In season 1 of The meez Podcast, host Josh Sharkey welcomed Chef John Adler, Senior Vice President of Culinary and Physical Products at Blue Apron, part of the Wonder portfolio, to explore his remarkable journey from Michelin-starred kitchens to shaping how Americans experience home-cooked meals.
In this candid conversation, John reflects on transitioning from the restaurant world to the corporate culinary space, the enduring lessons learned in kitchens, and how his deep love for cooking continues to drive innovation.
Read on for insights into what it takes to lead R&D at a meal kit giant and how a chef’s perspective can inspire transformation at scale.
From Fine Dining to Meal Kits
John Adler’s culinary pedigree reads like a who’s who of the restaurant world. He honed his skills at acclaimed establishments like Per Se under Thomas Keller and Blue Hill at Stone Barns with Dan Barber, before leading the kitchen at Brooklyn’s beloved Franny’s. His path was shaped by a deep-seated passion for food, ignited during his childhood as he explored the vibrant flavors of Middle Eastern cuisine alongside his Israeli mother.
Despite never attending culinary school, Adler’s hands-on experiences across kitchens in New York and Europe provided him with a profound understanding of food and technique. This unconventional path, he notes, became one of his greatest strengths.
After years in fine dining, Adler took a leap into the corporate food world, joining Blue Apron as Senior Vice President of Culinary and Physical Products. His role bridges the gap between high-quality culinary expertise and accessible home cooking, proving that innovation isn’t confined to the four walls of a restaurant.
How to Blue Apron Builds Deep Connections with Customers
On The meez Podcast, Adler shared invaluable insights into how the company bridges the digital gap to create meaningful connections with customers and improve their culinary experience.
As a service that delivers recipes and ingredients directly to people’s homes, Blue Apron treats the kitchen as sacred ground—a place where trust and precision are paramount. Here's how they leverage customer feedback to refine recipes and foster deeper relationships.
Lessons from the Line
At Blue Apron, Adler is redefining the meal kit experience, ensuring that the food delivered to homes across America reflects his commitment to both quality and flavor. In his role in R&D, Adler merges his deep culinary knowledge with innovative product design, making great cooking accessible to people of all skill levels.
Through his leadership, Blue Apron is not simply delivering meals—it’s sharing a passion for food and empowering people to connect over cooking.
- Camaraderie and Teamwork: Adler has carried the sense of teamwork from the kitchen into the corporate world, fostering creativity and collaboration at Blue Apron.
- Transferable Skills: Skills like precision, discipline, and adaptability learned in fine dining are crucial in both culinary and business settings, especially in customer-focused roles.
- Customer Journey Focus: Chefs excel in anticipating customer needs, a skill that extends to optimizing every aspect of the customer experience, whether in-person or digital.
- Operational Empathy: The ability to think about both internal and external customers, a key skill for chefs, translates into business success through attention to detail and effective team management.
Qualitative vs Quantitative Client Feedback
Blue Apron’s approach to engaging with customers is a blend of large-scale data collection and high-touch personal interactions.
- Customer Feedback as a Goldmine: Every time a customer cooks a recipe, they can rate it and leave comments. Blue Apron’s team sifts through thousands of these weekly, turning them into actionable insights. Beyond technical tweaks, this feedback often reveals emotional connections. Stories abound of families bonding over meals or individuals finding comfort in cooking during tough times.
- High-Touch Moments: Sometimes, feedback sparks extraordinary responses. For instance, a customer who wrote a whimsical review in the style of Game of Thrones received a snail-mail reply and a complimentary chef’s knife. These moments of “unreasonable hospitality” remind the team that their product isn’t just food—it’s a trusted part of someone’s life.
- Listening Sessions and Interviews: Blue Apron also engages directly with customers through video interviews and focus groups. Adler relishes these sessions, as they provide a unique window into how people interact with the product, offering both inspiration and opportunities for refinement.
The Art and Science of Recipe Iteration
At its core, Blue Apron’s mission is to make cooking accessible and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of their skill level. This requires a relentless focus on perfecting recipes.
- Explicit Instructions Matter: As chefs, it’s easy to assume a certain level of knowledge. However, Blue Apron’s team has learned to avoid assumptions. For example, after a customer accidentally cooked ground pork with the absorbent pad still attached, the team updated all relevant recipes with a clear note to remove it.
