Entree Vous

Default User said:

~patches~ said:

Let's think about this. These folks would pay out all that money to
go to a place where they pay to have someone else chop up the food,
choose the ingredients, choose the menu and recipes? Then they will
package the food themselves, take them home and put them in the oven?
Now if that isn't stupid, I don't know what is? If the people you
know would gladly pay for this service then IMO they are dumber than
a rock! I would think someone with any iota of intelligence would
either take a cooking course at a community college, buy a recipe
book, check online, buy a cooking video, or get a friend or relative
to teach them how to cook. Now my FM always used to say you are
judged by your acquaintences. This really isn't making you look too
good at the moment either 😉

It astounds me that people like you are so narrow-minded. Yes, people
can cook if they want to. Some DON'T want to, they don't want to plan
meals, they don't want to prepare raw ingredients, etc. Why is it so
hard to understand that others may not enjoy the things you do?

Brian

My mother *hates* to cook She freely admits it. She did it because she had
kids and it was what a mom did. She even baked cookies. (laughing) She
wonders where I got my 'cooking gene'. Beats me, I just like good food and
I enjoy preparing it and cooking it. I just don't want to do it at some
location away from my kitchen and I sure don't want to do it with a pre-set
bunch of recipes and ingredients. I want to pick out what vegetables I use,
what spices I use; make the sauce, choose the meat, etc.

Jill

Old Mother Ashby said:

~patches~ said:

jmcquown said:

ms_peacock wrote:

> There was some question if the ingredients are all diced, chopped,
> sliced, etc. so I asked. Here's the answer I got;
>
> Yes that is correct. We do all the slicing, dicing, preparation of
> sauces, etc. You just come in and assemble your entrees. What
> could be easier.
>
> The Entrée Vous Team
>
> Ms P

You are obviously already a fan; ready to be a customer or another
franchisee. Great, we get it.

You can still buy pre-prepared foods at the grocery store (already
cooked,
just heat it up) for much less than this place touts. And I'm not
waiting
36+ hours for something to defrost only to have to cook it for
another hour
or three. No way, no how. But hey, if you're into it, go ahead,
knock yourself out!

Jill

My feelings exactly. Ms P obviously wants to keep the topic going
even though the OP gave up. Like I said a stupid idea meant to part
stupid people of their money. If she wants to spend her money that
way having someone else choose the quality of ingredients, someone do
whatever prep they do, someone choose the menu, and someone choose
the recipe while she is prepared to *pay* for that, she can be my
guest. That service is *not* cooking! I think I have a bridge
somewhere for sale 😉

I actually looked at the video on one of the web pages - not Entree
Vous, but exactly the same sort of operation.

It was weird. It wasn't cooking, it was an assembly line. Customer
goes to "work station" which is set up like a sandwich shop with all
the little containers of ingredients. Customer is wearing disposable
gloves, just like in sandwich shop. Customer packs ingredients into
tinfoil container in prescribed order, seals and moves on to another
work
station holding ingredients for a different dish. Booooring!

I'm wondering about the ingredients. Where are they sourced? Does the
franchisee have to buy them wholesale and then chop them up, or do
they come from some central warehouse associated with the franchisor?
Are
they fresh every day, or do they keep them until they're going a bit
funny looking at the edges?

Christine

Yeah, that was one of my questions about the original post. Where do the
ingredients come from? Does the franchisee have to buy them from a specific
place? How would one know about the ingredients they are given to use to
serve? Huh, no answer. The OP disappeared when questioned in depth.
Obviously a troll or someone who is going to lose their money big time on
this [censored] of an idea 🙂

Jill

jmcquown said:

<snip>

I still don't "get" the idea. But around here, you see the occasional
Swann's truck and from what I hear they deliver frozen entrees to your door.
I have a friend who used to live right across the line over in Wynne,
Arkansas who swore by the Swann's guy dropping off frozen lasanga and such.
I still think I could do better just going to the grocery store and looking
in the aisle that sells "family dinners".

Jill

The Schwann's trucks come around here as well. But AFAIK the customers
are mostly elderly and disabled and have no one to drive them to the
supermarket. None of the supermarkets locally deliver, which is a shame
really.

