Home Chef‘s mantra is to bring people together around the dinner table, by delivering meals that are familiar but with an interesting twist. Most meals can be made in about 30 minutes.
Pricing: $9.95 per serving for all plans
(Updated October 2018)
MEAL KIT
Blue Apron delivers all the freshest meats, fish, fruits, and veggies direct to your door in an insulated box.
Pricing: $7.49 – $9.99
(Updated to Sep 2018)
MEAL KITS
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Prepare yourself, ladies and gentlemen, because we are about to get involved in another meal kit mega battle! Two of the leaders in the industry are about to go into the arena, and we are going to break down the fight just for you!
Are you ready? One, two…. three!
Blue Apron vs Home Chef- full comparison!
Variety of plan
Home Chef provides slightly more flexibility with plans for 2, 4 or 6 people, with a minimum selection required of 2 dishes per week (there is no maximum limitations with Home Chef). Blue Apron offers its customers two different plan options. There is a plan for two people or a family plan for four people. The two-person plan offers either 2 or 3 recipes per week, whereas the family plan offers a choice of 4 dishes per week.
Variety of dishes
When it comes to the variety of dishes, Home Chef offers a flexible option. They have a total of 12 dishes per week, plus 3 5-minutes no-cooking required lunch option. Yet regardless of the number of people your plan covers, you can choose from all of them.
Blue Apron offers its customer an amount of 8 dishes per week in the classic two-person plan, and 4 dishes for the family plan.
When comparing diversity, both Home Chef and Blue Apron offer meals with great diversity, both in terms of the base ingredient, (vegetable, meat, poultry, fish etc) and seasoning style, (Mexican, Asian, classic, Italian etc.)
Style and complexity of dishes
Both Blue Apron and Home Chef offer dishes that taste great and everything we tried was delicious! It would appear that Home Chef are trying to focus on family home dinners, so the recipes tend to be quite classic, with some twist. They are not over the top sophisticated or complicated and they appropriate for adults, kids, and teens. Blue Apron offers a bit more upscaled meals options, but with easy-to-follow recipes.
Few examples of dishes we tried from Home Chef: Corn and Black Bean Burrito, Salmon Tacos with Queso Fresco and Crispy Jalapeños, or a more classic dish like Steak au Poivre
Few dishes we tried from Blue Apron: Curry Chicken & Vegetables, Roasted Fall Vegetable & Farro Salad or a more classic dish like Parisian Steak Frites.
Quality of products
After receiving boxes from both companies, I can safely say that the meal kits of both Blue Apron and Home Chef use high-quality ingredients.
Home Chef has partnered with a selection of well-known quality producers to provide their ingredients. Some of these include Paysan Breton Butter, ‘World Wide farms’ for fresh herbs and vegetables and ‘Sea to Table’ for sustainably sourced seafood. When looking at Blue Apron, they guarantee that they only use meat with no added hormones, all vegetables are farm fresh and where possible organic and all seafood is sustainably sourced.
The Box
Both Blue Apron and Home Chef use specifically designed and labeled carton boxes. Inside the box, both place the cooled proteins on the bottom with sufficient ice, so you can be confident that the box can stay outside for few hours.
Home Chef ensures that each dish is individually organised. Each dish arrives in its own labeled transparent plastic bag. The box is very organised, and you can clearly see the ingredients in each bag. Blue Apron, on the other hand, does not provide labels on most ingredients and they are all packed in together in the box. So, you will need to sort out the ingredients of each dish. The only thing that is wrapped is a small bag with the spices and seasonings.
The app and website
Both companies offer a very friendly and well-organized website and app. You can register, choose and change your plan, define your eating preferences, select your dishes for the week, change payment method etc all on line in a very easy and stress-free way
Terms of plan
Both Blue Apron and Home Chef provide a subscription service, there is not the option of ordering on a one-off basis. They do offer the flexibility holding your account though if you do need to skip a week on occasion. They also offer the flexibility of picking your delivery day. With Home Chef you can look after account cancellation via the website. When canceling your account with Blue Apron, you need to contact customer support via email, with same day response.
Add-ons
Home Chef offers 3 great and very day-to-day useful add-ons – a great selection of 5-minutes no cooking required lunches, including salads, sandwiches and bowls, each cost 7.99$ per serving, a smoothie which changes flavor each week and a seasonal fruit basket, both of which cost $4.95 each.
Blue Apron also offers a large selection of wines as a monthly subscription, cost 65.99$ including shipping for 6 bottles of your selection – which is a lovely feature. They even provide recommendations for the right wines to accompany each dish! They also have a retail service which provides cookware and other basic kitchen supplies.
The Bottom Line
Both are very good options and appealing to more or less the same audience, that looks for classic familiar dishes but do want some twist – however, we found the offering of Home Chef better in terms of taste of recipes, variety of dishes per week, portions of the dishes and the convenience of packaging! And also, the add ons are great!