Community Highlights: Meet Reid Torrens of Cura Kitchen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Reid Torrens.

Hi Reid, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
Cura Kitchen is a meal prep company founded in June of 2022 with a strong belief in the principles of food as medicine. As the owners (Reid Torrens and Tori Vangeison) we wanted to offer a simple, ready-to-eat culinary experience and incorporate as many organic and whole ingredients as possible. In today’s world, most food is mass-produced, overly processed, and full of additives that are proven to cause inflammation and other health-related issues. The food as medicine approach is based on the notion that food can be a powerful tool in the prevention and treatment of disease and generally helps to lead a healthier life. What you put in your body can improve your livelihood and longevity, or it can drive a multitude of diet-related complications. 

The initial approach to this offering came in the form of a food truck called Nurish Fresh Eats, which offers healthy grain bowls for caterings and private events. Operating the food truck opened up the opportunity to expand into the meal prep space through Cura Kitchen, and allowed us to further our impact of healthy living in the community. 

We have both always loved to cook, but our background is not in the culinary world. We actually came from a background of Finance and Engineering, and our passion for health and. wellness has driven the success of Cura Kitchen. By delivering ready-to-eat meals to our neighbors in the Phoenix Valley, we are able to directly drive a positive impact on our community’s wellness. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We have a rotating menu and allow our customers to inform us about allergies and food sensitivities. We make substitutions in the meals to accommodate each of their requests. This makes each meal plan, to an extent, fully personalized. This is a challenge when prepping and plating meals but is something we have been committed to from the beginning. 

With our prioritization of using organic ingredients in our meals, we have found it challenging to find consistent suppliers of organic ingredients for a business of our size. The seasonality of ingredients and the volume at which they are produced are the two elements that contribute to this challenge. 

Reducing the time between raw ingredients and ready-to-eat as well as preserving food integrity have been challenging. We have condensed our prepping time to just Mondays, and all of our food is delivered early Tuesday morning, ensuring the meals are as fresh as possible by the time they reach our customers. All of our meals are transported in cooler bags with ice packs and are only removed from those cooler bags if the customer is at home to receive their meals. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Cura Kitchen?
Cura Kitchen is a local meal delivery service serving the greater Phoenix area. We have five meal prep plans to accommodate specific dietary needs and lifestyle choices. These five plans include Signature, Carb Conscious, Autoimmune, Plant-Based, and Signature + Grains. While these meals include free-range, pasture-raised, wild-caught, and organic proteins and organic vegetables, they do not include any gluten, dairy, soy, refined sugars, seed oils, or thickening agents like guar and xantham gum. The growing group of individuals who prioritize their health and wellness understand the importance of this approach. 

All meals are hand-prepped in our local Tempe kitchen and hand-delivered valley-wide. We are proud of our ingredients, our meals, and our employees. We value providing every customer with a high-quality and personalized experience – from our ingredients to our customer service. We are not a mass-produced national brand; we make food for our community and care about every single experience our customer has with us. Customers can either sign up for a subscription with weekly recurring deliveries or a one-week trial. If they sign up for a subscription, they can pause, skip a week, change plans, or cancel at any time. 

Making a small change to your diet and lifestyle can make a meaningful impact on energy levels, focus, longevity, and so much more. Sampling our meals and starting with a meal plan is easy, and you will feel the difference. 

What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to us is our customers. We love hearing back from our customers that we have made their life either a little bit easier or have helped them significantly improve their health, this feedback helps us develop individual connections within our community and drives us to keep going. By lowering the barrier for just one person to ditch processed foods and eat clean with our meal prep plan, there is a difference made. 

Pricing:

• $18/meal when signed up for a subscription
• $20/meal when sampling a one-week trial
• Free delivery valley-wide for orders over $100

Contact Info:

• Website: www.curakitchenaz.com
• Instagram: @curakitchenaz