A healthy new spin on the power lunch: straight from the greenmarket and right to your door.
From the artfully styled grain bowls and matcha lattes on Instagram to an all-out craze for slow-simmered bone broth, the message is clear: The beauty-and-wellness set has become obsessed with nutrition. Today, eating virtuously isn’t just a means to stay trim; it’s a crucial step in fortifying the body for an increasingly fit, and busy, life. But in this multitasking age, where lunch comes with a side of email, everyone’s got a lot on their plate except, too often, a square meal. Answering the call across the country is a wave of enterprising young chefs, fashionable foodies, and tech pioneers who are marrying wholesome meals with door-to-door convenience. There’s something for every preference, from the superfood salad–loving vegetarian and hipster locavore to the Paleo-devoted triathlete. (Even Beyoncé has joined the fray, launching her own vegan service with 22 Days Nutrition.) If last year was dominated by the juice cleanse, this is shaping up to be the year of the designer meal delivery.
Sakara Life
When Arizona natives Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle started working in New York after college, the city’s frenetic pace sent them searching for ways to get their health back on track. “We did everything under the sun,” says DuBoise, ticking off raw food, veganism, sweat-lodge retreats, and punishing cleanses. By 2011, they found their answer and launched Sakara Life, delivering nutrient-dense, plant-based meals to a coterie of fashionable fans including Lily Aldridge, Lena Dunham, and the staffs at Moda Operandi and Alexander Wang’s design studio. Four years later, the service has expanded along the East Coast and arrives in L.A. this summer.
Sakara’s motto is simple: “Eat Clean Eat Whole.” Breakfast might be a vanilla-rooibos fig bar (“like a healthy Fig Newton,” notes DuBoise), followed by sunflower nori rolls and golden turmeric salad. The company takes a 360-degree approach to well-being, partnering earlier this year with cult Tribeca trainer Taryn Toomey, SoulCycle, and Tata Harper skin care.
Five-day plan, from $130; sakaralife.com
Sprig
Farm-to-table dining doesn’t typically involve a smartphone app and delivery driver, but San Francisco’s Sprig is hardly typical. In the year and a half since its debut, the company has sourced more than 330,000 pounds of organic produce from nearby farmers, in addition to sustainably raised meat. With a daily-changing menu—usually three options for lunch, another three for dinner—the idea is to combine satisfaction with simplicity. “We want to make it easy to eat well,” says executive chef Nate Keller, who formerly led Google’s kitchens.
Keller and fellow chef Jessica Entzel (an alum of Jean-Georges, Morimoto, and Wolfgang Puck) consult with an in-house nutritionist and also orchestrate collaborations with local luminaries like Cortney Burns and Nick Balla of Bar Tartine and Ichi Sushi’s Tim Archuleta. Not long after the Sprig team moved into its sprawling new Civic Center headquarters, the McDonald’s across the street closed—a coincidence not lost on a company setting out to redefine fast food.
Lunch, from $9, dinner, from $10; sprig.com
Nourish Kitchen + Table
Over the years, New York nutritionist Marissa Lippert, R.D., heard a persistent refrain: Her clients were clamoring for takeout food that was greenmarket-driven. So in the summer of 2013 she opened up her own storefront, where the seasonal menu veers from local cod with lemon to shaved-vegetable salad to immune-boosting elixirs. This year, Lippert has added a “curated cleanse” delivery program. For each plan—from three days up to a month—she crafts a personalized menu that mirrors her well-rounded approach to nutrition: local vegetables, hearty grains, juices, thoughtfully sourced meat and fish. “Eating well,” she says, “should not be rocket science.”
Cleanse, from $310; nourishkitchentable.com
Munchery
In 2011, two tech-world dads, Tri Tran and Conrad Chu, set about reengineering the food-delivery model by enlisting a network of notable Bay Area chefs. Each night in San Francisco—and now, Seattle and New York—Munchery offers more than a dozen entrées dreamed up by local talent. The emphasis is on the sustainable, seasonal, and small-batch. Up-front labeling makes it easy for those avoiding nuts, gluten, dairy, or meat; the site also lists ingredient and nutrition facts. The meals, which arrive chilled, come in retro-style plaid containers with compostable trays that can be popped directly into the microwave or oven. Call it a dressed-up TV dinner for the Netflix age.
Dinner, from $10; munchery.com
Fixed Foods
Gerry Flynn, an Austin-based tech entrepreneur, discovered the Paleo lifestyle by necessity. “My wife has an autoimmune disease, and we tried a variety of diets—pescatarian, vegetarian, a whole host of things—to minimize her symptoms.” Eventually they landed upon the caveman diet, which not only proved effective, it also got Flynn thinking beyond his own kitchen. Last summer, he introduced Fixed Foods, a service that abides by Paleo’s strict tenets: pasture-raised meats, organic vegetables, no grains, dairy, or refined sweeteners. While a third of his clients are Paleo die-hards (and fellow CrossFitters), the rest are simply curious and time-strapped. “If you just want a no-brainer healthy meal, Paleo is a really straightforward way to eat,” says Flynn. The menu is anything but Flintstonian, with Laotian lettuce wraps alongside reimagined Southern favorites like baked chicken with sweet-potato waffles. The new 30-day reset program includes three to four meals a day plus consultations with a Fixed Foods coach. “Your body’s addicted to certain things, so you’re going to have to push through that,” Flynn says. The newfound energy at the end, he adds, is worth it.
Five-meal order, $60; fixedfoods.com
Prop Stylist: JoJo Li; Food Styling by Michelle Gatton at Stockland Martel
Les Maisons Enchantées plate by Hermès
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