To some folks a dream dinner might be any decent food they can get for free.

Dream Dinners is also a clever food franchise that's growing fast. It involves prepared menus and locations where people go to receive instruction in cooking them. It's one of those ideas that has people slapping their foreheads while exclaiming “why didn't I think of that”?

Americans are busier than ever before.
Eating well at home is becoming more and more difficult . Sure there are many quality frozen and ready made foods, but somehow it's never the same as a good home cooked meal. But when the typical day involves so much, who has time to cook, much less time to plan a menu or learn how to make the items on it? This franchise lives in that space.

This is how it functions.
People visit the location and then choose up to all 14 items on a provided menu. They then pay for the number of servings desired. Now while still at the store, they cook. There are both private and public supervised cooking sessions. It's as if a cooking show host steps out of the television to show people how to make the meal.

It's not as costly as it sounds. Although salads and side dishes are separate, the main course is only about $3.50 per serving for all 14 meals. A total of about $5 per serving isn't a bad price to pay for a good meal. That's a great deal for the food plus the cooking instruction.

This is a franchise business. It has its problems. It's not the food or menus or preparation, but rather the franchisees Some of the franchisees aren't happy. Dream Dinners was profiled in March of '08 by Forbes. The story didn't look good for the company.

The new concept quickly gained popularity and attracted would be business owners. But it seems the business plan wasn't strong, as many of these people found themselves unable to continue the business after a short time and a lot of investment. There may have been some misrepresentations made as to potential profits.

Business controversy aside, Dream Dinners is a wonderful concept that allows busy people living the 21st century fast-paced life a way to return to some of the home spun food value of the past decades.

Evan