"Default User" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

~patches~ said:

Let's think about this. These folks would pay out all that money to
go to a place where they pay to have someone else chop up the food,
choose the ingredients, choose the menu and recipes? Then they will
package the food themselves, take them home and put them in the oven?
Now if that isn't stupid, I don't know what is? If the people you
know would gladly pay for this service then IMO they are dumber than
a rock! I would think someone with any iota of intelligence would
either take a cooking course at a community college, buy a recipe
book, check online, buy a cooking video, or get a friend or relative
to teach them how to cook. Now my FM always used to say you are
judged by your acquaintences. This really isn't making you look too
good at the moment either 😉

It astounds me that people like you are so narrow-minded. Yes, people
can cook if they want to. Some DON'T want to, they don't want to plan
meals, they don't want to prepare raw ingredients, etc. Why is it so
hard to understand that others may not enjoy the things you do?

Brian

It's an absolute refusal to see something from anyone else's point of view.
It's a refusal to see that people of normal intelligence might find these
kinds of services useful.

Ms P

Goomba38 <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and posted
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I don't find the slicing, dicing, preparation of sauces, etc to be
that hard. I wouldn't find it "easier" to pay those prices Entree Vous
is asking, truthfully.
I'd love to organize something like this for friends though. Just a
hen party to get together and cook, at cost 🙂
Goomba

I've got a lot of counter space at home so cooking parties are not a
problem. Now that we've got 2 ovens I'm a happy foodie wannabe. I can
really see this business doing well in the right location with the right
advertising. As I said, it's not for me but if I was taking care of
someone that was infirmed in some way I might use it just to knock out a
weeks worth of cooking at once.

Michael
--
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she
served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been
found."

--Calvin Trillin

~patches~ <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

My feelings exactly. Ms P obviously wants to keep the topic going
even though the OP gave up. Like I said a stupid idea meant to part
stupid people of their money. If she wants to spend her money that
way having someone else choose the quality of ingredients, someone do
whatever prep they do, someone choose the menu, and someone choose the
recipe while she is prepared to *pay* for that, she can be my guest.
That service is *not* cooking! I think I have a bridge somewhere for
sale 😉

While the service is not my cup of tea; I certainly would not call people
that use the service stupid. There are plenty of people in my neighborhood
that would benefit from this service. They're called soccer moms and they
have a helluva job and I'm sure cooking every night is not something they
look forward to. I'm just guessing but nutritional concerns, planning etc.
is taken care of for them. The lady 3 doors down from me drives up and down
the street at least a dozen times a day with any one or all three of her
children in tow. She does not work outside the home but she runs her toosh
off. She has to be exhausted at the end of the day.

Michael

--
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she
served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been
found."

--Calvin Trillin

Michael 'Dog3' Lonergan said:

~patches~ <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

My feelings exactly. Ms P obviously wants to keep the topic going
even though the OP gave up. Like I said a stupid idea meant to part
stupid people of their money. If she wants to spend her money that
way having someone else choose the quality of ingredients, someone do
whatever prep they do, someone choose the menu, and someone choose the
recipe while she is prepared to *pay* for that, she can be my guest.
That service is *not* cooking! I think I have a bridge somewhere for
sale 😉

While the service is not my cup of tea; I certainly would not call people
that use the service stupid. There are plenty of people in my neighborhood
that would benefit from this service. They're called soccer moms and they
have a helluva job and I'm sure cooking every night is not something they
look forward to. I'm just guessing but nutritional concerns, planning etc.
is taken care of for them. The lady 3 doors down from me drives up and down
the street at least a dozen times a day with any one or all three of her
children in tow. She does not work outside the home but she runs her toosh
off. She has to be exhausted at the end of the day.

Michael

When I was a kid children transported themselves on bicycles. Schools
used to have bike sheds. The world's gone mad, and mothers are the
victims. Grump, grump...

Christine

ms_peacock said:

"Default User" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

~patches~ said:

Let's think about this. These folks would pay out all that money to
go to a place where they pay to have someone else chop up the food,
choose the ingredients, choose the menu and recipes? Then they will
package the food themselves, take them home and put them in the oven?
Now if that isn't stupid, I don't know what is? If the people you
know would gladly pay for this service then IMO they are dumber than
a rock! I would think someone with any iota of intelligence would
either take a cooking course at a community college, buy a recipe
book, check online, buy a cooking video, or get a friend or relative
to teach them how to cook. Now my FM always used to say you are
judged by your acquaintences. This really isn't making you look too
good at the moment either 😉

It astounds me that people like you are so narrow-minded. Yes, people
can cook if they want to. Some DON'T want to, they don't want to plan
meals, they don't want to prepare raw ingredients, etc. Why is it so
hard to understand that others may not enjoy the things you do?

