I had the most delicious dinner last week and it was courtesy of Scratch DC and my kitchen! Scratch DC is latest in culinary innovation and my latest obsession! Just think, delicious affordable dinners made easy! Scratch DC delivers, right to your front door, prepped, measured, and mixed meals that are ready for cooking and they provide easy to follow cooking instructions (that also have a sense of humor). I apologize for always repeating myself, but I am no chef and my least favorite part about cooking is the prep work and Scratch takes care of all of that for you! Everything you need is included in the box, in small perfectly measured containers with pre-chopped ingredients. And that isn’t even the best part! The best part is that the meal was BEYOND delicious–perfectly seasoned with perfect portions!
I also interviewed Ryan Hansan the ingenius founder of Scratch DC. So scroll for some mouth watering pictures of my home cooked Chicken Marsala dinner and for an inspiring interview with Ryan.
Special Delivery
Ryan Hansan, founder of Scratch DC
Delicious prepped dinner ingredients
Everything you need for a delicious dinner!
Studying the (super easy to follow) instructions
Spicing the chicken
Adding the mushrooms!
marinating the mushrooms
All the spices needed for a perfectly seasoned meal
Flavor party
Dinner is almost ready and doesn’t it look good
The most delicious chicken marsala EVER
The amazing finished product!
The perfect finishing touch
And now for the interview!
Tell me about Scratch DC.
We make amazing meals easy. Each day we create bundles of fresh, locally sourced organic ingredients that are chopped, measured, marinated, packed with an amazing recipe and delivered to you door ready to cook – saving you the time, money and food so often wasted when making an amazing meal at home. We’re still very much in our infancy, having launched in the last week of August, 2012, but we’re growing very quickly!
What is your culinary background?
Besides that I REALLY like to eat, I have no professional training other than growing up watching my mothers wizardry in the kitchen.
What inspired you to start Scratch DC?
I was frustrated. As a busy young professional, with a rather unpredictable and social schedule it was difficult to make a good meal. I tried to go to the grocery store once a week, but when I did, I rarely had a meal in mind. So, when I wanted to cook something other than easy mac I’d have to look up a recipe, trek back to the store and buy a ton of ingredients that I’d only use a fraction of… (spices, herbs, etc). It was a huge waste of time, money and food and I just thought there must be a better way!
Why DC?
I was born and raised in Northern Virginia then came to school for college. Haven’t left the city yet! (Hail to the Redskins!)
What is your specialty?
My specialty is making people realize that they can make the best food they’ve ever tasted in their own kitchens.
If you could cook a meal with any chef who would it be and what would you cook?
I would cook the suckling pig entree from Komi with Alton Brown so he could tell me all about the science of the meal… that would be the highlight of my life.
How do you decide what the Scratch weekly menu will be?
In any given week we try to have something to please every palate. We usually have a vegetarian dish, some seafood, some pasta and a protein. Each week we test 2-3 recipes. To make it on the menu they have to be relatively easy, relatively quick, able to be cooked with common kitchen equipment, and above all – incredibly delicious. If it meets our criteria, and our taste test, we have a round or two of tweaking and then its on to the menu!
What tips do you have for an inexperienced chef?
Go to www.scratchDC.com.
What tips do you have for people starting their own business?
Find a problem that you’re passionate about and try to solve it.
What are your hopes, dreams, and goals for Scratch DC?
They’re big and bold. There are a lot of bizarre things going on in the food industry that I feel like we can improve. There are disconnects and waste everywhere you turn. I hope that we can create a scalable product that will efficiently benefit multiple levels of the industry – from the local farmer to the first time cook to the new parents looking for a time saving way to eat the best meals of their lives. A retail location is in the works and we hope that’s just the beginning.
Want to know more about Scratch DC? Visit its site and definitely check out the “How It Works” video (it’s pretty hysterical)
garden of glam 