Introducing Bain Marie’s Meal Plans

Bain Marie began its life in Hong Kong offering weekday lunchtime delivery of fresh, homemade, seasonal meals served in reusable glass jars, so sustainability has been a focus for the brand from the start.

Now, to cope with these ever-changing pandemic times, they’ve launched meal plans featuring recipes that have been developed by a French nutritionist here in Hong Kong, Dr Emilie Berthet Clairet of Holistic Health. The quality of the ingredients is bar none – organic fruits and vegetables from farms in Thailand, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat and seafood – and, just as importantly, the meals are delivered in sustainable packaging by Vegware.

What are the plans?

Delivered before 7am on weekdays, there are four meal plan options – Light Diet, High Energy, Vegetarian and Balanced – each offering two levels of calories. For example, with the Light Diet plan that’s designed to help with weight loss, you can choose either 1,200 kcal or 1,540 kcal per day, depending on your gender, height and weight. Then you can further opt to receive either two or three meals a day, but no matter two or three, breakfast is included so that you can start your day on the right path.

Each meal is packaged separately, and there’s a helpful sticker on top listing out the calories per serving, total fat, carbs and protein and every ingredient, down to the oil and vinegar in a dressing. There’s zero prep involved besides heating up each meal in its own container, making it easy and hassle free to stick to the plan.

We did a three-day trial of the three-meal low-calorie Light Diet plan, and the meals were diverse and filling, heavy on the fruit, veg and protein and low on the carbohydrates. The breakfasts were particularly appealing, ranging from omelette with wild mushroom sauté to (our favourite) skyr, an Icelandic high-protein cultured dairy product that’s akin to yoghurt, topped with berries and nuts. For lunch and dinner, the meals usually varied between chicken and seafood, with the poke bowl with prawn ceviche being the pick of the lot for us owing to its varied textures and fresh flavours.

Skyr with fruits and nuts

How much?

Now, what about the cost? With the low-calorie Light Diet plan, you can start with three meals over three days for $900, which works out to $300 per day (or $100 per meal). We can compare this to another popular meal-plan brand in Hong Kong (which shall remain nameless) that averages about $83 a meal for a one-week small-sized, low-carb plan. However, Bain Marie’s meal plans also include a snack or two depending on the plan (we got a fruit salad with ours), and we think their meticulous food sourcing and commitment to sustainability warrant a higher price.