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Ursula Adduci of Sazón; photography by Greg Gillis

The Eat Sheet

by Lisa Shames | CS magazine | January 27, 2012

Our New Year’s resolution? Smart eating. The problem? Finding time to cook. No worries! These three chefs serve up healthy food for pickup, delivery or at-home catering. Clean eating has never been so easy–or delicious.

Heather Crosby of YU Dinnerbell
Getting sick turned out to be a life-changing experience for Heather Crosby. Eschewing traditional medicine, she instead eliminated animal protein from her diet and found relief from her symptoms—and, in the process, a new career as a certified plant-based nutrition coach. Expanding on her popular 1-year-old website yumuniverse.com, “a one-stop shop for all things plant-based,” she says, Crosby created YU Dinnerbell, an underground food pick-up service for those looking for home-cooked, organic, plant-based meals. A few times a month, Crosby offers the first-come, first-served service to 25 lucky diners by ringing a “dinner bell” via Twitter and email. Once confirmed, the secret city location is revealed. yumuniverse.com

Ursula Adduci of Sazón
Ursula Adduci is originally from Costa Rica, but her delivery meal service gets inspiration from all over the world, with dishes ranging from tamarind shrimp and beef empanadas to mushroom risotto and clafoutis for dessert. “I rarely repeat a dish unless a customer asks me to,” she says. With a background in advertising, Adduci tapped into her lifelong love of cooking when she moved to Chicago, first working at a large catering company for eight years before creating her own business last year. In addition to her passion for ethnic eats, Adduci’s a fan of local and organic ingredients—“Better ingredients make better food,” she says—and prides herself on accommodating her clients’ varying needs. sazonchicago.com

Jill Donenfeld of The Culinistas
Jill Donenfeld considers herself lucky to have grown up in Cincinnati and raised with Midwest values. “It sounds cheesy but I assumed everyone ate dinner with their family every night,” she says. While attending Columbia University in NYC, Donenfeld realized this wasn’t the case. Her answer? To create The Culinistas, a business that brings private chefs to clients’ kitchens to create home-cooked meals. “The whole idea is to show people their kitchen is functional even if they don’t use it themselves,” she says, whether it’s vegan, organic, kosher or dishes inspired by a favorite restaurant. Donenfeld began her business in New York in 2006, expanded to Los Angeles in 2009 and recently added Chicago to her service list. “For me, food has always been linked to togetherness and family,” she says. theculinistas.com