A Tale of Two Dinners
Cook in or takeout? Barb
reviews Bertolli's new frozen meals to restaurant takeout.
It’s a decision that
millions of couples make every night. This “dinner for 2” occasion
accounts for much of the restaurant segment dollar. Is it possible to deliver a
restaurant-quality experience at home? Bertolli is
trying.
They’ve launched a line of frozen “Skillet Dinners For 2”, priced at the stratospheric retail $7.99-$8.99 tier. I’m particularly interested in how they do, because I’ve long urged clients to push consumers’ pricing zones of comfort. My argument is that consumers will pay for products that really deliver. I set out to determine if the Bertolli products do.
As a former restaurant reviewer for the Mobil Travel and Slow Food Guides, I tried to level the playing field as best I could. I tasted 3 of the Bertolli meals against similar varieties that I ordered “to go” from a California chain called Pasta Pomodoro (PP). (Wendy’s owns about 30% of Pasta Pomodoro.)
The Bertolli products take 10 minutes to cook in a skillet. Ingredients are individually quick frozen (IQF) and sauce comes frozen in cubes. You have to stir occasionally to assure even heating, but 10 minutes later, the meal is done. There’s a skillet, lid, and utensil that needs to be cleaned. With take-out food, this is avoided. But ordering a meal requires calling ahead and going to get it. You can stock up on the Bertolli frozen meals, and a trip to the freezer is much easier than a trip to a restaurant.
The Bertolli vegetables were more vibrant in color than PP’s but they also had a slight frozen (syneresis) weepy texture. Still, the quality was much better than most frozen meals. I preferred the proteins in the Bertolli products. The large bias-cut slices of Italian sausage, strips of whole muscle chicken, and shrimp were simply better than PP’s.
Bertolli has nailed pasta texture. The linguine was outstanding—and until now, unavailable in IQF meals. PP’s long pastas were mushy by comparison. The Bertolli food came out of the skillet looking great and piping hot—something you cannot control with takeout. Both delivered high-quality sauces made with premium ingredients like cream, pecorino romano, extra virgin olive oil, and big chunks of tomato. I was astounded at how good Bertolli’s sauce cubes (!) were. I even abused mine to see how they’d fare after a freeze-thaw-freeze cycle and didn’t experience any problems.
The big, unanswered question is whether food snobs like me--who are not regular users of frozen meals-- will find the Bertolli products, and whether regular users of frozen meals will be willing to pay restaurant prices in the grocery store. But, can a frozen product deliver a restaurant-quality experience? The answer is a resounding yes. Bertolli has done it.
For info on Bertolli:
http://www.bertolli.us/dinnerfortwo/index.cfm?t=Our%20Varieties
http://www.bertolli.us/indexlg.cfm?cl_id=&interface=2&landing=4
For info on Pasta Pomodoro:
http://www.wendys-invest.com/pastapomodoro.php
http://www.pastapomodoro.com/
They’ve launched a line of frozen “Skillet Dinners For 2”, priced at the stratospheric retail $7.99-$8.99 tier. I’m particularly interested in how they do, because I’ve long urged clients to push consumers’ pricing zones of comfort. My argument is that consumers will pay for products that really deliver. I set out to determine if the Bertolli products do.
As a former restaurant reviewer for the Mobil Travel and Slow Food Guides, I tried to level the playing field as best I could. I tasted 3 of the Bertolli meals against similar varieties that I ordered “to go” from a California chain called Pasta Pomodoro (PP). (Wendy’s owns about 30% of Pasta Pomodoro.)
The Bertolli products take 10 minutes to cook in a skillet. Ingredients are individually quick frozen (IQF) and sauce comes frozen in cubes. You have to stir occasionally to assure even heating, but 10 minutes later, the meal is done. There’s a skillet, lid, and utensil that needs to be cleaned. With take-out food, this is avoided. But ordering a meal requires calling ahead and going to get it. You can stock up on the Bertolli frozen meals, and a trip to the freezer is much easier than a trip to a restaurant.
The Bertolli vegetables were more vibrant in color than PP’s but they also had a slight frozen (syneresis) weepy texture. Still, the quality was much better than most frozen meals. I preferred the proteins in the Bertolli products. The large bias-cut slices of Italian sausage, strips of whole muscle chicken, and shrimp were simply better than PP’s.
Bertolli has nailed pasta texture. The linguine was outstanding—and until now, unavailable in IQF meals. PP’s long pastas were mushy by comparison. The Bertolli food came out of the skillet looking great and piping hot—something you cannot control with takeout. Both delivered high-quality sauces made with premium ingredients like cream, pecorino romano, extra virgin olive oil, and big chunks of tomato. I was astounded at how good Bertolli’s sauce cubes (!) were. I even abused mine to see how they’d fare after a freeze-thaw-freeze cycle and didn’t experience any problems.
The big, unanswered question is whether food snobs like me--who are not regular users of frozen meals-- will find the Bertolli products, and whether regular users of frozen meals will be willing to pay restaurant prices in the grocery store. But, can a frozen product deliver a restaurant-quality experience? The answer is a resounding yes. Bertolli has done it.
For info on Bertolli:
http://www.bertolli.us/dinnerfortwo/index.cfm?t=Our%20Varieties
http://www.bertolli.us/indexlg.cfm?cl_id=&interface=2&landing=4
For info on Pasta Pomodoro:
http://www.wendys-invest.com/pastapomodoro.php
http://www.pastapomodoro.com/
Posted: Thu - May 12, 2005 at 05:33 PM
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Published On: May 12, 2005 05:37 PM
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Published On: May 12, 2005 05:37 PM