Polenta lasagna comes from Grace's Kitchen, which promises restaurant-quality food in gourmet dinners for two.

By Teresa F. Lindeman
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette In a McMurray strip center between a storefront offering medical tests and a pizza place, a bright yellow sign draws shoppers to a place called Super Suppers. Just below the name, the sign helpfully explains, "Your answer to ... 'What's for dinner?' "

Here, in perhaps an hour, the soccer moms and the baseball dads, the single guys and the empty nesters can put together a week's worth of dinners such as Meatball Minestrone Soup or Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce using recipes already chosen and ingredients already chopped for easy assembly. The meals, costing about $20 apiece, can be tucked in the freezer to cook whenever the occasion calls for a fast dinner.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Debbie Delfine, left, gets help from Super Suppers owner Laura Agostinelli while preparing a dinner at Super Suppers in McMurray. The dinners are prepared at the store and then taken home to be cooked. Click photo for larger image. Related Story: Dinners are solid family fare

Promoters of these easy-meal preparation sites offer them as the answer to many of the hot issues of the day: time-starved parents' stress about making dinner, a way to avoid fast food and to perhaps cut back on childhood obesity. They point to studies touting the benefits of bringing families together at the dinner table.

Those promises, plus the relative ease of buying franchises, has driven an explosion of easy-meal preparation sites across the country. Fort Worth, Texas-based Super Suppers alone has sold nearly 200 franchises since the first site opened in 2002. Seattle-based Dream Dinners has opened 150 locations since that year.

Dozens more have opened around the country under names such as Supper Thyme, Entree Vous and Dinner by Design. A homegrown version called Creative Dinners and More launched a year and a half ago just a few traffic lights north of the new Super Suppers location in McMurray. The owners eventually hope to offer franchises.

Entrepreneur magazine named do-it-yourself meal preparation one of the hottest franchise concepts of 2006. Prices to buy and open a franchises range but the total cost runs between $100,000 and $250,000, lower than for some restaurants that may require more hours and more employees.

The question remains whether these businesspeople are getting in early on something that will have staying power or just catching a fad that won't last.

So far, consumers seem willing to give it a try, something that doesn't surprise Harry Balzer, a Chicago-based food trends analyst with research firm The NPD Group. Still, he cautioned, "You can't confuse our willingness to try new things with those that become a structural part of our lives."

Dinner, of course, has been a major business opportunity since the first person asked, "What are we having?" and the second person looked up startled to see how late it was already.

The car, the suburbs, the two-job families have kept the food industry busy for years, from the invention of the TV dinner to the home-meal replacement offerings at the local grocery store to take-out entrances at restaurants such as Chili's and Bob Evans.

Yet, 77 percent of all meals consumed in America still are made at home, Mr. Balzer said. That represents a huge opportunity for companies that can make the chore easier, offer the right quality and still charge a price consumers are willing to pay.

Sales of frozen food entrees and dinners last year totaled $5.9 billion, according to the American Frozen Food Institute, and companies are trying to sell even more by introducing better quality frozen foods with a wider variety of flavors and ethnic styles.

The easy-meal prep entrepreneurs may have hit upon something that's generally been missing, said Mr. Balzer. Even if people aren't all that excited about the meal assembly process, they do like the idea of having fresh, unprocessed foods to serve.

Super Suppers franchisees Phil and Laurie Agostinelli are hoping that's true. The Agostinellis typify the kind of customers who might use the service. He's been involved in restaurant management for years while she's been driving their three children, now ages 10 to 18, back and forth between their many events.

Part of what the stores are selling, of course, is time. Super Supper founder Judie Byrd estimates using the service can save 20 to 30 hours a month by saving on menu planning, shopping, preparing ingredients and so on.

Mrs. Byrd, who works on recipe development, said the Super Suppers idea was born after cooking classes she taught on making quick dinners proved popular but people wanted something even faster. She and her husband, Bill, have set up a franchising organization that includes a staffer from that other recent franchising phenomenon, fast-workout provider Curves.

