10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
LOCAVORE 101
Dinner is in the bag with
chef Andrew Catalano’s
Alimento meal kits
By RYAN HUME
FOR COAST WEEKEND
W
hen Street 14 Café shuttered its
dinner service in the spring of
2017, local foodies momentarily
lost access to Chef Andrew Cat-
alano’s exceptional seasonal cuisine.
Catalano had quickly established him-
self on the North Coast for his farm-to-
table menus, rustic pasta dishes and inge-
nious use of all things pickled, preserved
and fermented. With the launch of his
new venture, Alimento, last May, Catala-
no now offers — in the form of a weekly
meal kit — the home cook the benefi t of
relationships he forged with local farms
through the kitchen of Street 14.
“Alimento is a natural extension of my
work at Street 14,” Catalano said.
He begins each week talking to farm-
ers about what is harvest-ready. “Then
I create dishes that will highlight those
ingredients,” he said. “The main differ-
ence between Street 14 and Alimento, of
course, is that the execution of the dish is
passed on to the home cook.”
Meal kits have become big business in
the last few years as busy people rethink
their approach to dinner from frozen to
fresh. What sets Alimento apart from
major players like Blue Apron and Home
Chef is Catalano’s commitment to locally
sourced ingredients, reusable packaging
and the ability of consumers to buy in on
a meal kit, one week at a time, through
his website alimentoastoria.com.
COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Chef Andrew Catalano packs a recent batch
of meal kits for delivery at the North Coast
Food Web. Catalano’s venture, known as Al-
imento, uses locally sourced products pre-
pared and ready for clients to cook in their
own homes.