Brian

It's an absolute refusal to see something from anyone else's point of view.
It's a refusal to see that people of normal intelligence might find these
kinds of services useful.

Ms P

I think you might be begging the question, meaning asserting that which
you seek to establish.

What do you mean "useful"? I have no problem with people who are not
interested in cooking, what I can't understand is why they would prefer
this service over buying something already totally prepared by a
commercial caterer. With all due respect to Brian, I don't believe
anybody is saying that people who don't like cooking are stupid, rather
they are questioning the common sense of opting for this particular
solution to the unavoidable need to eat.

You say that your friends think, when you asked them, that they might
use this sort of service. People think lots of things when asked
hypothetical questions. The proof of the pudding, dare I say it, is in
the eating. How many of your friends actually have experience of this
sort of service? Do you reckon they'd really use it on a regular basis?

Christine

Old Mother Ashby <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

When I was a kid children transported themselves on bicycles. Schools
used to have bike sheds. The world's gone mad, and mothers are the
victims. Grump, grump...

Christine

No way I'd let a child on a bike on Berry Road. Glenhaven Drive is a cul
de sac type of street right off of Berry. Berry has become very, very
busy. All the kids on my street attend private Catholic schools so there
is no school bus to take them. The 3 family units car pool it. One of the
mothers is an absolute [censored]. I've had several run ins with her. She is
completely neurotic IMO. The other mothers are lovely people.

Michael

--
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she
served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been
found."

--Calvin Trillin

"Old Mother Ashby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What do you mean "useful"? I have no problem with people who are not
interested in cooking, what I can't understand is why they would prefer
this service over buying something already totally prepared by a
commercial caterer. With all due respect to Brian, I don't believe anybody
is saying that people who don't like cooking are stupid, rather they are
questioning the common sense of opting for this particular solution to the
unavoidable need to eat.

You say that your friends think, when you asked them, that they might use
this sort of service. People think lots of things when asked hypothetical
questions. The proof of the pudding, dare I say it, is in the eating. How
many of your friends actually have experience of this sort of service? Do
you reckon they'd really use it on a regular basis?

Christine

Well, the ability to have food prepared without ingredients they don't like.
Stuff you put together yourself and have at least some idea of what went
into it. The chance to feed your family something decent instead of fat and
salt laden fast food. But without the time spent planning, shopping and
cooking. That way useful.

If the friends that are fairly well off and have more money than time had
the opportunity to use a service such as this I could guarantee they'd use
it fairly regularly. A couple of them would probably use the service on a
very regular basis. As one of them put it "I flat don't have time."

Money they have, time they don't.

This is something that has come up in group discussions. At least one said
she'd kill for this kind of service.

Ms P

Michael 'Dog3' Lonergan said:

~patches~ <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

My feelings exactly. Ms P obviously wants to keep the topic going
even though the OP gave up. Like I said a stupid idea meant to part
stupid people of their money. If she wants to spend her money that
way having someone else choose the quality of ingredients, someone do
whatever prep they do, someone choose the menu, and someone choose the
recipe while she is prepared to *pay* for that, she can be my guest.
That service is *not* cooking! I think I have a bridge somewhere for
sale 😉

While the service is not my cup of tea; I certainly would not call people
that use the service stupid. There are plenty of people in my neighborhood
that would benefit from this service. They're called soccer moms and they
have a helluva job and I'm sure cooking every night is not something they
look forward to. I'm just guessing but nutritional concerns, planning etc.
is taken care of for them. The lady 3 doors down from me drives up and down
the street at least a dozen times a day with any one or all three of her
children in tow. She does not work outside the home but she runs her toosh
off. She has to be exhausted at the end of the day.

Michael

Ok, I wasn't a soccer mom per sey but I raised 4 kids while getting an
education that involved daily long commutes, while running a family
business and guess what, I managed to put home cooked meals on the table
for my family every night. My kids were involved in sports and other
extra curricular activities yet that meal was always on the table every
night and I managed to get to my kids' activities too. Many a day I
started at 5 am and didn't hit the pillow until 1 or 2 am later only to
repeat the pattern the next day. I know how to survive on 4 or 5 hrs.
sleep. You do what you have to do and you know what if you didn't want
to do it DON"T HAVE KIDS. So don't tell me these parents all of a
sudden have it so bad they can't make home cooked meals. As far as Ms P
goes, I'm out of the conversation.

