Founding research

MEAL.0001 · published

The studio's research statement on the meal-kit category and what it gets wrong. The $9–18 billion HelloFresh / Blue Apron / Goodfood industry runs on a structurally broken customer relationship — roughly half of new subscribers churn within 90 days. The report works through what customers actually complain about (price-after-promo, schedule rigidity, packaging guilt, lack of accumulation), what the category is trying to do about it, and a reframing of the customer relationship around accumulation rather than weekly delivery. ~3,800 words, consulting-grade register. Published 2026-05-17.

→ Read MEAL.0001

MEAL kits · the store category

Curated multi-cell kits, subscription & à la carte

As of catalogue v0.6, MEAL is also a store category. The studio's full cell catalogue — 16 live BDRC cells, the COOK queue, GROW and SPORE in design, CODEX-001 in development — provides a real menu to curate from. MEAL kits are bundles drawn from the catalogue, themed and shipped on subscription or à la carte. The four temporal patterns (BDRC immediate, COOK active, GROW sustained, SPORE delayed) combine in each kit to give the customer a complete domestic-cooking rhythm in a single shipment.

Six canonical kit sizes map onto the four Canada Post flat-rate box dimensions, with seven proposed 12-month subscription programs and eight à la carte themed bundles drawn from the live catalogue. The Starter Box at $48 (MEAL-A07) is the studio's intentional onboarding SKU — an empty cell + a live BDRC meal + a CODEX recipe template, the whole platform legible in one purchase.

→ MEAL kits store → Standard Kit subscription → Starter Box · $48 → Full cell catalogue

Future reports

MEAL.0002 through 0006 · candidates

Six candidate future reports scoped. Each extends MEAL.0001 along a specific axis. Publishing rhythm: ~2–3 major reports per year once MEAL is established. The catalogue grows by ~10,000–18,000 words per report.

MEAL.0002 · NEXT
The Toronto Importer Landscape
Field study of specialty importers
~30–50 importers documented with locations, specialties, accessibility, pricing observations, ethical/origin notes. Analytical sections cover structural patterns and how the city's food ethnography maps onto neighborhoods. High practical value — directly supports STOCK Phase 1 sourcing.
~80–100 hrs Scoped
MEAL.0003
The Microsystem Case Studies
Documented real deployments
Case studies of the studio's microsystem deployment in real settings — the studio's own Dupont Arts kitchen, eventually customer kitchens. Physical setup, operational reality, economic math, honest customer assessment.
~40–60 hrs/case 3–5 cases/year
MEAL.0004
Off-Grid Food at Domestic Scale
Deep study expanding GROW01-OG
The Ryobi-powered microsystem at full energy analysis. Solar-supplemented operation patterns, the actual seasonal math, cabin/RV/Hako deployment cases. What's actually possible vs marketing claims in the off-grid food space.
~60–80 hrs Scoped
MEAL.0005
CFIA Compliance Landscape
For small Canadian food producers
Practical research on Canadian Food Inspection Agency requirements. SFCR registration, license requirements, exemptions, front-of-package nutrition rules (2026), provincial variation. What's actually required vs commonly believed.
~40 hrs Scoped
MEAL.0006
A Year of the BDRC Catalogue
Honest post-launch self-assessment
Comprehensive customer-facing assessment of the BDRC sub-line one year post-launch. What sold, what didn't, what customers actually cooked, what they substituted, what they returned. Models the kind of self-evaluation the studio practices.
~30–40 hrs Post-launch
MEAL.0007+
Longer-horizon candidates
Food cost trajectories · cultural-cuisine catalogues · composting loops
Food cost trajectories in Canada 2020–2030. The cultural-cuisine catalogue problem (how to build a respectful food catalogue spanning cuisines from cultures the studio doesn't operate within). Composting and waste loops at domestic scale.
Various Long-horizon
Sister practice

MEAL and STOCK

MEAL is the research practice. STOCK is the build counterpart — the actual product family (COOK + BDRC + GROW + SPORE) that MEAL's research underwrites. MEAL → STOCK: research surfaces gaps in the catalogue, ingredient sourcing opportunities, technologies worth incorporating. STOCK → MEAL: product launches and customer feedback inform what's worth deeper editorial investigation.

→ STOCK · the food build family