the story of yumbox: a start-up trying to revolutionize the way we cook & eat!

Yumbox has two grand objectives:
1. Make the world tastier
2. Let the world fall in love with cooking

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The First Supper

Hello world,

We've been working hard to ready Yumbox for a preliminary sale next week in Reynolds Club. This means that we've been busy working out the logistics of packaging and making sure our product abides by all laws and regulations. This also means we've been having fun testing the product to make sure it's easy to cook (so you don't have to wave a towel at the smoke detector like Richard did) and delicious (no problems there). So, without further ado, here's a glimpse at our first Yumbox dinner:

It all started on Tuesday afternoon before finals week. After printing out labels and grabbing my camera, Richard and I headed to his apartment to ready the kitchen for testing.


The cook for the night would be Dan Park, Richard's roommate. Dan is a decently competent cook but by no means a master and, thus, we thought he would make the perfect candidate for the first trial. Furthermore, Dan is an incredible narrator, and his comments, as captured on webcam (as you can see form the picture), really helped us see what went well and what didn't with our current recipes.


Our first dish was Basil Chicken and Dan cooked it without trouble. As far as taste, I'll just say that it was almost completely finished while it sat on the countertop waiting to be served.


Our second dish was Ma Po Tofu. This was probably the easiest dish to make but also the favorite of the night.


Again, thanks to Dan for cooking the entire meal. Here he is, hard at work, completing my personal favorite dish...


Sichuan Green Beans


The last Yumbox was also the most difficult to cook. The Black Beef Tenderloin was incredibly tender and very flavorful but we also found that we needed to adjust the recipe a bit to keep it from burning (Richard made it again the next day, and it turned out perfectly).


Finally, since we had about a dozen people to feed we also had fun making some dumplings. In fact, it was so much fun that it got us thinking about about creating a Yumbox dumpling-making kit. You'll see it soon!


All in all, the test was a great success and really helped us see the potential of Yumbox. With Dan at the helm, we learned a great deal about how our product could be improved and where it worked well. Everyone truly enjoyed the meal and even though many of us had just met, by the end of dinner, we were all friends.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for helping test the product! We have more recipes coming very soon and you'll be able to try out Yumbox next week at Reynolds Club.

Eric

Friday, March 12, 2010

A first glimpse at the product!

Hey everyone,

It's been quite a while since our last update, but Richard's been very busy talking to grocery stores, other entrepreneurs, our restaurant partner, and packaging manufacturers!
Actually, he's been doing a lot more than talking and we have a lot to show for it. Yes, this means pictures, and not just pictures of other people's packages (that sounds inappropriate...) or drawings of boxes, but rather actual food, packages, and labels!


From top to bottom: Basil Chicken, Ma Po Tofu, Sichuan Green Beans, Black Beef Tenderloin, Black Beef Tenderloin



I hope you think they look as delicious as I do!

Thanks for reading,
Eric

P.S. Not being able to resist, we later cooked the meal and had a little Yumbox trial run/dinner party. More on that in a later post!

P.P.S. We have a facebook group! Become a fan!