I'm sorry to differ in opinion with you Michael. They would spend to do
their cooking *outside* their homes away from their families? I'd call
that stupid any day. Oh and check out the menu offered, not really all
that nutritious either.

One more group we haven't considered who might use this sort of service:
dieters.

Me, I'm someone who eats, gets full, and stops eating. Wait until
hungry again, and repeat process. Eat more than usual at one meal; eat
less at next. This is so normal and obvious to me that I was surprised
to learn that there are people for whom it isn't that easy. They
genuninely have trouble knowing how much is the right amount and when to
stop eating.

The diet industry thrives on these people. Jenny Craig type places are
one more example of a business that I wouldn't have thought stood a
chance of succeeding but that has. (In a limited way; it was a fad that
had a good run. It didn't last forever, but you can't say that it
didn't make money.) If you'd told me the business plan, I would have
laughed at its stupidity. You mean you're really going to get women to
pay money to have people "counsel" them to buy frozen meals which
they're to take home, reheat, and eat? And yet it was exactly the
pre-measuredness of the meals that made the plan work.

Any one of those dieters could have bought frozen meals at the
supermarket or prepared far better meals from scratch at home, measure
the appropriate amounts to eat, figure calories, etc. But if it were
that easy for them, they'd be people who naturally knew when to stop
eating as I do. They're not.

That could be exactly the hook that could make cooking at an off-site
kitchen work. You'd prep the meals yourself so you could tweak the
seasoning, but someone else would do the planning and most of the
measuring. In other words, I don't think it is that hard to serve a
meat and 2 vegetables for dinner or a meat, a starch and a vegetable,
but that might be a difficult thing for someone with a history of diet
and eating disorder-type problems. With this plan, you have someone
else doing that part of the thinking for you.

--Lia

ms_peacock said:

"Old Mother Ashby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What do you mean "useful"? I have no problem with people who are not
interested in cooking, what I can't understand is why they would prefer
this service over buying something already totally prepared by a
commercial caterer. With all due respect to Brian, I don't believe anybody
is saying that people who don't like cooking are stupid, rather they are
questioning the common sense of opting for this particular solution to the
unavoidable need to eat.

You say that your friends think, when you asked them, that they might use
this sort of service. People think lots of things when asked hypothetical
questions. The proof of the pudding, dare I say it, is in the eating. How
many of your friends actually have experience of this sort of service? Do
you reckon they'd really use it on a regular basis?

Christine

Well, the ability to have food prepared without ingredients they don't like.
Stuff you put together yourself and have at least some idea of what went
into it. The chance to feed your family something decent instead of fat and
salt laden fast food. But without the time spent planning, shopping and
cooking. That way useful.

If the friends that are fairly well off and have more money than time had
the opportunity to use a service such as this I could guarantee they'd use
it fairly regularly. A couple of them would probably use the service on a
very regular basis. As one of them put it "I flat don't have time."

Money they have, time they don't.

This is something that has come up in group discussions. At least one said
she'd kill for this kind of service.

Ms P

Well, you'll just have to hope that one opens in your town soon before
your young friends asll starve to death or perish of supersizing
syndrome. :-)

Christine

"Julia Altshuler" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

One more group we haven't considered who might use this sort of service:
dieters.

Me, I'm someone who eats, gets full, and stops eating. Wait until hungry
again, and repeat process. Eat more than usual at one meal; eat less at
next. This is so normal and obvious to me that I was surprised to learn
that there are people for whom it isn't that easy. They genuninely have
trouble knowing how much is the right amount and when to stop eating.

The diet industry thrives on these people. Jenny Craig type places are
one more example of a business that I wouldn't have thought stood a chance
of succeeding but that has. (In a limited way; it was a fad that had a
good run. It didn't last forever, but you can't say that it didn't make
money.) If you'd told me the business plan, I would have laughed at its
stupidity. You mean you're really going to get women to pay money to have
people "counsel" them to buy frozen meals which they're to take home,
reheat, and eat? And yet it was exactly the pre-measuredness of the meals
that made the plan work.

Any one of those dieters could have bought frozen meals at the supermarket
or prepared far better meals from scratch at home, measure the appropriate
amounts to eat, figure calories, etc. But if it were that easy for them,
they'd be people who naturally knew when to stop eating as I do. They're
not.

That could be exactly the hook that could make cooking at an off-site
kitchen work. You'd prep the meals yourself so you could tweak the
seasoning, but someone else would do the planning and most of the
measuring. In other words, I don't think it is that hard to serve a meat
and 2 vegetables for dinner or a meat, a starch and a vegetable, but that
might be a difficult thing for someone with a history of diet and eating
disorder-type problems. With this plan, you have someone else doing that
part of the thinking for you.

