Maven Meals Turns 15: Thank You, Seattle

Fifteen years ago, in 2011, I started Maven Meals out of a shared kitchen in Kirkland with a simple idea, that people around Seattle with packed weeks still deserved to eat well, and that I could cook for them the way I'd been cooking for my own family since I was a kid. I didn't have a plan for what it would turn into. I just wanted to make food people were glad to come home to, and I wanted it to change with the seasons instead of sitting on the same menu all year.

If you've read our About page, you know the cooking started long before that, on a sick day in third grade when I was home with chickenpox, bored with The Price Is Right, and roasted a turkey I found in the refrigerator. By the time my parents got home, there was a full Thanksgiving dinner on the table. I took over the family meal planning after that and never really gave it back.

Fifteen years, one kitchen at a time

From Kirkland we moved to Burien, where we spent a lot of good years, and today every Maven meal comes out of our kitchen near Angle Lake in SeaTac. We put 25+ new dishes on the menu every Monday across breakfast, lunch, dinner, the salad bar and the bakery, and we deliver to 25 cities around the region, from Tacoma and Federal Way up to Edmonds and across the water to Bainbridge and Vashon. That kitchen has now sent out more than 3 million meals.

Over 3 million meals out of this kitchen, and we've never run out of ideas.

The part that hasn't changed is the part I care about most. Every recipe gets tested over and over before it earns a spot on the menu, and we write down the ingredients and measurements so a dish tastes the same whether we're making a few servings or a few hundred.

There have been some stretches I'll never forget. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, our team cooked meals for healthcare workers at nine hospitals around the area, and The Vashon Beachcomber wrote about it. Over the years, Maven has been featured in Forbes and Entreprenista, and I got to cook on KING 5's New Day Northwest. I still think about that one.

Thank you

None of this happens without you. Some of you have been ordering from us for years, and some of you found us last month. You've sent friends, coworkers and brand-new parents our way. You've written to ask when a favorite dish is coming back, and you've told us when a new one didn't quite hit the mark. We listen to those notes. You've helped make the menu better, one week at a time.

And you've let us become a small part of your lives. We're there on the nights you get home late, when someone in the family needs a good meal, and on the weeks when cooking just isn't going to happen. Thank you for making room for Maven at your table and for keeping a local kitchen going for 15 years. I don't take that lightly.

A new look, and a name you already use

You'll notice we look a little different. Most of you have called us Maven for years, and the new logo finally leans into it, with Maven front and center and Meals tucked in underneath. The colors and the type are new too. After 15 years of growing into who we are, it feels good to have a look that feels like us.

What's new on the website?

Fifteen years gives you plenty of time to hear what customers wish were easier. We took those conversations to heart while building the new mavenmeals.com. It should be quicker to find what you want and place your order, especially on your phone.

Every dish now has a heart next to it. Tap it to save the dish to your Favorites, and we'll let you know when it comes back on the menu. If you've ever emailed us asking when a certain dish is returning, this one is for you.

Loved a dish a few weeks ago but can't quite remember its name? Past menus have their own page now, so you can find it, check what was in it and save it for next time. You can also filter the weekly menu by diet, including vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free and dairy-free. Every dish shows whether it contains nuts or comes with the nuts packed on the side, and our Ingredients & Allergens page lets you search the full ingredient list for anything we've made.

What's staying the same?

The menu still changes every week and goes up Monday morning, and orders still close Sunday night at midnight. There's still no subscription and no minimum order, delivery still comes Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday depending on your ZIP code, and I still lead the kitchen as founder and head chef.

I'm excited about what we haven't cooked yet. There are recipes I still want to try, ingredients that will send us back to the drawing board and plenty of Mondays ahead when I hope you'll find something on the menu that surprises you. The new site should make it easier to get to that food and to find your way back to the dishes you love. We'll keep listening, testing and cooking for you.

Here's to the next 15. This week's menu is up now, and I'd love for you to take the new site for a spin with it.

See you at the table.

Heidi