Ever since I made an apple pie with my grandma when I was 7, I’ve wanted to be a chef.

I remember insisting on peeling all the apples myself even though it made my hand crampp into a claw. I’ll never forget the satisfaction of pulling the pie out of the oven and seeing it bubbling and golden brown. What a feeling. 

When I was a little older I would run home from school to watch “great chefs of the world” on the Discovery channel.

I graduated culinary school from Le Cordon Bleu and got very lucky to land my dream job. It was at a place called Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta. We used every part of the animal and everything was made from scratch. And I mean everything, from the tobasco sauce (you ferment it for a year) to the worstechire it was all made in house. While I was there we were awarded Best New Chef from Food and Wine magazine, nominated for a James Beard award and won Bon Apetit Cuisine of the Year. 

It was incredible and I will always be grateful for what I learned there. But I will say I did see an issue with farmers driving 100 miles to sell two cases of kale while people paid $50 a plate. It seemed there wouldn’t be that much of a net gain to the food system if that’s all we were doing. My mind started spinning and I was determined to make a difference in how people ate. 

Then I met Sarah and it all came together from there.  I fell in love in about two seconds, two seconds after that she made me do CrossFit with her. Then she made me do a paleo challenge. At first I bristled at a diet stifling my cooking but paleo and fine dining are actually pretty synonymous. 

We started dropping off meals at local gyms within a few months of landing in San Diego. Then within two years we were shipping nationally. There’s a lot of details and heartache I skipped over what it took to make that happen but suffice it to say I believe very strongly the only way to truly fail is to quit. 

Now we have truckloads of kale brought to the kitchen. Our staff is paid a living wage. And our customers get fine dining quality food for less than $20 bucks a meal. That, I believe, is making a small but important difference in the food system. 

Thanks so much for your support and business,  it’s the only thing that makes any of this possible. 

Let's just put it out there—we cost more than the big guys. (Gasp!) But hear us out, it's not because we're greedy or trying to retire early. We're just a scrappy, self-funded small business without fancy investors. Chef Pete's been cooking forever, and we've learned a thing or two about making delicious food (without the junk).

Blame Amazon (sorry, Bezos) and big retail for skewing everyone's ideas about shipping costs. We can't magically absorb those fees—trust us, we checked. So here's the deal: Our pricing lets us send you high-quality, seasonal, chef-made meals, minus the shortcuts. It also means our hardworking staff gets an actual living wage (yay, ethics!).

This is the honest math. And it's why our meals taste better than spreadsheets.

Since 2012, we’ve been a family-owned, bootstrapped business. No investors, no outside funding—just a scrappy team making really, really good food. In fact, we were the first nationwide meal delivery company. (Yep, we started this whole thing.)

Since then, meal companies have popped up left and right—some small, some backed by deep-pocketed investors who care more about sales growth than actual food quality. They can afford to slash prices, flood the internet with ads, and offer deals that seem too good to be true. (Spoiler: they usually are.)

We’ll never win a price war, because our meals actually reflect what it costs to make real, high-quality food, ship it directly to you, and pay our team a living wage. What we do beat them on?

• Flavor. Our meals are made by real chefs, not machines.
• Variety. Paleo, AIP, Keto—you’ve got choices.
• Ingredients. Check our nutrition labels. No fake meats, no preservatives, no fillers—just real food. You can taste the difference.

We’re not trying to be the cheapest. We’re here to be the best.

We make everything from scratch—yes, even our sauces and spice blends. No shortcuts, no mystery ingredients, just whole, real food in every meal.

That means:
✅ No Franken-foods (a.k.a. science experiments disguised as dinner)
✅ No fillers or preservatives (because food should taste good, not last forever)
✅ Nothing processed (unless you count the part where we cook it for you)

This has been our approach since 2012, and honestly? We think you're better off for it.

Our golden rule: If we wouldn’t serve it to our grandma, we won’t serve it to you.

The other rule? We’re only as good as the last meal we made. A good reputation doesn’t make dinner taste better—great ingredients and real cooking do.

Fun fact: Meal delivery has a smaller carbon footprint than grocery shopping. Yep, you read that right. Studies show that meal delivery actually creates less food waste than those ambitious grocery runs where salad kits go to die in the fridge. (We’ve all been there.)

For Pete’s Real Food, this isn’t just a fun statistic—it’s how we operate. We cook fresh to order, meaning:
✅ We don’t pre-stock a ton of ingredients, hoping someone orders a certain meal.
✅ We wait for customer orders, then cook exactly what’s needed—nothing wasted.
✅ The small amount of extra food we do have? It’s donated to local community kitchens.

And because sustainability shouldn’t stop at the food, our boxes, liners, trays, and gel pack shells are all eco-friendly.

Less waste, more taste, and a planet that thanks you for your excellent food choices.