Restaurateur Offers Lunch Menu To Accommodate Stressed Parents

NEWTON, MA — Like other parents who have spent months stressing over what to feed their kids for lunch at a time when families have been forced to spend more time together in cramped corners, Paul Turano understands the angst of keeping menus original.

As the father of two, Turano – the owner and executive chef at Cook Restaurants – is among the host of parents who doesn’t want his kids eating pizza or cheeseburgers on a daily basis. But he also knows that healthy meals require more planning and more trips to the supermarket, he is aware that families are also seeing their grocery bill increase because of the added meals being added to the daily routine.

But as parents continue to balance the reality of working at home while their kids learn remotely —at least on a part-time basis — Turano has created a menu of locally-sourced and restaurant-quality lunches that can be ordered ahead of time to add some spice to what kids are eating on a daily basis.

Cook’s meals, which come in a microwavable container to ensure freshness, can be either ordered for pick-up or delivery at Cook's locations in Newton and Needham and provides a service that Turano believes fills a void as people continue to live with the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic.

The menu, which includes $10 salad and entrées, offers up items like a kale and brussels spout salad as well as other healthy green options as well as sandwiches that run the gamut from a BLT with cheese, a chicken salad sandwich and even a falafel wrap – all of which Turano’s kids, ages 10 and 11, said will fly with their peers.

The menu also offers $2 desserts and is also expected to offer pizza kits, which provides lunches from becoming mundane and that, in some cases, allows kids to create their own meals. As the popularity of the service grows, Turano said he may expand the menus.

“I think kids in this area at least are a little more adventurous,” Turano told Patch on Thursday regarding some of the more gourmet options his menu offers. “And I know it will fit the parents, too.”

He added: “I’m using my own home life situation as a guide to hopefully help others, including myself.”

Turano said the lunch kits will keep the employees busy before the daily service begins. And while the kids lunch service will provide an unforeseen bump in business that the restaurant didn’t necessarily see before, it also adds some personal financial relief for a chef who says he wife typically goes shopping on a daily basis just to keep the couple’s kids fed — all without having a plan of attack.

Turano said he has started to bring more meals home from the restaurant on a nightly basis to provide lunch options for his kids the next day, but he is happy to know the service may help cut down on the frustration being felt by parents throughout the greater Boston area. So far, the menu items have been a hit with his kids, which has prompted text messages from home requesting certain lunch items.

“It’s a challenge even for me,” Turano said. “I do this for a living but it’s not like I want to get up and cook lunch for my kids, but I don’t want them to eat bad food. … so I feel like we’re meeting a need.”

To contact Cook’s Needham location, call (781) 400-5927, for Newton, call (617) 964-2665. Parents need to pick-up or schedule a delivery before 8:00 PM and they will have lunch sorted out for the following day.