Meal kit company Blue Apron celebrates 10 years in business.

These days, there seems to be a meal kit for every type of diet and lifestyle. From healthy smoothies to microwave- and oven-ready meals to classic boxes filled with prepackaged ingredients, the meal kit market is flooded with choice — but that wasn’t always the case. Last month, Blue Apron, one of the pioneers of the meal kit space, celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Considering how often food trends come and go, and the number of meal kit companies that have launched since Blue Apron launched in August 2012, it’s a big deal.

To date, Blue Apron has served more than 483 million meals, and they’re not slowing down anytime soon. John Adler, the company’s executive chef and vice president of culinary, has been at Blue Apron since 2016 and oversees its entire culinary team. His day-to-day responsibilities include ingredient strategy, menu preparation, recipe testing, food cost strategy, partnerships, new product development, recipe editor and more.

I had the opportunity to meet with Adler and talk about all things Blue Apron, from cooking and development to how the company has changed over the past decade. I’ll let him take it from here.

Abigail Absamis Demarest: What has changed since you started working at Blue Apron and what is left behind? What can customers expect to see from Blue Apron in the future?

John Adler: The biggest and most noticeable change is the breadth and flexibility of our offerings. In the year In 2016, we had rigid menu structures that created limited choice and potential frustration for our customers. Over the past 5-6 years, we’ve spent a lot of time growing our presence and expanding our product offering. We now have over 60 options and are removing barriers to purchase as much as possible.

Additionally, we’re incredibly focused on diversifying the culinary experiences we offer without sacrificing the delicious, innovative flavors we’ve built our brand on. Our current offering appeals to those looking for a more intensive culinary experience to prepare meals in less than five minutes. Looking to the future, we will continue to focus on designing products that meet the changing and diverse needs of our customers, and further focus on flexibility and personalization.

Fascination: What sets Blue Apron apart from the many meal kit services on the market?

Adler: While I can’t speak to the inner workings of other meal kit companies, I can say that we apply the same rigor and intentionality that you associate with fine dining kitchens to everything we do in our test kitchen. Ask yourself daily, “How can we do better than yesterday?” We ask ourselves. That’s at the forefront of everything we do, whether it’s menu design, ingredient selection or recipe editing, continuous improvement and a careful, customer-centric decision-making mindset.

Fascination: Can you tell how a recipe is prepared and perfected? How long does the process typically take?

Adler: At least one recipe takes 12 weeks to go from idea to box because we don’t just create the perfect recipe in the test kitchen. That timeline allows our creative team to photograph the recipe, our supply and operations team to figure out how to complete a week’s menu, our sourcing team time to ensure ingredient availability, and our marketing team to develop any specific messaging and collateral. They want to create. As far as recipe testing goes, a recipe will run anywhere from one to f0ur tests depending on the product.

Fascination: What are some of your favorite recipes? What are customer favorites?

Adler: I love our Chorizo ​​Meatballs with Rice and Pepitas, the Three Cheese and Caramelized Onion Pizza, the Calabrian Chili Glazed Meatloaf, the Smoked Gouda and Egg Sandwich and the Korean Rice Cakes with Pork, although there are really too many to name!

Our customer favorites really vary by customer, but some of our most popular and popular recipes are our Craft Truffle and Fontina Burgers, Calabrian Shrimp and Orzo with Zucchini, Chorizo ​​Enchiladas, Hot Honey Glazed Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans and Pasta with Pork. Sausage and broccoli.

There isn’t one particular type of food that customers love the most, but there is one characteristic that all customer favorites share in a surprising way, which is that they all have familiar formats and flavors with a little twist, creating a moment of culinary discovery. and novelty for people. It could be the roasted sage garnish on the pork pasta or the presence of Calabrian peppers and their incredible flavor, but both have what we call Blue Apron’s “plus one.” Blue Apron “Plus One” is what we call making every recipe unique and special, from unique flavor combinations to new cooking methods.