to get costs lower and still make a profit selling the same product to a busy PD earning however much PDs earn, though, I think you'd have a much larger market. Just my two cents though (I'm not in the business so take everything I say with a grain of salt).

I do agree with others that I also dunno how marketable "I'm doing this thing but just for the summer" would be, either. Usually when you start these kinds of things it takes a few months to truly get things going, so I don't know how successful you're going to be if you just want this to be a summer thing.