Freshly® Partners with Renowned Chefs Jet Tila, Kwame Onwuachi, Sean Brock, and Kristen Kish to Launch Chef's Special by Freshly

NEW YORK, March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Freshly Inc., the leading fresh-prepared meal delivery service in the U.S., today announced the launch of Chef's Special by Freshly, a new menu of limited-edition meal collaborations from renowned regional and national restaurant chefs. Designed to bring bold, adventurous eats with trending flavors and unique ingredients to Freshly customers, users can enjoy destination dining for a special night at home with ready-to-eat cuisine from chefs Jet Tila, Kwame Onwuachi, Sean Brock, and Kristen Kish.

Chef's Special by Freshly meals will be available beginning April 5 kicking off with Jet Tila. Each chef's meal will debut for a limited 10-week period as part of Freshly's rotating weekly menu of 35+ meals. The menu will feature:

• April - June 2021: Chef Jet Tila's Kung Pao Steak with Basmati Rice & Toasted Cashews: An elevated yet approachable twist on a classic Asian-American dish. Slices of succulent steak over rice and a bright veggie stir-fry, topped with cashews and Chef Jet and Freshly's signature Kung Pao Sauce.
• June - August 2021: Chef Kwame Onwuachi's Escovitch Steak with Jerk Broccoli, Peppers & Coconut Rice: A modern, meatier take on a traditional Jamaican fish dish. This version features sliced steak and the traditional escovitch accompaniments, plus sides of house-roasted mini sweet peppers, jerk broccoli, and caramelized onion coconut rice.
• August - October 2021: Chef Sean Brock's Oven-Roasted Pork Chop
• October 2021 - January 2022: Chef Kristen Kish's Sliced Beef Brisket

All meal concepts developed by the chefs were built from their own unique story — from celebrating culinary heritage to regional cuisine, ingredient spotlights, and cultural identity. Like all Freshly meals, Chef's Special by Freshly entrees arrive already prepared and can simply be heated in the microwave for three minutes with no chopping, cooking, or cleaning required. Meals are single-serve and built on a foundation of better-for-you, whole-food ingredients.

"In the past year, there's been a steady increase in interest for craft and artisanal food from consumers looking to liven up their pandemic pantries. This appetite for authentic food experiences only continues to grow as consumer tastes and preferences evolve," said Mike Wystrach, Freshly Founder and CEO.

"We're thrilled to welcome this roster of celebrated chefs to the Freshly kitchen to recreate their restaurant-quality meals at scale and give our customers a taste of their cuisine no matter where they are. For this series, we aimed to work with chefs who we were not only inspired from a culinary standpoint but also those who had unique stories to tell and are making a cultural impact in their communities."

"The majority of Americans are eating at home right now rather than dining out, and chefs from all over are getting creative to meet them where they are," said Chef Jet Tila. "With Freshly, it's exciting to have a new platform to bring hundreds of thousands of people access to delicious new cuisine for an elevated experience at home, whether they're in New York City or Nashville, with no cooking required."

As strong believers in the restaurant dining experience and in support of the broader food and beverage industry, timed with the launch, Freshly is proud to support the critical work of the James Beard Foundation's Open For Good campaign with a donation that will help independent restaurants across America survive the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 crisis, rebuild better, and thrive for the long term.

The launch of Chef's Special by Freshly comes on the heels of Freshly recently being acquired by Nestlé USA, the launch of FreshlyFit, and a year of monumental growth for the company. In the past few months, the company opened new facilities in Commerce, CA, and Austell, GA to increase production and order fulfillment capacity. Currently, Freshly ships more than one million meals per week to customers in 48 states.

Chef's Special by Freshly meals start at $9.98 each (a $1.49 premium upcharge). Customers can order as part of their 4, 6, 10, or 12 weekly Freshly meal plans. For more information visit www.freshly.com.

About the Chefs
Jet Tila
From battling the legendary Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America to opening Encore Hotel in Las Vegas and guiding Anthony Bourdain through many markets and restaurants, Chef Jet Tila is internationally celebrated for his culinary expertise. The Emmy® and James Beard Award nominee, and best-selling author, grew up in the first family of Thai food and later attended both French and Japanese culinary schools. The first-ever chef to represent his country's culture and cuisine, Jet was appointed as the inaugural Culinary Ambassador of Thai Cuisine by the Royal Thai Consulate. As VP of Culinary of Pei Wei Group's restaurants and Managing Partner of Dragon Tiger Noodle Co. in Las Vegas, his food reaches millions of people each year. Chef Jet is currently competing on Food Network's Tournament of Champions, has appeared as a co-host of Iron Chef America, and is a recurring judge on Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, and Guy's Grocery Games. Chef Jet holds six culinary Guinness World Records.

