Now You Can Make Your Favorite Restaurant Dishes Right at Home!

I’ve always been a huge fan of cooking my meals from scratch but having some of the work done for you can be a plus as well. During the last few months, while we’ve missed dining out at some of our beloved eateries, the number of home cooks and bakers have also increased. As luck would have it, there’s now a culinary solution bridging these two activities together!

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Specialty food distributing company, Baldor, known for selling and delivering wholesale produce and grocery items, has recently created an easy DIY meal solution, where the end product is a not only a great meal, but also limited prep, and thankfully fewer dishes!

Taking the cue from brands like Home Chef, but with a nostalgic twist, they’ve partnered with foodie favorites, by introducing a Restaurant Series featuring easy prep kits from popular restaurants and chains.

Some well-known selections include a Bo Ssäm Kit from Momofuku, featuring a half pork shoulder that’s been cured in salt and sugar then roasted for several hours. The included lettuce and rolls can be used to make wraps and sandwiches, topped with their special sauces and pickles. On the side, you also get a fried rice kit. This serves 3-4 people.

The ShackBurger Kit from Shake Shack, includes a custom blend of 8 Pat LaFrieda 100% Angus beef patties, slices of their high-quality American cheese, Lucky’s red tomatoes, Gotham Greens leaf lettuce, sweet non-GMO rolls from Martin’s, and last but not least, their OG ShackSauce!

The ‘Bird and Bone Box’ from Hill Country Barbecue Market, includes a full Rack of Hill Country’s famous Pork Spare Ribs, One Whole Chicken plus a half pan each of their Longhorn Cheddar Mac and Cheese and Confetti Coleslaw, serving 4.

They generously reached out offering the opportunity to try their kits, gauging how easy it is to whip together—and obviously how good it tastes! I’m not a big meat-eater, so my focus was on the non-meat options of Hearth Restaurant’s Summer Pasta Kit and Roberta’s classic Margherita Pizza Pie. I saw it as the perfect opportunity for an Italian pairing!

I received the kits pretty quickly, and all the perishable items were wrapped perfectly. Hearth’s kit included two types of house-made pasta (maccheroni and raddiatore), as well as two sauces (tomato and a fresh pesto) for mix and match dishes. The included instructions were very straightforward, even reminding me to reserve some pasta water, to help the sauce and pasta bind together. It couldn’t have been easier to make or more hearty to eat! This kit serves 4.

The pasta was incredibly fresh. Take note to eat it in a timely manner after cooking, withholding that freshness! The only thing they didn’t provide was fresh parmesan cheese which you’ll want to throw on top (I tried it first without for authenticity, and it was pretty delicious sans cheese as well).

The pizza was a bit of a let down in the prep department, already topped and ready to be baked. I was hoping to at least, bake the dough, adding the cheese and sauce myself. All I had to do, however, was remove it from the package and pop it in the oven for a bit. Although I will say, we didn’t make it from scratch as they do, wood fire oven and all, it was very close to what you’d expect when dining at their restaurant. I gave it a grade of B for the inability to actually make it yourself, but definitely an A for how delicious it was, from flavor to texture, and the tomato sauce, cheese, and basil in between. They also have their Baby Sinclair pie as an option made with cheddar, Parmigiano cheese, Tuscan kale, garlic, and Calabrian chilies.

If you’re a fan of cooking and want something prepped more to your liking to share with your roommate, significant other, or family members…these kits may be the answer! If they aren’t a selling point on their own, you can also order produce, meat/poultry, pastries, finishing items like dairy, and more. All I know is if they introduce a veggie version of that Shackburger kit, I’ll be first in “line”. You can check out the full list of their restaurant meal options here!