Vita Kitchen

We have a temporary prep cook position opening up this Spring with our kitchen team!

Looking for someone with restaurant or similar high-volume experience.

Potential to extend past the term for the right fit!

Reach out to Elyse at [email protected], or send us a DM here with any questions about the role.

01/29/2024

Interested in trying out our meal delivery service?

✨ Visit the link in our bio for our “Get Started” form. We will reply to schedule your first week.

01/05/2024

Our delivery drivers, always with a smile!

We hire in-house delivery drivers so we can always guarantee the best, and most personalized, delivery experience. ⚡️

To give us a try visit the link in bio to fill out a get started form.

01/04/2024

Coming back from my maternity leave brings up many emotions. On the one hand I love my work, and Vita Kitchen will always be my first baby - something I have given so much of myself to in the past six years. And then on the other, there is no denying that motherhood has made things very different. I’m different. And my priorities are shifted. And it’s nice to be using my brain again and getting out into the world again. All of these things, and more, can be true.

And then there’s the logistical and stressful piece of returning to work, of exiting the quiet cocoon of maternity leave to race the demands of a busy daily life.

In my experience we had SO many of our meals taken care of in the early postpartum days — oftentimes our fridge was so stocked we had to freeze extra. We had a meal train setup, family bringing over food, Vita Kitchen meals (of course), friends gifting us with doordash certificates, etc. And then when both parents return to work which is the time that you need help with meals more than ever, that extra help isn’t there to the same extent.

Going back to work this week has been hard. I’m learning the value of having at least half of our weekday dinners taken care of by Vita Kitchen. It just takes one less thing off our plate right now. With the little time we have between getting home from work and Jamie’s bedtime we don’t want to be stressing about what we’re going to eat. We receive our meals on Thursday, and use them for Thursday dinner, lunches over the weekend, as well as dinners on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday of the following week. We tend to have plans for weekend dinners, but the plan still works very well for us.

If you are in a similar position, we still have 3 open spots for clients in the new year. Send us a message and we’ll make sure to get you all the information to give us a try. ⚡️

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12/13/2023

We’re looking for another delivery driver to join our awesome fleet!

We deliver on Mondays and Thursdays, 2-6pm.

Pickup and final dropoff is in downtown Oakland.

Pay is $34/hr plus mileage.

Come join our team! DM here or email [email protected] for more information. ⚡️

12/08/2023

One of the things we are most proud of is the longevity of our clients - a handful of which have been with us continuously since the very beginning, six years ago! I think this speaks to our consistency as a company, and also the creativity that we bring to each menu - keeping things fresh and exciting. It brings a lot of satisfaction knowing that we are feeding growing families - not to mention making the parents lives a lot easier!

For more information on our meal delivery subscription service visit the link in our bio. Just a few spots available going into the new year! ⚡️

11/29/2023

We are absolutely smitten with how our Thanksgiving offerings turned out! Sharing a shot of our Sweet Potato Bake (topped with tahini pecan streusel!) & another lush cheeseboard from our one and only 😋

We hope you all shared a feast with those you love most last week. Now on to the next big food holiday! ⚡️

08/18/2023

And all our meal delivery packages check these boxes if you want to make it super easy on yourself! ⚡️

Link in the bio to sign up for a trial week.

08/15/2023

Big announcement! I will be taking my maternity leave from Vita Kitchen from September through December. During this time I will be stepping back from my daily responsibilities as owner and CEO, and focusing on spending time with our little one.

This is obviously a big transition for both my personal and professional life. However, I feel SO fortunate to have started putting all the pieces in place for it far in advance. I’m grateful that I have established a stellar team – including three amazing managers, who will carry on the business for all our clients in my absence.  
It’s been a little more than five years since I started Vita Kitchen, and I’m so proud of the work that myself and the team have done to get to this point where I can take a step back.

I have no doubt that I will return to work with new ideas, inspiration & points of improvement to strengthen the service, especially for our postpartum clients.

In gratitude,

Elyse

08/14/2023

Exciting News From Elyse & Postpartum Nutrition Tips - https://mailchi.mp/046522aeba6b/elysematernityannouncement

08/08/2023

Still a couple more client spots open going into the fall. These will fill up! Link in the bio to get started. ⚡️

07/19/2023

Simple weeknight dinner that’s hitting just right. Teriyaki chicken skewers (no sugar added!), miso glazed eggplant, carrots and savoy cabbage alongside brown rice. On this week’s menu. ⚡️

07/15/2023

We’ve shared kitchen space with for awhile now, and so excited to finally incorporate one of their Chow Chows into our menu! We paired the olive and sweet pepper chow chow with our breaded local rockfish this week and let me tell you, this bowl was so packed with flavors! I love that Wanda’s chow has no added sugars, and tastes SO fresh! I can just eat it right out of the jar. Be sure to give Wanda a follow and excited for our clients to try this one!