- Employee Testing: Even Blue Apron employees serve as test cooks, helping identify potential pitfalls. Observing someone cooking rice in a pasta pot, for instance, led to the addition of explicit instructions to “cook covered without stirring for 12–14 minutes.”
- Rapid Feedback Loops: Within days of launching a recipe, the culinary team analyzes customer feedback and adjusts future recipes to address common issues. If breading isn’t sticking well, they’ll reexamine flour quantities or egg preparation across all recipes using similar techniques.
Precision in Recipe Language
One of the standout features of Blue Apron’s process is its meticulous editorial team. This group works closely with chefs to craft instructions that leave no room for ambiguity.
- Choosing the Right Words: Should onions be cooked until “pale golden” or “light brown”? Such distinctions may seem trivial, but they can be the difference between success and failure for a home cook. The editorial and culinary teams debate phrasing to ensure clarity and consistency, always striving to eliminate guesswork.
- Learning from Restaurants: Adler highlights the difference between professional kitchens and home cooking. In a restaurant, a sous chef can inspect risotto to ensure onions are perfectly sweaty. At home, the written recipe must serve as the sole guide, making precise language essential.
Restaurant Feedback Starts with Empathy
Delivering constructive client feedback is a crucial part of growth, whether in the kitchen or the office, but how it's communicated can determine its success. In high-pressure environments like kitchens, feedback often comes in fast-paced, high-stakes moments, leading to miscommunication or passive-aggressive remarks.
At Blue Apron, however, client feedback is approached with intention, empathy, and clarity, ensuring it’s both effective and supportive.
Empathy is at the core of their approach, not just to understand their internal teams but also to connect with customers more meaningfully. By acknowledging emotions, needs, and perspectives, they foster better relationships and create an environment where everyone is empowered to grow and improve.
Here’s how you can apply empathy-driven feedback in your culinary business:
- Be Clear and Direct: Avoid vagueness in your feedback. Instead of saying, "Well, now we know," pinpoint exactly what needs to be addressed to make the next steps clear.
- Adopt a Supportive Tone: Feedback should be motivational and constructive, not intimidating or demoralizing. Ensure it’s framed in a way that encourages growth.
- Focus on the Outcome: Help the recipient understand why the feedback is being given. Explaining the purpose behind the feedback motivates action and fosters better results.
- Build Cross-Functional Respect: Appreciate and acknowledge the expertise of your colleagues across different roles. Recognizing the value each person brings enhances teamwork.
- Stay Solution-Oriented: Frame feedback around actionable solutions. Instead of just pointing out mistakes, provide practical steps for improvement.
- Encourage Collaboration: Turn feedback sessions into collaborative discussions, fostering shared ownership of outcomes and building stronger team cohesion.
- Maintain Professionalism: Always aim to be respectful. Avoid overly intense or combative language that might alienate colleagues, as this can prevent productive conversations.
- Pay Attention to Small Details: Minor details—such as response times or project deadlines—can significantly impact satisfaction. Don't overlook these seemingly small factors.
- Understand Their State of Mind: Consider the emotional state of the person receiving feedback. Tailoring your approach to their mindset—whether stressed, distracted, or focused—can help make your feedback more effective.
- Be Mindful of Context: External factors, such as stress or high pressure, can influence how feedback is received. Consider these factors to deliver your message with greater empathy.
- Ask Questions to Clarify Needs: Open-ended questions allow you to dig deeper into what’s truly needed, ensuring you address the right issue and align your feedback with their priorities.
- Make Feedback a Two-Way Street: Encourage open dialogue. Ask for input and feedback from others, creating a collaborative exchange that benefits everyone involved.
Why Customer Feedback Matters
Adler’s approach to customer feedback underscores the humility and responsibility that come with being invited into someone’s home through food. Cooking is deeply personal, and by taking customer feedback seriously, Blue Apron not only improves its recipes but also strengthens its bond with customers.
The lessons from Blue Apron are applicable far beyond meal kits. Whether you're a chef, restaurateur, or a software company like meez, prioritizing customer feedback and embracing iteration can transform your product into something significant.
By maintaining curiosity and striving for continuous improvement, Blue Apron has turned cooking into a collaborative journey—one where customers and creators alike contribute to the joy of great food.
Listen to the full conversation with John Adler on The meez Podcast
