New Rochelle chef launches Asian meal kit service after seeing a void during pandemic
Asian cooking is in Peter Sung's blood. So when he became dissatisfied during the pandemic with the quality of delivered meal kits, he got a tasty idea.
The New Rochelle resident, who grew up in South Korea and Hong Kong, started a Asian meal kit business built around the kind of cuisine he grew up eating.
Chef Sung, as the kits are called, launched this past January. His meals are based on some of his favorite dishes (such as Hong Kong Curry) as well as more well-known Asian entrees such as Pad Thai and Yakisoba. His goal: To keep his menu exciting, but not too exciting that people will be too scared to try it.
The kits are available nationwide. Sung knows a lot of people don't have access to authentic Asian food.
"The way I see it, I'm providing a new way for suburban Asian-cuisine lovers to enjoy Asian cuisine as there are a lot of suburban areas in the U.S. that do not have authentic Asian restaurants," he said.
Pandemic showed a need
The idea arose from a life not only spent around food — his parents opened a first of its kind Korean restaurant in Hong Kong in the early 1990s — but because of the pandemic.
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With both he and his wife working at home — and a toddler in tow — the self-taught chef (long known for his elaborate dinner parties) became the primary cook. He also felt the entrepreneurial itch. Armed with a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a decade of experience working in finance making investments in early stage companies, he'd always been eager to start his own business.
He had many ideas that never made it past the drawing board. This time, however, with frustration growing over finding meal plans that worked — he didn't see the point in paying for a service that sent him raw ingredients to dice, peel, and prepare himself — he decided to go out on his own."I felt such a strong personal need for this service and I felt like this business would make the most of my personal and professional experiences to date," he said.
The idea that he was doing something that fed a void in the market only grew once he talked to friends, especially those, like him, with young children. And vegetarian meals are available.
"It seemed that there was no middle ground between ordering in/eating frozen meals and cooking from scratch, so I felt that a prepped meal kit could be that middle ground," he said. "Plus, as I spoke with a wider group of people, I found out that while Asian food is gaining in popularity, hardly anyone outside of Asian households is cooking Asian food at home. This is because Asian cuisine often requires unfamiliar sauces and ingredients which could be difficult to procure and also be intimidating to experiment with. I thought that a fully prepped Asian meal kit could serve as a kind of introduction to cooking Asian cuisine."
Ingredients are pre-chopped
So Sung got to work in August 2021. He quit his job that October and began testing, tasting and experimenting. He even consulted with his mother, who was instrumental in his family restaurant's success (their Hong Kong restaurant, Secret Garden, closed in 2018).
There are presently 40 dishes on the menu, which rotate on a weekly basis. Twelve are offered weekly featuring items like Chicken Satay (skewers with peanut sauce), Yakisoba (Japanese stir-fried thin noodles with shrimp), Gungjung Ddukbokki (Korean rice cakes) and Mapo Tofu (spicy Sichuan-style tofu and pork stir-fry).
Meal kits come with all ingredients prepped, which Sung stressed is a major difference between his and other kits. "With us, you receive your onions and other ingredients chopped," he said. "With our competitors, you receive whole ingredients that have to be washed, peeled, and chopped. For frame of reference, the average household in the U.S. spends 42 minutes a day on food prep and cleanup."
To make Chef Sung kits, you simply follow the cooking instructions. "Compared to other meal kits, it would be like only having to do the cooking part, without the prepping part," he said. "And, for stir-fries, which Asian food has a lot of, most dishes take less than 10 minutes to make, which is faster than ordering in."
Recipes are designed to combine ingredients simultaneously while reducing the amount of packaging.
Most surprising to him so far is how many clients are ordering kits for their college-aged children. Said Sung: "We thought of college campuses as a distant target, but we already have parents sending their children Chef Sung boxes all over the country!"
If you order
Meal plans: Range from three meals for two people ($78) to two meals for two people ($58) with options to match customers' lifestyles.
Good to know: Delivery is nationwide as well as local. Meal kits also include a number of non-meat options.
Details: chefsung.com
Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @lohud_food or via the lohudfood newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Chef Sung of New Rochelle launches Asian food meal kit service
