Together, with professionals

“Find out what people want and sell it to them” is an American proverb. The concept described below is a perfect example of this principle being applied. According to surveys, almost one half of working Americans still have no idea about where they will get their dinner, late in the afternoon. A significant proportion of households make such decisions at the last moment. Many products and services are based on this trend. The restaurant chain Dream Dinners and many independent restaurants offer a do it yourself service, which allows “guests” to choose from a dozen main dishes and desserts and to make a reservation. Clean, sliced materials, kitchen space and equipment, including recipes with step by step instructions are provided for the guests, who prepare dishes for themselves and take the end product home. Time is saved on shopping and cleaning up. Preparing dishes would take about two hours, but if tasks are divided among guests, this can be reduced considerably. Prices depend on the materials used and the time required for preparation, but even the highest prices are far below those charged by conventional restaurants. This type of service, launched five years ago is now also available in a franchise system. Over 80 restaurants of this kind operate at the moment. There are people who cook for a month in advance and keep dishes frozen in the refrigerator. There are others who take their friends cooking, turning this activity into a kind of social program. Many people are grateful for enhancing their knowledge of gastronomy, since they are told what to do by professionals. No guarantee for success exists. Some restaurants succeed, while others fail. However, an increasing number of people are open to learning from chefs and cooking is also an increasingly popular form of “team building” in Hungary as well.