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Chorney-Booth: Make your own pizza, barbecue or cocktails with the help of a local chef

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If you’re anything like me, your pandemic cooking motivation has been coming in waves. Some days I have the time and energy to make elaborate dinners, from the salad dressing to the buns to the dessert, completely from scratch. Other days, opening a box of Kraft Dinner feels like it’s almost too much. Most of the time though, I sit somewhere in between.

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Restaurants and other foodservice companies have been dreaming up ways to respond to those in-between days. Customers are looking for something creative to do to keep their hands busy, but restaurants also know that many home cooks don’t have the skills or inclination to make restaurant-quality meals completely on their own. So, to hit that sweet spot between from-scratch cooking and fully prepared takeout, some local chefs are putting together DIY kits or boxes for halfway motivated home cooks to assemble at home.

These kits aren’t quite as demanding as the ones from outfits like Hello Fresh, which offer pre-portioned ingredients and a set of cooking instructions. Rather, restaurant chefs have taken on some (or almost all) of the heavy lifting, requiring customers to do anything from sautéing pre-seasoned vegetables or tossing a salad to stretching out pizza dough or popping a roast in the oven. Customers get something appealing to eat, with an element of participation — and really, most of us can appreciate something that makes us feel productive these days.

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As the corporate executive chef at Great Events catering group, Daryl Kerr is used to coming up with innovative solutions to feed people, and part of his focus with the group’s takeout at Cravings Market Restaurant (7207 Fairmount Dr. SE) has been a series of home barbecue kits. Customers can order uncooked chicken or steak or partially cooked ribs ($21-$25 per person) that come with a choice of sauce or rub as well as one of three potato options, garlic bread, grilled vegetables and a salad. Everything is picked up or delivered cold and cooks up easily on the barbecue.

“We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people,” Kerr says. “People can stay home with their families and have a nice dinner at their dinner table with their own plates and cutlery. It gives them more flexibility.”

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Cibo Pizza Kit.
Cibo Pizza Kit. jpg

Glen Manzer, the executive chef at Creative Restaurants Group, has also put together some kits for people who want to get a little more hands-on with their dinner. Available for curbside pickup at Cibo on 17th (1012 17th Ave. S.W.), the kits are ideal for people who may be put off by the prospect of making their own pizza or pasta from absolute scratch but are willing to try stretching and topping dough or rolling gnocchi if the other elements are taken care of. As long as you have a working oven or stove, Cibo’s pizza ($30) and pasta ($36) selections are relatively easy to put together and can easily feed two people.

“We don’t want to intimidate anyone,” Manzer says. “We’ve had a really good response and a lot of positive feedback about the pizzas. I’ve seen some of them posted on social media and people are doing a really good job with them.”

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Not all kits include a lot of actual cooking. Some businesses are doing the DIY kit simply because their food becomes less spectacular when delivered intact. ConMiTaco (which operates out of Shelter at 1210 1st St. S.W.) serves its meals in kit form so the fillings don’t disintegrate the tortillas by the time customers get home, and Shiki Menya (827 1st Ave. N.E.) has elected to preserve the integrity of its ramen by asking people to construct their bowls at home.

A margarita from Native Tongues.
A margarita from Native Tongues. jpg

Alcoholic drinks present their own set of problems. Many Calgary restaurants have made their beverage programs a key part of the restaurant experience, but AGLC regulations prohibit them from packaging mixed drinks alongside takeout. To work around this, restaurants like Native Tongues Taqueria (235 12th Ave. S.W.) and Annabelle’s Kitchen (3574 Garrison Gate S.W.) are selling drink kits, complete with all the elements necessary to make a cocktail to go with their meals. Native Tongues’ margarita kit includes airplane-sized bottles of tequila and Grand Marnier along with freshly squeezed lime juice and salt — just the right amount to accompany a Mexican meal.

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“It started with the AGLC giving us the opportunity to do it,” says Native Tongues owner/operator Cody Willis. “It’s what you want to be drinking while you eat your tacos, so we had to figure out a way to make it work.”

Even as restaurant dining rooms start to open up in the coming weeks and months, we’re likely to see more of these kits pop up from restaurants as people tend to lie relatively low. Both Kerr and Manzer say they have some other ideas on the way over the summer and that you’re likely to see partially cooked meals remain a staple of many takeout menus.

“We’re working hard to think about what we can market so people will be able to entertain themselves at home,” Manzer says. “We want them to remember what they love about our places for when we’re ready to reopen.”

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.

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