Tallahassee has a new foodie service that just arrived on the scene that allows you to cook local restaurant prepped meals, right along with a video featuring the restaurant’s chef! I just experienced StayingIn for myself, and it was a tasty, fun adventure!
Will Miles, a recent FSU graduate and former FSU basketball player started this company with two of his teammates and a friend during their basketball season. The teammates came up the idea while eating tacos in College Town, wishing they could recreate the experience at home.
They brought on two other partners, and have been growing the idea ever since. Currently, they are a startup, trying to add on as many local restaurants as they can to their service this summer, then they will launch to a more full-scale meal kit delivery service throughout Tallahassee and Orlando.
How It Works
My first attempt at StayingIn was with one of Blu Halo’s most popular dishes, their Triple P Chicken (Parmesan, Panko and Poblano) with a side of mashed potatoes, and acadian salad with lime vinaigrette dressing. It was so fun to cook along with Blu Halo’s Chef Mikey in a video featuring their recipe at StayingIn’s website.
- Order from StayingInOnline.com – pickup or currently delivery is free.
- Orders placed today will be delivered between 5-8pm the next day. If you’re not home, leave a cooler on your front porch.
- Unpack all of your ingredients, find the recipe video at StayingInOnline.com, and cook along with your restaurant’s chef.
So easy, and so fun. Thanks to the prepped ingredients, you’ll save a pile of money by not wasting extra, left over ingredients. No matter how hard I try, I’m notorious for waste.
By far, the biggest benefit of this service to me is that I live on the far, opposite side of town from Blu Halo, so there is no way I would opt for takeout from there because it would fall flat in travel.
Their current free delivery option encouraged me to dive in on the experience right away. I love that I was able to easily cook everything myself, getting that “fresh out of the restaurant’s oven” taste just right, at home.
Cook Along With Blu Halo’s Chef Mikey
Another fun perk of the experience, you’re always going to learn a thing or two when cooking along with a pro chef. Courtesy of Chef Mikey’s cooking tips – I learned (maybe everyone knows this?):
- When breading meat in a flour/egg/panko mixture, use one hand for the dry ingredients, and the other hand for wet ingredients, so it doesn’t all begin to clump on your hands and in the prep dishes, wasting ingredients.
- I also learned, your oil on the skillet isn’t ready to sauté until the oil starts to move around. Sprinkle a little flour in the skillet, and if it’s starts to bubble and dance, then you’re ready to sear.
- Slowly whisk fruit juice and oil for a perfectly blended vinaigrette dressing.
The Triple P Chicken from Blu Halo was amazing. Since I wasn’t at the restaurant ordering my usual steak or seafood, this gave me the opportunity to try something “new to me”. It’s definitely one of their best sellers for a reason.
Disclosure – this is a sponsored post, however, I did pay for the meal kit myself so that I could document the experience personally in this post, along with custom images. All opinions are my own.
