Cookunity Preparation Review (2025): Chef-centered Diet
It shouldn’t be It would be amazing if the chicken rab dal plate tasted delicious. This dish is one of my favorite North Indian gravys. It’s a bit of an edge to butter chicken, and it’s a bit spicy and tanjie, but creamy.
What surprised me was that this particular chicken arrived by mail. Specifically, it was packed in Seattle earlier that morning and then appeared at me in Portland, Oregon, in a microwave oven tray from the Cookunity Meal Delivery Service.
The world of prepared meal delivery has become popular these days, and is almost always All major meal kit services I’m participating in the game. Nevertheless, I have learned to ease my expectations when testing ready-to-eat meals. It’s not easy to taste a pre-assembled meal. The problem is moisture. The problem is the microwave. In many cases, it is not a problem that the results are poor.
Photo: Matthew Korfhage
But so far, Cookunity appears to be a major exception. Cookunity is a somewhat newer model of prepared meal delivery services, like a cross between meal services and Doordash. Rather than making recipes in a top-down corporate kitchen, Cookunity is regional. The service will join local chefs and chefs from all over the country and promise to bring restaurant quality meals to your home. (Hello, Jose Garces.)
My chicken rab dal in particular was a lovely success. Basmati rice, which was burning with saffron, maintained its moisture. The small pieces of my thighs were plump and still juicy. The sauce was lightly tangy and a bit fiery, with most of its sweetness coming from the natural sugars of tomatoes and purees. Frankly, it tastes much better than the chicken dishes you get from a (certainly great) Punjabi restaurant located under the street from my house. Still, preparation was just a matter of popping trays in the toaster oven for 12 minutes or three microwaves.
Not all of the dishes at Cookunity were as good as the Lababdar by Seattle Chef Gaurav Raj. I’ll explain that in more detail later. But in that ambition, the pool of culinary talent, and the variety of culinary – Haitian! Indonesia! Filipino! – Cookunity is the best meal delivery service that can still offer the best meals I have tested or tasted.
This is an overview and an important warning.
How CookUnity works
Courtesy of Cookunity
First of all, bad news: Cookunity is not available anywhere. Dining services have exhausted the hub of eight regional committees around the US and Canada: Seattle, LA, Austin, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Miami and Toronto. this Excludes West Virginia and good belts on the plains.