Best of 2001: Best Gourmet Frozen Take-Out

Wildflower Catering
3645 Park Boulevard (Embassy Hotel), North Park
wildflowerathome@aol.com

Margot Leidy did all the right things: she went to hotel and restaurant school in San Francisco when she was 18, she learned the sauces, and she learned to love fresh and healthy food. But the world of restaurant or hotel cheffing was not for her. "It's too cutthroat," she says. "I like to do my own thing." So instead she came up with "a private chef in your freezer." The idea: she e-mails or mails you a menu, you e-mail or phone back your order by Wednesday, and she will have as many frozen meals as you want ready by the following Wednesday. All meals cost $6. One of her most popular is crab and fish cakes combined with green onions, corn, red peppers, with wilted summer greens and quinoa (the high-protean Andean grain). Or summer squash stuffed with ground turkey, onions, mushrooms, carrots, and celery topped with "caper-studded" tomato sauce, rice, and broccoli, or roast chicken with a sautée of portabello mushrooms, sweet onions, and sherry, over rice. Or perhaps mahimahi Provençal. Eight selections a week. You pick up or she delivers for $15 in city areas (more outside).