Storing and Heating

Top Chef Meals are all prepared fresh to order, and flash frozen the night before delivery so they arrive safe and ready to eat at your convenience. NO preservatives, chemicals or trans fats.

Completely defrost (thaw) your meals prior to heating. We all know the Microwave is a very unforgiving rapid method to prepare your food. Microwaves come in all different powers making firm reheating times extremely challenging. It heats very rapidly, but it can very quickly over cook any or all components of your dish. That’s why we offer some helpful tips below.

Better Reheated Method:

Heat your meals the LEAST amount of time to get just hot enough.  Do this by initially heating your meal for half the time indicated and then heat in small increments of 15 to 30 seconds at a time and checking each time if your meal is hot enough.

Best "Ideal" Reheating Method:

For perfectly reheated meals you may want to separate the components of the meal out of our trays and add them back into the tray or a plate throughout the cooking process. Some components of your meal needs a different amount of time to reach optimal flavor without overcooking. Perfect reheating, requires a layered approach to heating, starting with the densest item first, then adding the next component with less density and finally adding the loosest, least dense item (often the vegetable) during the last 30 seconds of heating. If you prefer your meats medium rare, then you will need to use this layered approach described above, and heat in small 15 to 30 second increments until all the parts of your meal are hot without any overcooking.