Friday, December 5, 2008

The Truth About 'Dream Dinner'

By Peter Hallway

The term 'dream dinner' may bring to concious mind a hone date at a candlelit table, violin music in the background, with the meal capped by a engagement ring concealed in the champaign glass. Having said that, dream dinner is even bigger and quickly spreading from mouth to mouth. It involves prepared menus and places where people go to acquire instruction in preparing them. A lot of people ask, why didn't I think of that?

People are very busy today. Eating well at home is seemly more and more difficult . Even the terrific pre-made food available today in stores isn't quite the same as home cooking. When the agenda is full, however, will people give up their jobs or their home made meals? That's where this franchise comes into the picture.

This is how it functions. Customers select up to 14 menu dishes every month. Number of servings determines price of each meal. Then they cook it while still at the shop. This can be accomplished either in public or individual sessions, with cooking pros guiding the planning action. This is a plenty like a chef at a eating house coming out to direct the diners in preparing the food.

The meals are a little bit less expensive than it would appear when the idea is first described. Although salads and side dishes are separate, the main course is only about $3.5 per serving for all 14 meals. The cost per serving with the sides is about $5. That's a great deal for the food addition the cooking instruction.

Remember, these are franchises. It has its problems. It's not the food or menus or preparation, but rather the franchisees. Dream Dinners was profiled in March of '8 by Forbes. That particular article doesn't give a ordained thougts for the company. Franchisees flocked to this brand new concept. But many of the franchisees lost their shirts after only a short time, which meant the business plan may be flawed. The article detailed what was described as misrepresentations of the profit possible, and thus the overall valuation of franchises.

That's something for the company to handle. For patrons, it's enjoying to treat the preparation chores while working off of a wondrous menu. - 15634

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