Home Chef

Home Chef is a Chicago-headquartered meal kit company that delivers boxes of pre-portioned fresh ingredients with recipe cards to customers across the 48 contiguous United States, and also sells meal solutions through retail locations in the Kroger family of stores. Its core product is a weekly subscription service in which customers select recipes online or in a mobile app; the subscription allows skipping weeks, pausing, or cancelling at any time.

The rotating weekly menu includes 35 or more recipes across multiple formats, including classic meal kits, Culinary Collection, Oven-Ready meals delivered in an oven-safe tin, Express, and Heat & Eat items, plus a Family Menu with 2-, 4-, and 6-serving options and categories such as Sheet Pan and Chopped & Ready. Add-on "Extras" span breakfast items, desserts, snacks, salads, pizzas, bread, soups, beverages, grab-and-go items, and protein packs. Recipes are grouped for dietary preferences including carb-conscious, calorie-conscious, protein-packed, GLP-1 support, and gluten-smart. A Customize It feature, launched in February 2019, lets customers swap or upgrade proteins and ingredients in select recipes. In October 2023 the company added Tempo, a ready-to-heat service of single-serve microwavable meals.

Home Chef states that its shipping boxes and dividers are made from partially recycled cardboard and are curbside recyclable, that meal bags (#5 plastic) and ingredient bags (#4 plastic) can be recycled at participating drop-off locations, and that recipe cards are reusable and curbside recyclable. It works with nonprofit organizations near its distribution facilities on food waste reduction and food security, and maintains an affiliation with Feeding America.

Founding story

Patrick "Pat" Vihtelic founded Home Chef in June 2013. He had begun his career as a technology investment banker in San Francisco working with high-growth internet and software companies, and cited difficulty getting dinner on the table despite a shared interest in cooking with his wife as the impetus for the business. He left finance to learn to code, built the company's technology as its only engineer for the first six months, made the first website, partnered with a chef in Chicago to design easy-to-follow recipes, and delivered the first meal kits in a rented U-Haul truck.

Business model

Home Chef sells meals directly to consumers through a flexible weekly subscription, charging on a per-serving basis, and additionally distributes meal kits and meal solutions through Kroger-family grocery stores. Revenue is supplemented by add-on "Extras" items, gift cards, and a ready-to-heat brand, Tempo.

Recurring weekly subscription orders priced per serving (standard pricing was $9.95 per serving as of 2016), plus retail sales of meal kits in grocery stores, add-on purchases, and gift cards.

Traction

Reported 1.5 million meals delivered per month with over 600 employees in September 2016; more than 6 million meals delivered monthly and over 1,800 employees as of January 2021, with elevated customer counts and order frequency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kroger reported the business passed $1 billion in annual sales in 2021. Wikipedia lists employment at more than 1,500. Retail availability spans more than 2,000 Kroger-family stores.

Latest developments

Recent product and program additions include the Family Menu (2023), the Tempo ready-to-heat single-serve line (October 2023), dietary menu options such as GLP-1 support meals, and celebrity chef collaborations with Gordon Ramsay (2025) and Giada De Laurentiis (2026). Industry recognition includes Best Overall Meal Kit Service from NBC Select, Best Meal Service for Families from CNN Underscored, and a Parent Tested Parent Approved award for the Family Menu.