Pure Meal Prep San Diego: Fine dining on the run - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Ask chef Brett Dudley what’s most important about a good meal, and he’ll give you a simple answer: “Everything.”

“The ingredients, the taste, the plating,” he says.

In the summer of 2018, he and his wife, Cassie, launched a meal prep company after months of fits and starts test-driving their business concept from their apartment.

Today, the culinary trifecta of ingredients, taste and plating still figures quite prominently in how Brett approaches his work as co-owner and executive chef of Pure Meal Prep San Diego.

“When we first started,” Cassie says, “we were making a lot of meals for body builders, and they wanted plain chicken. But that’s not who Brett is. To make something plain was almost embarrassing for him. He wanted to make a meal that was beautiful and tasty.”

Pure Meal Prep began as a favor to Brett’s brother, Michael, a fitness buff who wanted meals but didn’t want to cook them. Soon, through word of mouth, Brett began making meals not only for his brother but his friends as well.

“He had friends in the fitness industry who were looking for clean, healthy meals, so I was doing it on the side,” says Brett, who worked for a defense contractor back then. “We started cooking meals in our own tiny little 500-square-foot apartment in North Park.”

New York steak grounded into a burger and mixed bacon, caramelized onions and fresh parsley.

Cassie, meanwhile, began posting his meals on Instagram “as kind of a ‘Oh, look at what Brad’s cooking today.’ People were liking the posts and commenting and asking, ‘Where can I get meals like this? Do you sell meals?’”

That’s how Pure Meal Prep San Diego was born. Their goal all along was to slowly grow the business so as not to overwhelm the kitchen. That’s exactly what they did, expanding their list of clientele through social media, TV appearances and face-to-face visits at fitness centers around town.

The coronavirus pandemic ramped up safety measures in the kitchen, with temperature checks every morning, masks for everyone and 20-minute sanitizing sessions every other hour.

“We gained a substantial growth in business when stay-at-home orders went into effect and are still growing,” says Brett, who adds that pickups at the kitchen are no longer offered and contactless delivery has been implemented.

A few days ago, they left East County for a new location in Sorrento Valley — in a space with their own kitchen and soon-to-open Caché Cafe that will serve contemporary American menu, catering to lunch and early dinner crowds. A second group of staff will be hired to complement the current roster of eight cooks who chop, grill, bake and plate hundreds of meals every Saturday for Sunday delivery by nine drivers. They deliver meals from Oceanside to San Ysidro between 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Dudley, who was born and raised in San Diego, learned a lot about food and cooking from his mother. His first job was at “a little French bistro in Scripps Ranch,” he says. “I started there, and just fell in love with cooking and never stopped.”

Many years later, he met Cassie. They both worked at Smoking Goat and One Door North in North Park. She was a manager, and he worked in the kitchen. That combination proved to be a harbinger of good things to come.

“We love the food industry and have a passion for it,” he says. “That’s what makes us such a great team.”

Spinach ravioli, filled with fennel ground beef, pan-seared shrimp marinated with fresh lemon zest.

They consider themselves foodies, and that’s a big part of how they approach the business.

“Our business strategy all along was to reach healthy-minded people who didn’t have time to cook and shop but still appreciated good food,” Cassie says. “People who liked fine dining but on the run.”

Their menus, which change weekly, feature several plans, including lean and keto. Recent meal plans included dishes like grilled garlic pepper flank steak over sweet potato mash, charred seasonal vegetables with chili aioli. Or herb-crusted wild caught salmon over rice, grilled seasonal vegetables finished with lemon cream sauce. And Taco Tuesdays? How about braised short ribs topped with microgreens.

“Everything is made fresh,” Brett says, “from pastas to raviolis to hamburger buns.”

Even the hamburger buns? Yes. A quick look at the company’s Instagram page (@puremealprepsd, with nearly 12,000 followers) reveals a kitchen busy making homemade hamburger buns, guajillo braised empanadas and shrimp-stuffed raviolis.

“It’s definitely not the boring chicken and rice and vegetable,” Cassie says with a chuckle.

Cassie, who handles the business side, knows well enough to let Brett’s creativity loose in the kitchen, but every now and then, she chimes in with a gentle nudge: “Shrimp-stuffed ravioli? Can we pull that off this week?”

Brett’s answer is always “yes.”

“Look,” he says, “we’ve gone way past our expectations. We made mistakes in the beginning, but we learned from them. We grew from them, and that’s what helped us keep going. It’s humbling, but at the end of the day, we love what we’re doing.”

“Because we worked together together before,” Cassie says, “we really enjoy working together now. We each have a respect for one another to let us drive in our own lanes. He respects my knowledge in marketing and business, and I respect his knowing his menu.”

Brett adds: “I’m fighting so hard to be different from the typical meal prep company that I really do want restaurant meals at an affordable price.”

And that means making himself worry about things like ingredients, taste and plating.

“Because we come from that industry, it’s hard for us to act like a normal meal prep company. We’ll never think the same way,” he says. “It’s what makes us different from everyone else.”

For more about Pure Meal Prep San Diego, go to puremealprepsd.com

Grilled salmon burger

On a potato bun served with a refreshing summer salad and house champagne vinaigrette

FOR SALMON BURGER

1 8-ounce salmon filet

Three tablespoons dijon mustard

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 cup scallions finely chopped

1 tablespoon zested lemon

Pinch of cayenne

1 cup panko

1 bunch minced fresh parsley

3 cloves finely chopped fresh garlic

Two potato buns, sliced

1. With a knife, cut salmon into equal parts.

2. Add salmon to a food processor and pulse until it turns to a paste, and then transfer to a bowl.

3. Add mayonnaise, scallions, lemon zest, cayenne, panko, parsley and garlic to salmon. Using your hands, mix all ingredients together.

4. Form two equal patties.

5. Season patties with salt and pepper.

6. Heat olive oil in a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the patties (in batches if necessary) and cook until browned on the bottom (about 3 to 4 minutes), adjusting the heat if necessary. Turn and cook until the other side is browned and the patties feel springy in the center (3 to 4 more minutes).

FOR SIDE SALAD

2 cups organic spring mix

1/4 cup julienned red onions

1/2 cup chopped fresh strawberries

1 cup walnuts

Add all salad ingredients to a bowl, and toss; set aside

CHAMPAGNE VINAIGRETTE

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

2 cloves fresh garlic

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

4 tablespoons champagne vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup avocado oil

Black pepper and kosher salt to taste

1. In an immersion blender, add mustard, garlic, thyme, champagne vinegar and honey.

2. Turn on blender and slowly add in olive oil to emulsify all ingredients, creating dressing (sauce should start to thicken). You don’t want your sauce to become too thick. If this happens, you can add a little bit of cold water. Be careful, though: You do not want the sauce to separate and break.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

On a plate, add your cooked salmon patties to your potato buns, add the spring mix side salad to your plate. Drizzle salad with vinaigrette and serve.

KITCHEN ESSENTIALS

A sharp knife is a must.
A blender: I prefer something like a Vitamix, but your average little blender will do the trick.
Some good kosher salt and fresh crushed black pepper should be in everyone’s pantry.

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