Patrice Cunningham says she remembers opening the kitchen at Gogi Yogi, her first restaurant chef gig, like it was yesterday. And she isn’t that far off. The first Korean BBQ eatery in D.C. proper, with meats she prepared to be smoked on diners’ tabletop grills, was open in Shaw for only six months before COVID-19 forced the restaurant to let most of its staff go. (They’re now operating delivery and carryout service with a smaller team.)
After the initial shock, Cunningham didn’t let circumstances stop her from resuming what she enjoys most: cooking for the city.
“It’s been a rough ride, but I think with everything that is going on, improvising and adjusting to the environment is all you can do,” says Cunningham. “Within one week, all my revenue sources just stopped.”
For the last three weeks, Cunningham has taken orders for homemade meal kits through Instagram and Facebook. She decides the weekly meal, cooks the necessary accoutrements in her home kitchen in Shaw, boxes up all ingredients “right down to the salt and pepper,” creates instructions and a how-to video for wannabe chefs of all levels, and offers free delivery. She hopes the service will not only keep her afloat, but also give people a safe and creative way to cook and eat during quarantine.
“I didn’t want to produce cooked meals because they would lose integrity being delivered, so I decided to put together raw materials for people to make easily at home,” she says.
This week’s option is a $75 “Ultimate Korean BBQ Meal Kit” for two—bulgogi-marinated ribeye or eggplant, Japchae (sweet potato glass noodles and veggies), homemade kimchi, her mother’s garlic potatoes, sticky rice, and dipping sauces. Last week, it was a Korean-style spiced branzino and mushroom risotto ($60). On week two, she sent out slow-roasted pork belly carbonara with homemade pasta, and week one was a braised short rib, garlic asparagus, and avocado cream sauce.
Though there’s been a learning curve with operations, the customer base has grown each week. Cunningham has done 30 weekly kits for the last two rounds, up from 20 the first week, and will expand to 40 if demand increases.
In addition to delivery and takeout service, restaurants have added meal kits to their offerings this month, packing ingredients up with instructions for home preparation. For Asian noodles, Daikaya Group’s Hatoba launched $13 kits this week for Yakisoba noodles, a Japanese stir-fry available in shio, shoyu, or miso flavors. If you’re craving Italian, Officina has pasta (and, separately, burger) kits and Centrolina will deliver pizza dough, homemade tomato sauce, and a ball of mozzarella. Taco Bamba’s $42 kit comes with meat or veggie fillings and a whole bunch of tortillas. (On another note, if you want to drink while you cook, Pom Pom launched Seco Wine for curated bottle packs dropped at your door.)
But unlike the restaurants, Cunningham is a one-woman operation, deciding what she’ll make the weekend before and posting the full menu and pricing details by Wednesday. She takes orders until her supplies run out and delivers Thursday through Sunday.
Before Yogi days, Cunningham got her chef start serving KBBQ pop-up dinners out of her home and group meals through her catering company, Cooking With Patrice, which she still runs. Though the private events—most for corporate businesses—have dried up in the last month, Cunningham’s wholesale distributors agreed to deliver to her house instead of Union Kitchen, where she caters. She had access to all the supplies. Her sister-in-law agreed to help with delivery. Social media provided the platform.
“The inspiration comes from what I was doing before all of this, when I was just hosting weekly dinner parties at my house and trying to become a chef,” says Cunningham. “I’ve been socially distanced, so the meal kits are safer than some other options. I just want to put out good, restaurant-quality food since we’re all shut down. I’m bringing that experience into your own kitchen.”
To brainstorm each kit, Cunningham thinks about the foods she enjoys most. She attributes her love of cooking Asian fusion to her Korean mother, who met her African-American father while he was in the army. She was born and raised in D.C. and spent much of her childhood in the kitchen, handing off ingredients and learning both Korean and American recipes from her mother. Books and Gordon Ramsay master classes were her other teachers for basic cooking techniques.
Cunningham now puts her own twist on traditional Korean flavors without “losing the authenticity” of her mother’s recipes. She makes her Korean short ribs with French braising techniques or serves her Italian risotto beside Korean fish. Though her mother isn’t prepping the meal kits with her, the two cooks still talk food over the phone.
The kits’ DIY element has Cunningham’s personal touch. Every week, she teases the full dish with Instagram live videos that show her process. She rolls out homemade pasta from yolk and flour, cleans fish heads, chops fresh thyme, and writes personalized messages on every bag. The kits sometimes come with a roll of toilet paper or other extras she thinks people might need.
Cunningham also sees the kits as a culinary learning opportunity for people, giving those who are stuck at home something to look forward to if they’re bored. Most ingredients are chopped, de-boned, portioned, or prepped for ease, but she sends proteins and vegetables raw so the plates will be as fresh as possible. She says customers post photos and videos as they hone their technical skills—braising short ribs to perfection for four hours, for example—which gave her the idea to add on a free Zoom cooking class for kids every Friday at 3 p.m.
As far as longevity, Cunningham is taking the kits one week at a time. Once she can resume normal operations at Union Kitchen, she may try to ramp up production into a full-time gig or have a menu with more than one option each week. In the meantime, 10 percent of the meal kit proceeds go to make care packages for service industry colleagues with cleaning products, toothpaste, baby wipes, and a simple dinner.
“Now that I’m out of the day-to-day hustle and bustle of the industry, being back in the kitchen in this way is sort of refreshing,” says Cunningham. “It’s been so amazing to see some of the plates that come together. Sometimes I’m like, ‘Wow, that looks better than mine.’”
To order meal kits from Cooking With Patrice, find details on her Instagram or Facebook account.
