A busy family juggling children’s activities, a professional couple with long work hours or a senior unable to cook for himself, there are many reasons why people skip healthy meals for fast food. Home For Dinner has tapped into that need and has been providing home-cooked meals for 10 years in Vernon and six years in Kelowna. The mother and son team of Rosemarie and Paul Brownfield have built their business on their love of cooking quality food and exceptional customer service. Rosemarie has always loved to cook and she shared that passion with the readers of The Morning Star for 13 years, as the paper’s first cooking columnist. She was working as a personal chef and looking for a change, while Paul was attending business school. He was asked to put together a business plan for school. That business was Home For Dinner. With more than 80 items on their menu such as meat pies, soups, ricotta and basil-stuffed chicken, barbecued dishes, granola and mini cheesecakes, the cooking never stops. “We get in early and start cooking, and get everything ready so when the door opens, we have fresh food out front,” said Rosemarie, who has seven employees. “Our main goal is cooking from scratch, handmade food instead of processed.” Keeping two shops stocked seven days a week takes a lot of ingredients. Home for Dinner uses an average of 60 to 80 kilograms of local chicken breast, every two weeks, 250 pounds of potatoes every week, 100 pounds of ground beef and 50 pounds of carrots, onions and celery a week. “On any given day, we can have eight things on the go,” said Paul. Home For Dinner buys as much of their ingredients close to home, using local meat suppliers and buying produce locally when it is available. They source out many small food suppliers. “It is worth it to us to have that quality, and that is really what we base everything on,” said Rosemarie. Home For Dinner is associated with the Department of Veterans Affairs program which provides nutritious meals to veterans. “No matter who our customer is, we want to make their lives easier. It allows seniors to stay in their homes longer. It allows busy families to put a nutritious meal on the table. Singles, couples, everyone shops here,” said Rosemarie. “We know our customers and try to give them the best service we can.”
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