At Your Door

Healthy eating is made easy by a new business.

A

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

bout 18 months ago, Scott Marx sold ads for a golf magazine
and Philip Ross was a labor lawyer.
Now, they deliver food.
When Ross, 41, of Huntington Woods was told by a Los
Angeles friend about the "Diet of the Stars" — a company that deliv-
ered healthy gourmet food to Hollywood celebrities — Ross thought
the idea might work in the Birmingham-Bloomfield area.
So Ross, who first met Marx, 40, in Oak Park when they were 3
years old, made contact.
They hadn't seen each other since high school, said Ross, "I had
-st called him up to see what he was doing, and we started talking.
-w months later, he decided to jump on board.
eter some research, we started talking to some fitness people in
_ea — and it started to make sense."
"No one else was doing it at the time," Marx said. "We felt that if
w 'looked up with the right food preparer, we might have some-
thing special."
Enter William Hall, executive chef of Papa Joe's Market in
Birmingham, who now spends 8-10 hours on weekdays and a bit less
on weekends, preparing each day's meals for 60-70 "ents.
Healthy Gourmet Delivery brings a one-day supp ,o each client
for about $40 a day.
Philip Ross and Scott Marx show one of their coolers and three meals.
"We use two programs, the Zone diet and the low-carb program,"
Marx said. "Every morning, our clients wake up and on the front
cooler, said Ross.
porch is a cooler with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and healthy snacks
A typical breakfast would be salmon scrambled eggs with chives and
included."
cream
cheese, plus grilled orange.
It's all high-end food that only needs to be warmed up, he said. "It's Angus
A
sample
lunch: grilled sea scallops with Asian cellophane noodle salad.
beef when it's a beef dish, fresh fish like sea bass or scallops, Bell and Evans
Dinner
could
be grilled Angus mini filet mignon, with sauteed summer
chicken, no hormones no antibiotics, and a really nice, rotating menu."
zucchini.
The company has four weeks' of meals, and a menu is placed in every
A snack might be layered fresh berries with yogurt, pine nuts
and almonds.
"Our low-carbohydrate diet has 20 to 30 grams of carbs a day.
The Zone diet is 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 30
percent favorable fat," Marx said.
Hall selects the menu, three cooks prepare the food and four
delivery persons pick up the coolers at Papa Joe's by 10 p.m.
"Technically, we have to have the food ready by 10 p.m., but I
like to see everything that goes in there, so I have it ready by 7
p.m.," Hall said.
"We take feedback from our clients. If something isn't good,
we'll take it off the menu. If they love something, we'll make
sure they see it a little more often," said Marx. "There's no con-
tract to sign, either. Some people do it by the month, some by
the day. Most people do it at least two weeks at a time."
The company has served 400 clients since opening last July,
and six or seven have been customers since day one. Ross and
Marx are both in the office during the mornings, trade off
evening shifts, but both log about 65 hours a week.
tia
"We do about 60-70 meals a week now, and are aiming for
100-150 by year's end," Marx said. ❑

Healthy Gourmet Delivery: (248) 646-9700 or
www.healthygourmetdelivery.com

Healthy Gourmet Delivery's sauteed chicken breast dinner.

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3/19
2004

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