Sameshima partnered with Joey Petracca while attending Colgate University to launch Chicory, an online food store with more than 3,000 recipes to choose from.
When shoppers find the recipe they want and add it to their cart, the website calculates the necessary quantity of products and the cheapest brands to make that dish. You can choose other brands, deselect some ingredients if you already have it at home and customize your order.
Once complete, your order gets sent to Peapod, a local grocery delivery service. Home delivery is available to Mamaroneck and Larchmont residents, with plans to expand.
“The shopping cart is the coolest part of this product because it creates the perfect shopping list for multiple recipes,” Sameshima said.
The idea for Chicory came about on a 72-hour trip to San Francisco when the company co-founders discovered their shared flair for food.
“We realized when you’re working, finding a recipe and being able to cook them are two very different things,” he said. “A lot of times people end up having the same meals over and over again, or they get take out or fast food… And so we wanted some way to allow people to provide healthy homemade meals for their families.”
From simple recipes for homemade mac and cheese that take 30 minutes in the oven to fancy suppers to impress the in-laws, Petracca says Chicory has you covered.
The most popular recipe to date is the sweet potato and kale casserole, said Petracca, adding that his personal favorite is the buffalo meatballs. Sameshima said his favorite is the orange-glazed brussel sprouts.
The partners are now partnering with local food bloggers - like Larchmont's Elaine Studdert of House of Bedlam - to add their recipes to the Chicory website. They hope to have every recipe available online on their website.
“We’re really passionate about cooking at home and we think this is a service that can be useful throughout the U.S.,” he said. “We’re lucky that we get to start off in a place like this (Mamaroneck), in such a positive community that is embracing this technology and understands that cooking at home and sitting around the dinner table are really important these days.”
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