Buh-bye, Blue Apron. Hit the road, HelloFresh, and sayonara, Sun Basket. We’re tired of excess packaging and really, totally over your gotcha subscriptions. We deserve better and listen, it’s not us. It’s you.

Enter Fix, the Memphis meal kit delivery service that launched last month and is still a well-kept secret in this town of wagging tongues. It could change the way many of us eat dinner, and once Memphis is under control, founder and CEO Wayne Culbreth plans to take Fix to other cities.

Meal kits are big business, with more than a dozen major providers that deliver almost everything you need to cook dinner – from proteins to vegetables to spices – in a box to your door. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times in May, diners spent more than $3 billion on meal kits in 2018.

“They – Blue Apron, HelloFresh and so on – came out like a rocket ship and terrified grocery stores,” Culbreth said. “But then people found out there were problems, like the box integrity, the subscription and limited menu choices. There’s actually a term for it: Meal kit anxiety.”

You know it. You want to go out to dinner but there’s a kit at home that has to be cooked, frozen or thrown out.

“So our challenge was: Can we deliver a meal kit and fix all those points?”

He believes they have, so it was easy to name his company.

The concept is based on his master’s thesis; Culbreth is an alumnus of TRIUM Global Executive MBA program, a joint venture of NYU Stern School of Business, London School of Economics and HEC School of Management in Paris. 

There’s no subscription. You order meals when you want them. That can be once a month or every day. There’s a growing menu that will, he said, eventually contain thousands of choices – no need to limit yourself to just 10 or so a week. No boxes to get torn and less packaging to throw out, because the meals are packed and delivered locally, in a simple grocery sack. And no worrying about food sitting on your porch in July, because you pick the delivery time.

Right now there are about 50 meals available, with prices starting under $7 per serving for some of the pasta and chicken selections. The plan is to grow the number quickly.

Culbreth works with two numbers: 2,000 and 200.

“About 90% of the recipes you can think of can be created from 2,000 ingredients,” he said. “And that includes all the spices, herbs and so on, the shelf-stable items. When you get to core ingredients, perishables, it’s about 200.”

So that’s how the Fix warehouse in Downtown Memphis is stocked; a large grocery store, by comparison, has about 50,000 items.

The plan includes adding chef meals. Right now Jimmy Gentry, chef/owner of P.O. Press in Collierville and Paradox Catering, has created the first batch, including the site’s most expensive item: Curry-miso snapper with bok choy ($12.90 per serving). Food blogger Cara Greenstein of caramelizedblog.com has also created meals, and Culbreth is seeking participation from other local chefs.

Daniel Snyder has been using the service for over a month, part of a beta group starting before the site was officially launched. He’s used Blue Apron for about three years.

“I had a little bit of overlap, but after trying Fix, I discontinued Blue Apron for several reasons, and one is to commit to a local company,” he said.

Snyder, 28, started cooking when he did an internship in Cleveland, Mississippi, while he was in college.

“It was the first time I was away from home or a meal plan at school,” he said. “And I always knew that cooking was something I wanted to be able to do for myself. It’s practical, but it’s also creative.”

But he’s an engineer with FedEx Express, and cooking comes with conditions.

“While I love the cooking part, the procuring part is just not enjoyable to me,” he said. “And I hate food waste. With a meal kit, you get the fun part of the process and the right amount of food, so there’s nothing you have to throw out. There’s no waste.”

The process is simple: Go to eatfix.com, order your meal (you have to order a day in advance, though same-day delivery is the goal), pick the time you want it brought to your home and be there for it. It comes in a bag with pre-measured ingredients in small containers and a recipe sheet. The recipes are easy to follow.

“I don’t think there’s even one recipe I submitted that is difficult,” Gentry said. “They’re just how you should cook, with simple ingredients but with lots of flavor, and really, they’re stupid simple.”

Snyder cooked Gentry’s Steak with Onion-Garlic Jam and Brussels sprouts earlier this week. The recipe called for 16 ingredients, which not only included basics such as salt, pepper and olive oil, but also everything needed to cook the jam on the stove top.

“Blue Apron would never have sent me olive oil,” Snyder said. “This includes everything.”

Cook time on the recipe was listed as 50 minutes. First Snyder made a simple marinade for the steak, then he trimmed the Brussels sprouts, tossed them in olive oil and seasoning and popped them in the oven to roast.

While they cooked, he chopped onion and garlic, sautéed them and brought them to a simmer with balsamic vinegar and brown sugar to make a syrupy jam. Finally, he seared the steak in an iron skillet for a couple of minutes and finished it for a few in a hot oven.

Snyder’s girlfriend, Stephanie Clein, read the directions to him.

“He does about 90% of the cooking and I do about 10% of it,” she said. “He really likes it and I don’t, but I help prep a little and it works for us.”

Culbreth said a date night package is in the works for Fix.

“We want to partner so we can even deliver the wine,” he said.

While you can already search the database for specific meals – such as low carb, light and easy, and so on – Fix plans to offer a service for personalized meals, down to macro nutrients for your specific needs, something you can use in conjunction with a personal trainer or even your physician.

Once it’s going in Memphis, Culbreth plans to take the model and start it in other cities.

“I believe the Memphis community will support them and they’ll get plenty of honest feedback, which is something I always try to give,” Snyder said. “That’s what everyone needs.”

Listen to the Destination: Delicious podcast on July 22 to hear Culbreth talk more about Fix and his plans.