Cultivate Kitchen increases access to healthy, prepared meals

Two local moms saw a need for healthy prepared meals without requiring extra preparation and lots of packaging.

“We’re two hardworking moms with a passion for making beautiful, healthy food and growing a business,” said Katrina High, a chef who co-owns Cultivate Kitchen Co. in Westminster with fellow chef Cammie Read, who also owns Round the Table–Personal Chef Services. “We saw a need in the community and took it upon ourselves to fill it.” 

High, who lives in Broomfield, and Read, of Westminster, founded Cultivate Kitchen Co. in 2022 to offer meal preparation, catering and personal-chef services. They use healthy, whole foods high in nutrition and sourced locally when possible to create menus catering to multiple eating styles. 

“We’re very transparent with our ingredients,” High said. “We’re very focused on clean cooking. We don’t use processed sugars—we use honey or maple—or canola oil. … Our focus is you’re able to pronounce everything on our ingredient list.”

The meals are single or four servings and have little packaging, unlike other prepared meals with several components and packaging for each item. The meals from other brands typically require additional prep steps, such as cooking of raw ingredients and mixing, and the services provide a consistent meal rotation without room for variety. They also may lack fresh produce, which can be expensive and requires chopping and roasting, impacting profit margins. 

Cultivate Kitchen offers two menus a week, each with five to eight lunch and dinner selections and a breakfast option, all ready to heat and serve. Within each selection are two to three options to suit dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and vegetarian, and each serving has one cup of vegetables. Clients opt for meals such as lunches to take to work or dinners quick and easy to make, and they can buy them individually or through a subscription service. 

“The things that set us apart is our food variety and our inclusivity when it comes to restrictions,” High said. 

Cultivate Kitchen provides delivery services along the Front Range, delivering an average of 700 meals a week and providing another 100 for pickup at the company’s Westminster production and retail site, which recently relocated from Louisville. Pickup also is at three gyms in Louisville, Wheat Ridge and Broomfield. 

“We moved to a new space to ramp up production, and we can open up new delivery zones in the next few months,” High said.

High and Read, who work with a staff of 14, offer in-home and off-site personal-chef services with curated menus specialized to diet, workout and lifestyle needs. The menus are on a weekly or biweekly fresh food or monthly freezer pack rotation. 

The two also provide catering services, curating menus based on dietary, budgetary and themed needs, broadening beyond the typical set of planned meals of most caterers. They cater for anything from a small dinner party to a corporate or large event like a wedding, providing food for an average of six events a week.

“That way, we can be really creative and fun with what we propose,” High said.

High and Read have had to be nimble to meet challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic when food and labor costs increased, they changed up their menus, using ingredients that were accessible to keep prices competitive. And during the summer months with customers going on vacations, they flex in catering jobs.

“Depending on what the market is doing, we can lean on different parts of the business to keep growing,” High said. 

Before their move from 800 square feet in Louisville to 3,000 in Westminster, they had to turn down ordering and catering jobs when they ran out of space. Now, they have room for a hard goods retail area with locally made products and a grab-and-go fridge and freezer, plus a kitchen in back. They also will be able to hold cooking classes in the next few months.

“We’re working on trying to set up another menu to support the demand that is out there,” High said. “By having the ability to get healthy meals through us, we can support people in achieving those goals, whether it is to be eating healthier or getting time back.”

Editor’s note: For purposes of clarity, Cultivate does not use canola oil in its facility at all.

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