Four Corners upgrades hotel convenience food

TORONTO — A big trend in recent years is for hotels to offer guests frozen meals from grab-and-go outlets. Jeff Hudson of Four Corners Gourmet is working with Rose Reisman “Personal Gourmet” to provide gourmet meals that are more healthy and nutritious, and taste much better.

Hudson has owned and operated Da Silva Catering, a GTA-based catering company since 2010, specializing in corporate and special event catering. Prior to that, he worked in a senior marketing capacity with a global vehicle rental company.

He recently launched Four Corners Gourmet to provide frozen gourmet meals to hotels.

“I identified an opportunity within the lodging industry where focused service hotels were offering guests frozen meals available from hotel self-serve lobby freezers,” Hudson told CLN. Even some full-service properties such as DoubleTree are providing this service for guests who arrive at odd hours or who just want to eat something in their room.

“The meals being offered currently are typical of legacy brand frozen meals found at grocery stores,” Hudson noted. “I determined that there was opportunity to supply hotels with an elevated frozen meal product that offered better taste, better nutrition and healthier choice.”

Rose Reisman “Personal Gourmet” is Hudson's key supplier partner responsible for the meal preparation, freezing and distribution of the meals either directly or through third party logistics. Four Corners Gourmet meals are prepared exclusively by Rose Reisman “Personal Gourmet.” Reisman is an award-winning entrepreneur, caterer, author and media personality, who has a excellent reputation for promoting and providing Canadians with healthy and satisfying quality fresh and frozen meals. Recipe Unlimited (formerly Cara Operations) is an equity partner with Reisman.

The timing is right

People today are searching for fast, convenient solutions for all their meals. Witness the recent growth of fresh meal kits and meal delivery services. But at the same time people want to eat well even when they are travelling. Sometimes people are limited in the their meal choices and legacy brands don’t necessarily provide a satisfying nor healthy experience. This is where the “Four Corners Gourmet” brand of frozen meals wants to fill a void.

“One of our key targets is “focused service” hotel properties, given that they typically provide a free breakfast for guests with their room, but are light on lunch and dinner offerings,” Hudson said. “These hotels generally provide a mini-market located near the front desk/lobby with shelves and a freezer stocked with snacks, ice cream treats and frozen meals (ie. Hungry-Man Dinners, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer`s, etc.).

“Our objective is to introduce hotels to Four Corners Gourmet frozen meals as an alternative to the legacy brands. They carry a reasonable price for the high quality of the meals, thus giving the customer real choice for the kind of meal experience they want to enjoy at their convenience.”

How it works

Ordering at www.fourcornersgourmet.com is as simple as registering your property, providing your billing information and selecting your meals. The meals are then hand-packed in specialized thermal packaging to maintain their frozen state and delivered to your property ready for the customer to heat and eat.

“Alternatively we can work within your company's preferred third party ordering system,” Hudson noted. “Potentially we would consider attaching a control brand to this great product.”

Four Corners Gourmet meals have no preservatives, no added colours, use only fresh ingredients and are flash frozen for maximum shelf life, Gluten Free, Vegetarian and Halal meal choices are available, there are a variety of meal sizes (lunch & dinner), and a growing selection of ethnic inspired meals. All meals are prepared in a nut free facility.

Four Corners Gourmet currently serves the GTA and Southern Ontario area, but future plans include expansion of the product to other provinces and across Canada. They are also investigating introduction of the Four Corners Gourmet frozen product line into C-store and mini-mart locations.