
They called the owners and appreciators of the self-made works childish and “ morons.” Art, they said, is more than filling in lines.

These services have been compared to another kit-based craze-paint-by-numbers. In the mid-1950s, critics groused that paint-by-numbers paintings outnumbered original art on American walls. This commitment is-according to conversations with customers and a search of reviews and social media posts-fulfilled. Making a satisfying meal is a matter of chopping, reading, and eating. This is up from last year, when the company was shipping just half a million meal prep kits a month. Combine that with competitors like Plated and Hello Fresh, and the trend is clear a significant number of people are cooking from kits that take the grocery shopping and guesswork out of cooking.Įach of the companies offers a similar promise of good-tasting meals that aren’t too fatty (they have calorie limits) and take only about 30 minutes to prepare.

But the business of selling Americans everything it takes to make a home-cooked meal is booming.īlue Apron, a company that creates and delivers kits of recipes and ingredients, now sends out three million build-it-yourself meals a month. The number of meals cooked in American homes is declining.