Kwame Onwuachi
Kwame Onwuachi is a James Beard Award-winning chef, and author of the critically acclaimed memoir "Notes from a Young Black Chef," which is being turned into a feature film by A24. Kwame's resume is incomparable: he has been named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs, Esquire Magazine's 2019 Chef of the Year, and is a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes. He's also been featured on Time's 100 Next List and has been named the most important Chef in America by the San Francisco Chronicle. Onwuachi trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York City and has opened five restaurants before turning thirty; including the groundbreaking Afro-Caribbean restaurant, Kith/Kin, in Washington, D.C. Next up, Kwame will appear as a judge on season 18 of Top Chef this coming April 2021. He first appeared as a contestant on the show in season 13. Kwame currently serves as Food & Wine's executive producer.

Sean Brock 
Raised in rural Virginia, Sean Brock is a chef and restauranteur who has been involved in the repatriation of the Southern pantry and cuisine for the past 20 years. In 2010, he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, and is a four-time finalist for Outstanding Chef, as well as a three-time finalist for Rising Star Chef. His first cookbook, Heritage, is a New York Times Bestseller and winner of the 2015 James Beard Award for the American Cooking category. In 2019, Brock released SOUTH, the highly anticipated follow-up to his first cookbook, which was nominated for a James Beard Award and also became a New York Times Bestseller. Sean owns and operates three Nashville-based restaurants – The Continental, a nouvelle approach to classic American fare featuring renditions of hotel dining and continental cuisine; Joyland, an ode to the heyday of fast food located in East Nashville; and prepares to open his flagship restaurant, Audrey.

Kristen Kish
Chef Kristen Kish is best known for a modern yet playful culinary style that mixes her midwestern background with local, seasonal, and international flavors including inspiration from a French and Italian cooking background. Paired with her love of travel, her experience has helped her gain an outlook on how people cook to tell their story. After working in several high-profile restaurants, in October 2017, Kristen launched her first cookbook, Kristen Kish Cooking, and the following year partnered with Sydell group to launch her first restaurant, Arlo Grey in Austin, TX. Kristen competed on Bravo's Top Chef Season 10 where she won the coveted title, becoming the second female chef to win. She was co-host of Travel Channel's 36 Hours, where she brought The New York Times' hit newspaper column to television. Currently, Kish is co-host of TruTv's Fast Foodies and will be part of a rotating judging and dining panel on season 18 of Bravo's Top Chef, set to air in spring of 2021.  

About Freshly Inc.:
Freshly is a weekly subscription service delivering fresh, chef-cooked meals directly to customers' doors that can be heated and served in three minutes. All that is needed is a microwave, fork, and plate to get a satisfying lunch or dinner on the table. With a corporate mission to break down the barriers to healthy eating, Freshly believes that taste and health don't need to be compromised for convenience. Freshly's food philosophy is centered on less sugar, less processed, and more nutrients. All meals are gluten-free and single-serve for effortless portion control. Developed by chefs and nutritionists, the menu features better-for-you versions of classic comfort foods with smart ingredient swaps. Freshly makes eating better easier than ever, one box at a time. Headquartered in New York, Freshly has operations in Phoenix, Arizona; Linden, New Jersey; Savage, Maryland; Austell, Georgia; and Commerce, California. To learn more about Freshly, visit www.freshly.com. 

About the James Beard Foundation: 
The James Beard Foundation promotes Good Food For Good™. For more than 30 years, the James Beard Foundation has highlighted the centrality of food culture in our daily lives. Through the variety of industry programs that educate and empower leaders in our community, the Foundation has asserted the power of food to drive behavior, culture, and policy change. The organization is committed to giving chefs a voice and the tools they need to make the world more sustainable, equitable, and delicious for everyone. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the James Beard Foundation launched the Open for Good campaign to ensure that independent restaurants not only survive but that the industry is able to rebuild stronger than before. For more information, subscribe to the digital newsletter Beard Bites and follow @beardfoundation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. The James Beard Foundation is a national not-for-profit 501©(3) organization based in New York City.

SOURCE Freshly Inc.

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