Except that for the places like this that I've looked at menus/cooking
directions for, they don't seem to be selling full meals, they're just
selling the entrees. If it's a pasta dish, you get the starch of course, but
a lot are just meat and spices or meat and a sauce. So if someone actually
wanted veggies or other side dishes, they'd still have to figure out that
part of it on their own. Not to mention salad, condiments, etc. that might
be appropriate with the meal.

I'm sure there are SOME people that will go to a business like this as it is
organized, but I just wonder if there are enough to make it a viable
business, long-term. But there are things they could do to tweak it that
could make it a lot better. Like include veggies. Or have a selection of
dishes that could be cooked from frozen and done in a half-hour for the busy
moms who don't have time to cook after work. Then they could have another
selection for people who are okay with boiling, frying, and spending some
time in the kitchen to prepare the meal.

I'm going to make it a point to go to the one here in town (different chain)
and see who their customers are. Could be enlightening.

Donna

"Old Mother Ashby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, you'll just have to hope that one opens in your town soon before
your young friends asll starve to death or perish of supersizing syndrome.
:-)

Christine

LOL, sadly they're just going to have to suffer. I sincerely doubt if one
of those services will ever open here. Too small and too many of the wrong
kind of demographics.

I feed them when I can.

Ms P

x-no-archive: yes

Julia Altshuler said:

One more group we haven't considered who might use this sort of service:
dieters.

I checked out the nutritional values on that site, and the calorie and
fat counts on most entrees are pretty high. That's before you add the
suggested sides. Even if you cut the portions, nearly everything
looked too heavy on the cream sauce, cheese and starch--I assume white
starch-- to work with any diet I know of. (Even something like Weight
Watchers Flex, which is considered a classic calorie restriction diet,
encourages you to eat less fat and more fiber.)

It might be a good idea to have a service of that type for dieters or
just people who want to eat healthy, though. I've seen photos of a
week's worth of Seattle Sutton's diet meals and nobody I know would eat
those. If there are affordable services that have like a week's worth
of *good* premeasured diet meals, I've never heard of them. A place in
my area does a very brisk business in takeout dishes with Weight
Watchers points ratings. Expensive as hell but the food is very tasty;
I'm a customer.

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'm wondering about the ingredients. Where are they sourced? Does the
franchisee have to buy them wholesale and then chop them up, or do
they come from some central warehouse associated with the franchisor?
Are
they fresh every day, or do they keep them until they're going a bit
funny looking at the edges?

Christine

Yeah, that was one of my questions about the original post. Where do the
ingredients come from? Does the franchisee have to buy them from a
specific
place? How would one know about the ingredients they are given to use to
serve? Huh, no answer.

Actually, you do not have this information about restaurants, either, unless
you stake out their parking lots all day to see which delivery trucks come
and go.

~patches~ <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I'm sorry to differ in opinion with you Michael. They would spend to
do their cooking *outside* their homes away from their families? I'd
call that stupid any day. Oh and check out the menu offered, not
really all that nutritious either.

Patches, these people have 6 or even 7 digit incomes. They can afford to
use the service. Like I said, the service is not for me. I enjoy cooking.
BUT people that can afford it, and want it, will support it. I don't look
at it as differing in opinions, I just view the discussion as just that. A
discussion 😉

Michael

--
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she
served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been
found."

--Calvin Trillin

Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote on 15 Mar 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Patches, these people have 6 or even 7 digit incomes.

If I had a 6 or 7 digit income...each of my kitchens and walk in coolers
would have all the time saving devices know to man and I wouldn't require
their services. There are devices out there to chop and dice food to most
any size. But I don't have the room in my present 5 digit income kitchen to
house them.

--
-Alan

On Wed 15 Mar 2006 06:03:57a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Mr Libido
Incognito?

Quoted message said:

Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote on 15 Mar 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Patches, these people have 6 or even 7 digit incomes.

If I had a 6 or 7 digit income...each of my kitchens and walk in coolers
would have all the time saving devices know to man and I wouldn't
require their services. There are devices out there to chop and dice
food to most any size. But I don't have the room in my present 5 digit
income kitchen to house them.

Guess you need to bump up that income, Alan, as do I. :-)

--
Wayne Boatwright o¿o
____________________

BIOYA