Memphis has always been a city of innovation: music, hotel chains, grocery stores –– the list goes on and on. Now, Collierville is stepping onto the scene, helping to change the way that delivery meal kits are done. 

FIX, a local meal kit company launched in July 2019, follows the popularity of many meal kit delivery services before it, including BlueApron and Hello Fresh. However, FIX is determined to stand out from the crowd.

Unlike other delivery services, FIX does not require a subscription, has no minimum number of ordered meals and can be ordered the day before you need the meal kit delivered. 

The idea came from Wayne Culbreth, who noticed during his MBA degree that 90% of meal kit customers cancelled their subscriptions within a year, often citing delivery dates and advance order deadlines as their complaints. FIX is supposed to, well, fix those issues.  

FIX offers recipes for cooks at all skill levels, as well as vegetarian and family friendly options. Meals can be ordered for anywhere between two and six people, and always include fresh, high-quality affordable ingredients. 

Chef James “Jimmy” Gentry, co-owner of P.O. Press Public House & Provisions, was chosen to help craft “featured” meal kit recipes. “Wayne [Culbreth] is a fixture at the restaurant, and he asked me to help set up their base kitchen… from there, it snowballed into ‘Do you want to be a part of this?’ and I said yes, because I like being part of something new and exciting,” Gentry said. 

Some are replicas of P.O. Press’ specialities, such as their corn mash, that Gentry has recrafted for home kitchens and those with more basic cooking skills. When designing the recipes, Gentry kept in mind skill level. He said, “I wanted people to get the largest amount of bang for the smallest amount of effort –– a flavorful dish that’s easy to make, but also something that’s also good for you.” 

Cara Greenstein, who runs the award-winning Memphis-based blog Caramelized, also contributed featured recipes. Her blog started as a college assignment in 2012, when she did a series of blog posts about Austin, Texas’s food scene. “Once I put pen to paper, I just couldn’t stop. I fell in love with the blogging process,” Greenstein said. 

Since then, she’s been non-stop writing about food and fashion, so it’s no surprise that her dishes are both delicious and beautiful. For her recipes, she picked fan favorites from her blog archives. “I try to make every recipe approachable… these first ten FIX contributions felt super reflective of my style,” Greenstein said. 

Both Greenstein and Gentry issued similar advice when it comes to their top cooking tip: keep it simple. “People tend to overcomplicate cooking, so don’t overthink it,” Gentry said. Greenstein agreed, “Don’t overdo it –– sometimes less is more.” Both see FIX as a way to ease people into the kitchen, with fresh, delicious and homemade food acting as its own reward. 

As for what’s next for FIX, they’ve got big plans. Gentry said, “[Culbreth] has been talking about using locally grown produce, and has got great ideas for automation.” According to online sources, FIX hopes to expand to Nashville soon and from there, the rest of the world is theirs to conquer. 

More Info: https://www.eatfix.com/

by Regan Hewitt

Photo Credits: Cara Greenstein