07/12/2023

Latest Yelp review love ❤️ We love giving families time and energy back to spend together - that’s what this is all about. ⚡️

06/22/2023

Latest Yelp review love. 💙 We love supporting our postpartum clients!

06/10/2023

Simple Friday night dinner. Halibut, cooked in a fig leaf, with herb roasted potatoes and a greek salad. ⚡️

06/09/2023

Latest Yelp review love. We love our long term clients! ⚡️ Our longest client has been receiving weekly meals from us for five years now!

05/06/2023

It’s cinco de mayo! From this week’s menu: Our duck molé with brown jasmine rice, roasted savoy cabbage and lime-pickled red onions. ⚡️ Wishing everyone a lovely weekend ahead.

05/03/2023

Very traditional with this one: Slow-roasted lamb shoulder, French green lentils, spring vegetable medley and a caper salsa verde. ⚡️

05/01/2023

Our latest newsletter highlights all of our amazing farm partners. Read about how we work with these farmers on a weekly basis on our menus, and which veggies and fruits we love from each farm. LINK IN THE PROFILE.⚡️

05/01/2023

We Support Local Farmers! 🌾 - https://mailchi.mp/824a46977cf4/ourfarmpartners Take a look at our local farm partners and the produce we love to get from them!

04/13/2023

New Meal!
Miso marinated tofu with asparagus and Bok choy rabe with roasted Tokyo turnips and carrots. With a crisp, refreshing cucumber salad on the side. Completely plant based!

04/13/2023

Hi! Elyse here - for those of you who are new here, I’m the founder and Exec Chef of Vita Kitchen.

I’ve been fairly quiet on this platform, well, for awhile now. Not silent, but quiet — mostly posting out of obligation and not really feeling engaged. The truth is that over the past three years my focus has been on building our amazing team (now seven full time employees!), and working on systematizing the business admin and financial side of things. Not exactly the most visually engaging thing to post about. Plus just keeping up with all the changes on this platform and other social media often left me feeling tired, and honestly, pretty turned off by all of it.

Yet with the start new season comes new energy 🌱, and I’m finally feeling a ping to start sharing more here! I want to let you all in on what we do at Vita - from our amazing suppliers, to our beautiful food, to our incredible team. I’m also excited to start sharing more content that hopefully could be useful to all of you - more recipes and meal prep tips. 🌟((Anything else you’d like to see more of?!?))🌟

A personal interest and passion of mine that keeps on growing is helping other entrepreneurs to grow and especially to systematize their own businesses. So you also might also see me sharing more business related content here, as well as on my personal instagram .

I would love to make this online space more of a place for new CONNECTIONS again! (And rekindle old ones!) ⚡️Please say “hi” here —especially if you’re a fellow small business owner — I’d love to learn about what you do! ⚡️

04/04/2023

This is how we like to eat - all the colors! 🌈 turmeric seared tofu and veggies for a soba noodle salad. ⚡️

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Our Story

The origins of our story start in New York City, and take root in Oakland, CA. After almost a decade working in the food industry Elyse was burnt out — both from over-working and from many years of heavy drinking and unhealthy eating — an unfortunate norm in the industry. Cooking food for others was always where her heart was, but she felt like she could no longer do the unhealthy lifestyle that seemed to come along with it.

Feeling like she needed a big change she moved back home to the San Francisco Bay Area and started taking a class online from Cornell in nutrition. She began to think about food, and the role of the chef, in different terms. She began to see that chefs have a responsibility in our modern times to make food that helps to heal people’s bodies, rather than further harm them.

Elyse looked at her own diet and began to make some big changes. She began to focus on what she learned were the pillars traditional human diet — a plant-forward diet, responsibly raised proteins that are rich in omega-3s, healing bone and mineral broths, and fermented foods. After eating this way consistently she started to see an increase in energy, mental clarity and overall resiliency and stamina.

With Vita Kitchen, Elyse wanted to create a company that supports both its clients as well as the chefs and cooks that work with us. From having lived some of the harsh realities in the food industry, she wanted to see if she could create a different model. At Vita Kitchen we aim to create a more inclusive, healthy and sustainable work environment, where our employee’s health is valued as much as our client’s.