FAQs: How do I Reheat My Meals???

We've been getting some questions recently on how to reheat your Top Chef meals after they're delivered so we wanted to put all the answers to some of our most frequently asked questions in one place. We've also got a great video about reheating your food that we'll link to at the end. Now, here's how to have the perfect Top Chef Meals experience!

First things first: we ABSOLUTELY recommend that you defrost your meals “slowly” either overnight in the refrigerator, or if you forget to do that, simply defrost on your countertop for ~ 1 hour.

Secondly, our preferred heating method is the oven as it achieves superior results for most dishes. Honestly, it's hard to have a great microwaved meal unless you're talking about a casserole type dish with everything mashed together, not gonna lie. That's not to say that you CAN'T heat Top Chef meals in your microwave – you can. If you DO choose to use your microwave, then heat SLOWLY. Heat for the shortest recommended time. Then heat in 30 second increments until the meal is just hot but not overcooked.

Third, if you're heating a meal that has meat, the above microwave heating instructions are even MORE important. Microwaving most meats can make them tougher, especially if heated beyond the “just hot” stage. This is because microwaves heat the “moisture” inside the very center of the meat and cause it to run or steam out from the center leaving the meat dry and tough.

Even when it comes to heating in the oven, different foods heat at different rates and you can achieve tremendous results by breaking up meals and heating different parts separately (just like reheating Thanksgiving leftovers!). Each meal comes with it's own set of reheating instructions on the package and you can also find a comprehensive list of reheating and storing instructions for all of our meal types HERE.

Want to learn more? This video breaks down our whole process from freezing your meal before delivery till what you need to do. Have a go and if you more questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us anytime!