CHICAGO — You could go cart to cart, and from store to store, with fellow grocery shoppers in the mad dash leading up to Thanksgiving Day. But Lior Lavy wants to save you the trouble.
Lavy is co-founder and chief operating officer of Artizone, an online market stocked with artisanal, local products. This year, the site is offering ready-to-cook Thanksgiving meals for delivery citywide. The deadline to order is Wednesday.
Each of the four packages — traditional, vegan, gluten-free and one themed around Girl & the Goat chef Stephanie Izard — includes the main ingredients, recipes and a detailed timeline for how to tackle it all.
Janet Fuller says if you've got family with special diets, they've got you covered:
The meals specify what, if any, pantry items you need from your own kitchen — a cup of flour, for example. The higher-priced options include everything, down to the salt.
So, yes, this assumes the buyer can cook, or wants to. But Lavy said the recipes, even Izard's, are easy.
"Anyone can do it," he said. "With the exception of if you don't have the oven to accommodate the turkey. Then you have a problem."
Last Thanksgiving, Lavy made a gluten-free dinner at his Highland Park home because of a guest with celiac disease. That made him think more people with special dietary needs would welcome a ready-to-cook kit at their doorstep, procured with a few clicks of the mouse instead of several trips to the store.
"I said if we're going to provide a gluten-free one, why not do a vegan one and more?" he said. "We really tried to make it simple, not in the sense of tasty, but in the sense of approachable."
The options start at $79.99 for the "traditional" package serving two to four people: turkey breast, whipped potatoes, candied yams, green beans, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. The priciest option, at $385.99, is for Thanksgiving a la Izard, which serves up to 12 people and includes six bottles of wine.
The turkeys are from Gepperth's Meat Market in Lincoln Park. The Izard option uses the chef's line of sauces and rubs, which Artizone sells.
The meals are delivered one or two days before Thanksgiving, depending on which option you choose.
"It's like a crash course in making your own Thanksgiving dinner," Lavy said.
A la carte items for those who aren't cooking the full meal or don't want to step foot in a store include vegan gravy from Karl's Craft Soup and desserts from Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits in Logan Square and Auntie Vee's in northwest suburban Roselle.
Lavy started the company with fellow Israeli investors in Dallas in 2011, adding the Chicago site in 2012. About 100 Chicago food makers are partnered with Artizone.
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