In an interview from her Fort Worth home, she said her goal was to relieve mothers of the 3 p.m. guilt of not having something ready to go. "It's not about how good of a cook you are. It's whether you ... can get a home-cooked meal down on the table."

The idea's arrival is certainly timely. Americans are hearing from the health experts, the schools, the insurance companies that they need to eat better. Parents are running to and fro to give their offspring the best possible opportunities, but trying to avoid too many stops at McDonald's. Then there are the empty nesters who don't want to stock their kitchens too deeply.

The media can smell an interesting story, too. Features have popped up on morning TV shows and in numerous newspapers and magazines.

That's where Laurie Agostinelli learned about the concept and began researching franchises last summer. The couple decided the Texas group offered the best support structure and a steady stream of good recipes that will freeze well and keep customers coming back.

They went to headquarters for training in January and opened their 2,400-square-foot location in mid-March. Another franchisee has a location in Monroeville and one is scheduled to open this spring in Cranberry.

A visit to the new McMurray location finds a bright space with gold walls and tile floors. There are several restaurant-style, stainless-steel stations set up to allow customers to assemble the recipes. Offerings change monthly with the entrepreneurs, their children and an employee working to chop the ingredients and walk people through the assembly process.

Carolyn Chuba, of Hickory, came recently with her 13-year-old son, Ryan. He helped measure out the ingredients for Crunchy-Baked Chicken with Seasoned Noodles after having vetoed the Crispy Onion Tilapia with Rice Pilaf as having too many onions.

They know the Agostinellis personally and have been in before to try out the meals. "It was very good," said Ryan, sounding like he might actually mean it. His mom said she likes having options for busy days and likes not having to clean up so many dishes.

At the nearby Creative Dinners site, the atmosphere achieves a homey feel with couches and tables where a group of friends can perhaps bring in a bottle of wine and chat between putting together their meals. Events such as bridal showers and baby showers are welcome at both places.

Co-owner Aimee Schmidt said teachers from a nearby high school come regularly as a group to spend a couple of hours assembling meals for their families.

The dinner assembly concept is not always easy to explain to those unfamiliar with it. The Dinner Pantry, a version that opened in Greensburg in late 2003, closed in December.

In an e-mail in February, co-owner Richard Patterson said things were busy but not busy enough to justify keeping it open. In addition to the hurdle of educating consumers, he said it was hard to convince area moms the time savings justified the expense.

Prices vary. At Super Suppers, six dinners that serve between four to six people cost $109, while Creative Dinners and More charges $119. Some places require a minimum number of meals to be made. The operators estimate the meals average about $3 a serving.

Creative Dinners co-owner Aimee Schmidt agreed that getting the word out had taken a while but she was confident enough of the business that she and her two partners, one of whom is her sister, have opened a second location in Pine.

Mr. Balzer isn't so sure the easy-meal preparation idea really gets at the heart of what Americans want. "I don't think we want to cook at all," he said. "I think we want to say we cook."

The easy-meal preparation operators have accounted for the reality that some people don't want to spend any time in the kitchen.

The stores offer to make meals for those who send in orders, and they have pre-assembled dinners in the freezer for drop-in sales. There's usually an additional fee. If those services take off, Mr. Balzer could eventually see supermarkets trying to get in on the action.

Earlier this year, O'Hara grocer Giant Eagle introduced into some of its stores a new upscale line of frozen dinners that approaches the need to make it easier to prepare meals at home from a slightly different angle. Seattle-based Grace's Kitchen is promising restaurant-quality food in gourmet dinners for two.

The line's vacuum-sealed pouches include instructions on cooking, assembling and plating such meals as Brazilian Seafood Stew with Ciabatta rolls for $16.99 and Polenta Lasagna served with artichoke, olive and walnut pesto saute for $14.99. Here, too, convincing people to pay that much for a non-restaurant meal takes time. Giant Eagle is planning lots of sampling.

If the foods offered through the various services are good enough and live up to the promise of saving precious time, people might accept the costs. Mr. Balzer said time had proven to be something consumers prize. "We'll pay for that time."