Culinary Creations: Gourmet Meals that are Great Deals

Your friend’s coming home from the hospital with a new baby, and no energy left for cooking dinner…

You’ve invited the girlfriend/boyfriend home, for a romantic dinner. One prob: You can’t cook…

Or maybe you’re just having one of those weeks at work. You can cook. But you sure don’t want to.

Wouldn’t it be fabulous to treat yourself (or someone else) to a personal chef? Too bad that most won’t lift a spatula for less than several hundred dollars (and often demand a multiple-meal order). Many, too, make only one visit to make many meals, so Thursday’s dinner is sitting in your fridge from Monday.

Not so when you call Culinary Creations. Every Monday through Friday morning, chef Karen Lipkowitz personally shops for market-fresh ingredients to create a different meal of gourmet comfort food. She delivers it to your door that afternoon.

While menus change weekly, dinner might be BBQ beef shortribs in smoky chipotle chile sauce, with fresh corn bread and slaw; for dessert, a just-baked brownie. For dieters, there’s a daily healthy choice—maybe rosemary/garlic-grilled swordfish, or something vegetarian. But many regular entrees are already dietetic.

Orders must be placed by 8:00 p.m. the night before (by phone or internet), and are delivered the next day, between noon and 3:00 p.m. Her delivery zone is roughly limited to the beaches and Biscayne corridor, up to Aventura/Sunny Isles. “I never say never,” says Lipkowitz (who also crafts catered platters for parties and office events).

The tab? Just $13 per meal. Or order a non-menu dinner, for a reasonable surcharge.

And you can order just one. But at that price, might as well treat the whole family to a homemade gourmet meal. “You can even pretend,” Lipkowitz laughs, “that you cooked it yourself.”

For orders, call 305-213-5054 or visit the website at www.culinarycreationsbykaren.com.