Chef Kathleen Wise has been cooking in the kitchen at Starlite since it opened in 2007, but Saturday, July 2, will be her last day working at the Mission Hills hotspot, as she is leaving the post to start her own meal kit delivery company called Eat My Box (seriously?!?). Chef Amanda Michels, who has been with Starlite for nearly a decade, will take over as Executive Chef.
Wisconsin native Kathleen Wise is a passionate gardener and even raises her own chickens at her Logan Heights home, so her meal kit delivery service reflects her interests. Eat My Box by Rustic As Cluck offers produce-centric meal kits (even sourcing produce grown at Chef Wise's own home) for delivery at the cost of $25, which includes ingredients to make dinner for two - bread, salad, an entree, and dessert. Currently, the offerings are predominantly vegetarian, but there have been meals that include meat from poultry that Chef Wise raised herself. Delivery is currently offered once a week, but weekend delivery will soon be added, as well as other specials like date night dinners and wine sourced from local purveyors. The current delivery area is central San Diego, from Ocean Beach to La Mesa, but Eat My Box will be widening the service area this summer.
Chef Wise isn't the only San Diego chef to leave a culinary career to start a meal kit delivery service. Chef Kat Humphus left her tenure at the Cohn Restaurant Group in late 2014 and has since started Savory Made Simple, which, in addition to delivering locally-sourced ingredients for San Diegans to make gourmet dinners at home, also donates one meal through Feeding America San Diego for every 6 meals sold, which already has added up to more than 6,000 meals donated in 2016.
