Alana Gillen is a champion of the slow life.
Thirteen years as a professional chef hurtled her across restaurants in Paso Robles, Los Osos, the Bay Area, and even a work boat off an oil platform on the California coast.
“Restaurants were really hard; it was male-driven and very hard on my body, and it was very stressful,” Gillen said. “I learned a lot, but also it sometimes took the joy fun away.”
Culinary bliss returned to Gillen through her meal prep delivery service, Myndful Meals. Though she was ready to hit the brakes in March 2020, the pandemic forced the world to a halt, too. Gillen seized that lull, started Myndful Meals out of her Los Osos home kitchen, and delivered food to her neighbors.
“I’d been thinking about doing this for a long time, and I moved down here to do this,” she said. “It kind of worked in my favor because a lot of restaurants were closed at the time, and I knew a decent amount of people because I lived here before.”
Myndful Meals dishes out themed plates on a weekly basis. It favors a plethora of Asian flavor profiles, thanks to Gillen being born and raised in Singapore, and features those menus every other week. But Myndful Meals is versatile with other international cuisines too, including menus based on the seasons of the year, Greek food, and Baja California fare. Through the culinary smorgasbord, all of Gillen’s cooking is united by the slow food movement with an emphasis on ingredient consciousness.
“Slow cooking is things made with multiple steps,” she explained. “So, you’re making your chicken stock, you’re blending your spices for your spice mixture. Things are made slowly and with finesse.”
Gillen’s time at Artisan restaurant in Paso Robles ignited an excitement for locally sourced food. It informed her decision to pursue an education in holistic nutrition from Bauman College. Gillen said she focuses on wellness as opposed to calorie counting.
“I was so busy going to school and working, I wished I had something that didn’t have refined oils and had quality, well-prepared food,” she said. “Now that I get older, I’m more in tune with my body. One of my biggest things that I value in Myndful Meals is using healthy oils.”
Gillen prepares all her dishes using olive or avocado oil. She told New Times that those oils have high nutritional value, reduce inflammation, and elevate the quality of the food. Her dishes aren’t considered “fully composed” but are meant to complement and supplement each other.
The standard Myndful Meals menu is broken into six categories—greens, egg bites, proteins, sides, vegetarian entrée, and simple entrées. All the items can be mixed and matched to be lunch or dinner throughout the week depending on the quantity ordered.
Take the Japanese-style menu from late March, for example. For lunch one workday, I paired the tender and lemony guava miso chicken and the pork yakitori marinated with a mirin-coconut sugar mixture with the hibachi-style fried rice and a side of charred orange edamame. The next day, I finished the leftover pork with rice I made at home. Gillen often meal preps the same way, and she recommends a similar technique for clients. Most of them place Myndful Meals orders for the whole week.
“You can order something you don’t like to cook, or you feel you don’t have the time for,” she said. “For a lot of people that’s protein, and you can add something like the chicken to your salad or sandwich.”
Myndful Meals is a well-oiled machine that runs on an organized timetable. The company releases a new menu on its website (or newsletter if you sign up) every Monday. Orders must be placed by Friday at 10 p.m. Myndful’s culinary team of three—Gillen and two cooks—prepare all the food the following Tuesday. They’re packaged on Wednesday, and delivered by her sister Bali all afternoon and early evening to roughly 50 hungry patrons on the North Coast, in SLO, and in Atascadero. Gillen added that having members of her own team deliver the food adds to her company’s character.
“I want to be in control of the customer service, and I like to be personable with our clients,” she explained. “I don’t want someone that doesn’t know … and doesn’t appreciate my food to deliver my food.”
Gillen’s come a long way from her Los Osos kitchen. Myndful Meals’ success propelled her to working out of the industrial kitchens in Los Osos’ Noi’s and Blue Heron restaurants. Now, Myndful Meals cooks out of Benny’s (of Benny’s Pizza Palace and Social Club) commissary kitchen in SLO.
As of April 11, Myndful Meals’ clients will be looking forward to a Mediterranean-style gallery involving quinoa tabbouleh, Greek-inspired bacon egg bites, and lemon feta chicken. Some of those customers are part of the company’s subscription plan and even opt to have their meals delivered in reusable Pyrex containers.
Slowly but steadily, Gillen hopes to serve more of them through increased small-scale private events. She’s also looking to expand her client base through pop-up events in the future that could revive a childhood staple: Singaporean food.
“I’ve done [a Singaporean menu] a couple times … but I don’t think people get it,” Gillen said. “I think it’ll be more popular [at pop-ups]. You can’t do something like chili crab in a meal prep; if I’m doing a Singaporean menu, I have to have chili crab!”
A more deliberate pace personifies Gillen’s craft, but it’s evolved into a life lesson for her too.
“I’m learning a little more patience and [to] not compare [myself] to other people’s rate of success,” she said. “Go at your own rate, and things will definitely fall into place if you’re patient with yourself.” Δ
Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal is ready for Singaporean chili crab in SLO. Send patience to brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 13-23, 2023.