Andrew Tomasetti: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to today's community spotlight where I interview small businesses that I know and trust and introduce them to you. I'm your host, Andrew Tomasetti. And today I am here with Jesse Batt of Performance Meal Prep. Thanks for joining us, Jesse.

 

Jesse Batt: 0:15

You have of course, man.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 0:17

So tell us a little bit about Performance Meal Prep.

 

Jesse Batt: 0:20

Yep. So we are our weekly meal delivery service. So everything that we do, it's all on those subscription all week to week ordering. As mentioned before, big emphasis on fresh food from scratch cooking. So nothing that we do comes from frozen products, all of our protein is fresh, a lot of our produce here is sourced locally, depending on the time of year, same thing with a lot of our proteins, we always make an appointment to to use local vendors to get back to the local community. So I think that's a big thing for us.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 0:47

That's pretty awesome.

 

Jesse Batt: 0:47

For sure.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 0:48

So as you get into this.

 

Jesse Batt: 0:50

So I was actually living down in Florida about seven, eight years ago, when I'd always been a chef. My roommate at the time was like training to be in the UFC. So he would always take nutrition, like real serious. So with that, I would cook for him when he was busy. He was actually also a chef, which is kind of funny. I started doing meal prep for him as he got busier with training.

 

The next thing you know, like its whole gym was ordering meal prep. And then one thing led to another and I was prepping for like eight people down in Florida came back to Philly, for vacation to see my family realized that nobody here was doing this and kind of just decided to make a move back and just started off when I got back to Philly.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 1:31

Awesome What year was that?

 

Jesse Batt: 1:32

That was so I'm trying to think what year that was because we're six years old now. And I did this for about a year. On my own. Someone said that was 2016. So about 2015. Okay, I started doing this whole thing on my own with no business license or anything like that just kind of cooking out of my house. Right for people. Okay, yeah.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 1:50

And then when did your business really start to professionalize? And when did you take the leap from, you know, cooking out of your house to? I know, now you have a kitchen, you have over 30 employees? It sounds like you've really grown a lot.

 

Jesse Batt: 2:03

Now for sure. So I think for me the big thing, I was cooking for a gentleman who happened to be an attorney, and he said to me, he's like, Hey, why don't you let me get you an LLC form everything for you. And in the back of my mind, I'm like, I'll need to do all this called my dad, he's like, he should probably form an LLC. So then I formed an LLC. Then the next thing is like, alright, we'll get you into commercial kitchens. So they put me into a commercial kitchen. And the next thing is like, now you need a website. So he kind of pushed me in the direction of doing things the right way. And I'm happy that I met this guy. He's still a customer today. So that kind of started everything off officially.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 2:39

So it sounds like you've had some awesome mentors and coaches.

 

Jesse Batt: 2:43

Not all for sure.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 2:44

Nice.

 

Jesse Batt: 2:44

A lot of good people, a lot of good chefs, who have worked for me in the past, who I've worked for who have helped me out tremendously. I went to a ton of people, honestly.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 2:53

Nice. So what's one common misconception people have about the meal prep industry.

 

Jesse Batt: 2:59

So I think common misconception that a lot of people have like, you'll see a lot of these big companies that ship food nationwide, put stuff on dry, ship it in a box. So you don't really know when that food is being made. Making it like for offset PMP I think the most important thing is emphasis a local delivery, like I'll never put food into a box and send it there are so many people here in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas that don't even know about us yet. I just think that there's so much room for growth. I mean, we're one of the biggest cities in the country.

 

So it's like being able to cook fresh food and deliver food fresh within real people. Right and source it locally. I think that is probably the biggest thing for us. And probably a big misconception on meal prep.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 3:41

It's funny. It's funny, you say that. I actually used to subscribe to one of those big national companies.

 

Jesse Batt: 3:47

And I wasn't.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 3:47

That was not there. Right now, and then I saw your billboard and said I have to give this guy a call. And when I saw the meals obviously show you one of our showcase. Right? So when I got one of these, I was like wow, this is like my grandmother made steak, put it in Tupperware and then sent it to her. I just astounded. Like, that is just delivered to me.

 

Jesse Batt: 3:47

Looks sweet, even when bro marks on. Yeah, we definitely we aim for high quality and I was talking to Andrew before like I was saying how like I used to work weddings and banquets and you can't mess up somebody's wedding. It's the biggest night of these people's lives. Right.

 

You know, I mean, so it's like they're all getting served in tariff. Yeah, majority of them one steak and lobster. For 300 people you kind of learn how to carry out good execution on a high level, right? I mean, that's like my saving grace is banquet cooking. Yeah, that's I think that's what separates my staff from other staff too. Because a lot of us have experienced cooking high volume.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 4:29

Nice.

 

Jesse Batt: 4:44

Yeah, it's definitely been like a saving grace.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 4:53

Yeah, I definitely can say your food is fantastic.

 

Jesse Batt: 4:57

I appreciate it.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 4:59

Cool. Well Thank you for joining us of course this has been another community spotlight where I interview local businesses I know and trust and introduce them to you.

 

Jesse Batt: 5:09

Yeah thanks for having me.

 

Andrew Tomasetti: 5:11

Thanks for joining us

 

Jesse Batt: 5:12

Appreciate it.