Everyone’s least favorite question of the day is: “What’s For Dinner?” Olivia’s was started to help families and other busy folks address that problem by providing delicious and nutritious meals delivered to your door once each week.
With two young kids, a husband, and work as a food stylist and recipe tester already keeping her busy, Olivia Mack McCool built a successful meal prep business at Garden State Kitchen.
A Lifelong Love of Food
Olivia has been working as a food stylist and recipe developer for over 15 years. She’s even authored two cookbooks! Her passion for food began in childhood and took her to Le Cordon Bleu for her culinary education. When she moved to Maplewood with her family a few years ago, she befriended many other parents of small children who struggled to find time to cook wholesome meals for their families, but dreaded the existing takeout options. Olivia shared some of her home cooking with friends, and the excitement over her dishes kick-started her desire to bring a dinnertime solution to more families.
Balancing Niche with Wide Appeal
Meal prep is definitely trending, so how does a new entry into the market carve out a place for themselves? One key to building and retaining a customer base is finding a niche audience while offering enough variety to keep them coming back. For Olivia’s, that niche is family-friendly meals. Comforting but healthy. Familiar but with a flavorful twist. And they alway ensure there’s something on the menu to suit choosier kids.
Keeping It Real
If you’ve seen Olivia’s website and social media, you’ll have seen her skills as a food stylist. Her dishes look drool-worthy and are great advertising. But pretty pictures don’t keep customers coming back. Olivia’s recipes are solid, and so is her business management. Beyond the delicious food and the convenient and reliable delivery service, is Olivia’s down-to-earth attitude. The tone of Olivia’s website and social media is friendly and a bit cheeky. Olivia welcomes us as family. And Olivia listens to her family of customers. She checks in with her audience to learn what they have a hankering for and makes the effort to meet those requests.
An Eye on the Environment
With two young children, Olivia is mindful of the earth their generation will inherit. Olivia’s uses compostable, biodegradable, and recyclable packaging. And they source their produce and meats locally when possible. Garden State Kitchen has employed a composting company since we opened, so all of the food scraps produced in our space are collected and composted.
Starting Up at Garden State Kitchen
As in demand as Olivia’s is, they don’t need commercial kitchen space seven days a week (yet!). Garden State Kitchen keeps their costs down to what they need and use. We have the ranges, the ovens, the charbroiler, the mixers, the sheet pans, and almost all the other appliances and gear you need to start cooking on Day One in our kitchens. We have dry, cold, and frozen storage available. And best yet, we do the dishes and the cleaning. Whether you’re going home for the night or going on vacation, you won’t have a facility to worry about or repairs to arrange. We take care of the kitchens so that you can create!